| Jeffrey Hayes Director, MLS Program |
 |
Following service in Vietnam, Jeffrey Hayes returned to his native Maryland and earned a Master's in Liberal Studies from Johns Hopkins University in 1972. The multidisciplinary scope of that program introduced him to art history, the field in which he received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland-College Park. After completing his dissertation as a Smithsonian fellow in 1982, Hayes joined the Department of Art History at UWM, and served as its Chair from 1989 to 1996.
As a specialist in Euro-American art, Hayes' teaching and research have focused on modernism, self-taught and "outsider" artists, and museum studies. He has been awarded grants and fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and American Philosophical Society. In 1991-92 Hayes acted as Curator of Research for the Milwaukee Art Museum's Michael and Julie Hall Collection of American Folk Art. In addition to organizing numerous museum and university gallery exhibitions, Hayes has published books and catalogues on Oscar Bluemner, Jennings Tofel, Carl McKenzie, and Prophet William J. Blackmon. Besides making a futile attempt to improve his tennis game, he is currently working on two Wisconsin based visionary sculptors: Mona Webb and Thomas Owen Every, aka Dr. Evermor.