Meet our 2025 Festival Judges

David Reutter is the Registrar and acting Curator at the Appleton Museum of Art in Ocala, Florida. As a museum professional for 20 years, Reutter has curated dozens of exhibitions and oversees one of the largest and most diverse collections of art in the state. He has judged several regional art competitions, attended outdoor art festivals nationwide, and as a board member of Fine Arts for Ocala he has helped to plan and program an outdoor show like the Deland Fall Festival of the Arts.

Reutter has a diverse art historical background, though his specialty is in late Modern to early Contemporary. His graduate coursework at the University of South Florida focused on art theory and criticism in early Post-Modernism.

Sharon Lee Hart is a South Florida-based artist exploring ecology and ephemerality through experimental and cameraless photography. She also makes collages, mixed media works, and artist books. While maintaining an active studio practice, Hart serves as an Associate Professor of Art at Florida Atlantic University. With an environmental focus, she has also served as an artist-in-residence at Joshua Tree National Park (Joshua Tree, CA), Oak Spring Garden Foundation (Upperville, VA), and The Studios of Key West (Key West, FL). Hart received the 2023 SECAC Artist’s Fellowship Award. Her work is in several permanent collections including the King County Public Art Collection (Seattle, WA) and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Missouri),and has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in the U.S. and internationally.