Taylor Studios, Inc.

Founded in 1991, Taylor Studios is an award-winning museum exhibit design & fabrication firm in Rantoul, IL. With artisans specializing in trades such as woodworking, painting, metallurgy, prop-making, artifact reproduction, sculpting, and more, the team at Taylor Studios can create anything from life-like human figures to realistic trees to interactive displays.

Taylor Studios began as a mail order business creating artifact and fossil reproductions and was a two-person partnership between Betty Brennan and Joe Taylor. Betty and Joe traveled to trade shows and conventions as they tried to win contracts to build full exhibits.

What began in a garage and renovated chicken coop eventually expanded into a barn and then multiple buildings in Rantoul, IL. Within 10 years of opening the business, Taylor Studios made the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest-growing, publicly held small companies and the Inc. 5000 two more times. In 2007, after becoming the sole owner, Betty purchased the current fabrication studio—a repurposed Walmart. This new space allowed them to centralize production under one roof.

After 30 years in the industry, Taylor Studios has completed over 700 projects in 45 states and 4 countries. Serving museums, nature centers, zoos, parks, visitor centers, corporations, education facilities, and municipalities, their expertise includes interpretive planning, exhibit design, and fabrication. Taylor Studios believes that exhibits are stories in 3D, and they help to bring these stories to life through interpretive & graphic design in combination with immersive experiences, models, and dynamic displays.

Their work can be found in museums like Gettysburg, the Smithsonian, the Adler Planetarium, The National World War One Museum, and The National Civil War Museum. Locally, they’ve done exhibits for the Anita Purves Nature Center, Allerton Park, Busey Woods, Bloomington Public Library, The University of Illinois, Miller Park Zoo, and Dickson Mounds.