Born in 1949 in Detroit, Michigan, Anne Wilson is a multidisciplinary artist and professor in the department of fiber and material studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Drawn to everyday materials associated with domestic handwork, Wilson activates human hair, lace, thread, and wire through performance and installation. She was first introduced to art by her mother at a young age and became seriously interested as a high school student while studying at a socially progressive Quaker boarding school. Wilson then enrolled at the University of Michigan School of Art in Ann Arbor, eager for the energy of a large school. She left the program after two years and worked briefly with weaver Kathryn Edgerton before enrolling at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where she studied under ACC Gold Medalist Gerhardt Knodel (BFA, 1972). After graduating from Cranbrook, Wilson spent the summer at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, working as an assistant to Ritzi and Peter Jacobi. Wilson then moved west and lived in San Rafael and San Francisco for several years before entering the graduate program at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland (MFA, 1976). Soon after completing her studies, Wilson accepted a visiting artist position at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and joined the faculty permanently the next year. In addition to her work as an educator, Wilson exhibits frequently and has been collected by many significant institutions, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She is represented by Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago and Paul Kotula Projects in Detroit. In 2015, Wilson was named a United States Distinguished Fellow and has received additional honors from the Textile Society of America and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, among others. Anne Wilson was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2000.