Join us in welcoming Wylwyn Reyes to the Arts Foundation team!
Wylwyn Reyes proudly serves as a Public Art Project Manager for the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona.
He is a visual artist, arts administrator, and co-founder of Good Things Tucson, an art space that provides local and emerging artists a place to teach their craft and sell their work to the public. He started working at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art as an art handler, where he immediately knew that working in the arts was where he wanted to be. In 2009, Wylwyn moved to Tucson to pursue a BFA in Three-Dimensional Design at the University of Arizona. At this time, he also began working at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson as the Head Preparator, eventually working his way to becoming the Exhibitions Director until he departed MOCA Tucson to join the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona.
Jeepney, 2015
Wylwyn was born in Manila, Philippines. He and his family left the Philippines in the early 80’s while under martial law under then President Ferdinand Marcos and emigrated to Phoenix, Arizona. His art practice is largely derived from his experiences as a Filipino immigrant growing up in a predominantly white community. Wylwyn has exhibited artwork in group exhibitions, art galleries, and experimental art spaces throughout the US, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tucson, where he presented a solo exhibition in 2013. He was a member of Subspace Art Collective and Monsoon Art Collective and has also worked collaboratively with artists, curators, and designers in projects such as the Tohono O’odham Cultural Center & Museum, the Jewish History Museum & Holocaust History Center, Modified Arts Gallery, Steinfeld Community Arts Center, Fluxx Studios, Studio 455, Joseph Gross Gallery, Night of the Living Fest Music Festival, Bookclub Burlesque show series, and pop-up art shows throughout Central and Southern Arizona.
In his time of working in the arts, Wylwyn has devoted his efforts to the growth and success of local, emerging, and underrepresented artists with a philosophy that it is the responsibility of institutional structures — to uplift, to amplify marginalized artists — not to act as a gatekeeper to them. His hope for the arts community in Tucson is to reimagine our existing systems to better serve artists of all backgrounds. This vision could be realized through the holistic collaboration of arts organizations, businesses, and established artists working directly with educational institutions to focus on developing artistic skills and skills related to navigating the professional art world.
Click here to learn more about Wylwyn!
