I graduated with Cum Laude honors, receiving my Bachelor of Fine Arts from Central Michigan University. I further studied art history and Maori Studies at Otago University in Dunedin, New Zealand, and completed my fine arts education in Florence, Italy, exploring the Italian Renaissance.

Founding the non-profit arts organization, The One Little Artist, after graduation, I co-coordinated fellow graduates, BFA students, CMU professors, and local artists to bring a grassroots art community to the greater Central Michigan area. The OLA collective provided exhibitions, art demonstrations, installations, and art education events for the local community.

In 2013, I relocated to Honolulu, Hawaii to further pursue the arts, working with the outreach education department at the Honolulu Museum of Art, local non-profits, and established a sister collective of the OLA, the "One Little Island Artist". Following a heavy interest in war histories, I worked as a contracted historian with US Military Bases, WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument, USS Arizona, USS Missouri, USS Bowfin, and Pacific Aviation Museum, developing educational, special events programming and partnering with the National WII Museum in New Orleans, LA.

I attended graduate school in Manchester, United Kingdom completing a Master of Arts at the University of Manchester, Centre for Museology: Institute for Cultural Practices, focusing on business strategies and advancement within arts and cultural organizations, receiving 1st class distinction honors. I additionally completed art history, politics and economics postgraduate courses with the University of Oxford, Kellogg College.

I relocated to Denver, Colorado in September, 2017 and work with the Denver Art Museum as the Development Stewardship Coordinator. My current research continues to explore Nazi spoliation, World War II, the American museum community. I am also an active illustrator and fine artist, and create at- www.jlwagnerillustration.com