Reap Early-Bird Rewards on September 8

By Amy Beck, marketing and communications manager

The opening of Birds in Art is just around the corner, and you have seventy-four reasons to visit the Woodson Art Museum bright and early on Saturday, September 8, 9 am – Noon.

Seventy-four of the 125 artists selected for the 2012 Birds in Art exhibition will travel – many from throughout the world – to be here for opening festivities. Fifteen will sculpt, draw, and paint during Artists in Action in the sculpture garden.

Watch these artists at work!

9:15 – 10:30 am: Ralph James, oil; Gene Reineking, stone; Sherrie York, woodblock; Wendy Brockman, watercolor and pencil; Julie Chapman, scratchboard; Sean Murtha, oil; Kristin Hosbein, acrylic; Hank Tyler, wood.

10:45 am – Noon:  Dennis Boyd, oil; Clarence P. Cameron, stone; Miki Harder, clay;  Paul Rhymer, wax; Peter Mathios, acrylic; Robert Bateman, oil, Karen Bondarchuk, charcoal.

Who can you expect to meet and ask to sign your Birds in Art catalogue? I’ve been culling artists’ demographics and narratives to prepare story ideas for media representatives; here’s a sampling of who you’ll meet. Take the opportunity to get acquainted and learn insights by asking questions about their artwork, process, and inspiration.

• International Artists – Eleven of the thirty-three international artists will travel to Wausau from seven different countries: Canada, Japan, England, Australia, Belgium, France, and Sweden.
• Many Master Artists – Ten of the nineteen who’ve been named Master Artists during previous Birds in Art exhibitions will be here, including two who were in the Museum’s inaugural exhibition in 1976: Guy Coheleach and Maynard Reece.
• Seven Wisconsinites – All seven Wisconsin artists will attend, and three are UW-Stevens Point graduates: Mike Anderson, Gene Reineking, and Todd Wohlt. First-time Birds in Art artist Kevin Kohlman is from LaCrosse. Other Wisconsin artists are Clarence Cameron, James Kiesow, and Don Rambadt.
• Artists who “paint with heat” – Three artists’ medium of choice is pyrography, or woodburning. Julie Bender travels from Colorado for the opening and again for her artist residency, Pyro-techniques, October 16 – 22. She joins Nobuko Kumasaka from Japan and Richard Painter from Tennessee.
• Art for a Cause – Two artists created artwork to raise awareness about bio-diversity and social issues:

Walter Matia’s sculpture shines the spotlight on commercial overharvesting of horseshoe crabs and the resulting decline in rufa red knot populations because horseshoe crab eggs are a crucial food source for these rufas during their northward migration through Delaware.

Nancy Howe’s oil painting of a Kuna woman in Panama is part of Howe’s cultural project “Painting a Brighter Future for Women,” which has benefited women worldwide since 2007.

• Swedish birder is back – Peter Elfman, who extended his first-time Wisconsin visit last year to go birding returns from Sweden with his keen ear and eye for bird identification.
• Indoor Bird Watching – What kind of birds can you expect to spot in the galleries? Lots of gulls! Ducks and owls are featured prominently, too, but this year gulls appear in artwork by Robert Bateman, John Busby, Ralph Grady James, Eugen Kisselmann, Elwin van der Kolk, and Juan Varela Simó.

What artists do you hope to meet? Set your alarm and reap the early-bird rewards by visiting the Woodson Art Museum, 9 am – Noon, on Saturday, September 8.

A Flower-Powered Family Fest

By Jayna Hintz, curator of education

The second annual Family Fest wrapped up last evening with Funny Guy Sean Emery entertaining the crowd with jokes and juggling. Who knew you could jump rope while balanced on a unicycle? Sean did so with jaw-dropping success.

 

Family Fest was a weeklong success, bringing hundreds of visitors to the Woodson Art Museum seeking fun, art-making interaction. The festival kicked off with kite making, followed by flower pounding, garden markers, vegetable printing, tissue paper flowers, leaf and fern sun prints and ended with a flower-power Toddler Tuesday. The festival is part of a national initiative, Let’s Move! Museums & Gardens designed to promote healthy food choices and physical activity through interactive programs.

How did Family Fest visitors move?

They created and flew kites through the sculpture garden.

Pounding flowers gets arm muscles into the action, and for some it was a full-body experience.

Garden markers had volunteers on the move helping visitors who’ll use the markers to brighten their weeding and garden tending with family.

 

Vegetable printing is a visual reminder to eat healthy.

Mary Hilliker of River Flow Yoga led a free family yoga class last evening, a terrific warm-up for the juggler’s entertainment.

Not only did Family Fest get participants moving, but its garden and flower theme complemented the Woodson Art Museum’s three botanical exhibitions. This is the last week to see: Botanicals: Environmental Expressions in Art, Rhythm of Life: Watercolors by Richard Bolingbroke, and Nature Observed: Wendy Brockman Watercolors.

 

With summer fading fast, visit the Museum to celebrate the last blooms of the season.

Museum Audio Tours: The Home Stretch

By Andy McGivern, Curator of Exhibitions

As we move closer to the opening of Birds in Art and the completion of the building addition, the Woodson Art Museum is abuzz with activity. New artwork will be installed throughout the Museum, and we‘re also preparing to unveil our new audio tour units.

As a follow-up to Catie Anderson‘s August 1 blog “Woodson Art Museum‘s App Enhancing Exhibitions This Fall,”we are happy to report that the iPod Touch audio units have arrived along with protective cases, lanyards, headphones, and a charging station that also syncs the units for loading the application software.

Wisconsin Public Radio host Glen Moberg generously agreed to give voice to the Owen J. Gromme portion of the audio tour. Catie and I visited WPR‘s new studio in the Center for Civic Engagement on the UW-Marathon County campus where I videotaped Glen‘s recording session.

Here‘s a video clip sampling of the studio time.

As you can see, Glen did an outstanding job. In some cases, he recorded a second and third take when he wanted to improve what I considered a nuanced change. It was fascinating to witness the recording session and wonderful to be one step closer to having the audio tour completed.

Back at the Museum using our equipment, we recorded director Kathy Foley‘s audio tour introduction. Using my temporary exhibition vault as a studio, we turned off the air handling unit to reduce noise and asked staff in the office above for quiet during the recording time.

As I post this blog, student intern Alan Raff is working on the audio tour software, inserting Kathy‘s introduction and Glen Moberg‘s ten tracks and polishing the overall look of the application.

During the opening weekend of Birds in Art, we‘ll record over a dozen visiting artists‘ statements so their voices and insights will enhance the exhibition audio tour. Once the audio is edited, Alan will place it in the application along with images of the artists‘ work, and the iPod Touch units will be ready to present to the public on September 18.

Check out (literally!) the iPod touches in the Museum‘s main entrance and enjoy the audio tours of Birds in Art and Owen J. Gromme: An Enduring Legacy. The finish line is in sight; we think the new audio tours are winners!

Congratulations! Your Project . . .

By Kathy Kelsey Foley, Director

“Congratulations! Your project has been chosen . . .” have to be among the best words a museum director can hear or read.

We all know there are no “gimmes” when it comes to competitive grant applications. What we do know, however, is that if you don’t apply, your organization – or project – is not in the hunt.

That said, Woodson Art Museum staff leapt at the opportunity to pull together a project and a narrative proposal in response to the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin’s call for applications for a “25 for 25 Anniversary Grant.”

The timeline was tight – and smack in the middle of Birds in Art catalogue proofing – with information about the funding opportunity shared in early July and a July 25 (appropriate!) deadline. Notification would follow on August 3, so the turnaround was fast not only for applicants, but also for the Foundation.

The grant program is part of the Community Foundation’s 25th anniversary celebration and presents a terrific win-win for Marathon County organizations and for the Foundation. Twenty-five projects were selected to receive $2,500 grants each – and, yes, the Woodson Art Museum’s project is one of the twenty-five; more about our project below. Also, now through September 17 via public voting – each dollar equals a vote – organizations have the potential to benefit from an increased grant award.

In addition, the project/organization that receives the most votes/dollars – 50% of the dollars contributed go to the Community Foundation’s Marathon County Fund and 50% to the donor’s designated project/organization – receives a $25,000 Community Foundation endowment fund that will yield annual support in perpetuity.

Everyone wins with this project, especially our community. What a great way to celebrate the Foundation’s 25th anniversary and launch an array of projects.

What does the Woodson Art Museum have up its sleeve?

Thanks to the good news that our project was chosen to receive a 25 for 25 Grant, the Museum will introduce “This Art Is Your Art” in spring 2013. The intent is to take artworks in the form of framed reproductions out of the Museum and place them in unusual as well as interesting public places throughout Marathon County. Each reproduction will have a descriptive label that introduces the artwork and gets folks thinking and talking. It’s like a pop-up food truck that generates buzz around town . . . only we’re doing it with artworks. A pop-up art museum, so to speak.

Similar projects have met with tremendous success: The Detroit Institute of Arts shared reproductions in a three-county area with Inside-Outside; Cincinnati’s Taft Museum placed eighty reproductions around town to celebrate its 80th anniversary; and the Delaware Art Museum recently embarked on Art Is Everywhere to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

To give blog readers an idea of how we envision the look and feel of This Art Is Your Art, check out these mocked-up images designed to suggest the project’s potential and just how much fun it will be.

We can see Mark Eberhard’s The Birdwatchers at Central Wisconsin Airport. Are those folks with binoculars along the bottom of the painting looking at birds or for airplanes? Hmm.

We have a list of possible locations and appropriate artworks. If you have suggestions and/or favorite artworks that you’d like to see out in the community, let us hear from you.

And, if you think this project is worthy of additional dollars – and, in turn, your votes – click through to the Community Foundation’s secure online contribution/voting page and help make This Art Is Your Art even bigger and better.

We’ll be grateful for every dollar and every vote!

Woodson Art Museum App Enhancing Exhibitions This Fall

By Catie Anderson, Museum educator

How plugged in are you? Keeping pace with technology can be both challenging and exhilarating. Welcome to my world these past few months.

I’m proud to announce the launch of the Woodson Art Museum’s updated, tech-savvy, and user-friendly audio tour on easy-to-use iTouch devices that will be available for visitors’ in-gallery use. This fall, multi-media tours of two exhibitions – Birds in Art and Owen J. Gromme: An Enduring Legacy – will be offered through our very own Woodson Art Museum app.

Those who have used audio tours in our galleries know they can enhance visitors’ experiences through engaging and thought-provoking highlights of an exhibition. Soon, you’ll be able to watch video of Owen Gromme at work in his studio, while you stand in front of his original easel, immersing yourself fully in the artworks on view and the story of this acclaimed Wisconsin painter. Visitors also can listen to Birds in Art artists as they comment on their works and artistic processes.

Museums across the globe have embraced the touch screen, elevating the traditional app and revolutionizing the ways in which visitors connect to artworks, objects, and stories in galleries. I highly recommend exploring the world of museum apps; it will provide hours of entertainment and information.

Curator of Exhibitions Andy McGivern and I are working with high school student Alan Raff on the development and building of our audio tour app. Raff attends the Wausau Engineering and Global Leadership Academy on the campus of Wausau East High School. This undertaking simply would not have been possible without the knowledge, enthusiasm, and patience (!) of Alan, who has helped me and Andy navigate the code-writing and editing required for app development. A big thanks goes to Alan for his hard work and dedication as our media and technology intern this summer.

The audio tour content is the result of the creative writing efforts of interpretive media consultants at Sandbox Studios, Minneapolis, and Woodson staff. Art interpretation for an audio tour can be a challenge in creative writing. Audio tour stops should offer listeners nuggets of tantalizing information and provide insights into the artwork before them. The material must be delivered in succinct, clear language that captures the imagination and keeps the listener engaged. No easy task. 

Many talents have been put to work on this project.

You also may be wondering who will be “the voice” describing artworks on view this fall. Wisconsin Public Radio’s Glen Moberg, of course! Moberg graciously agreed to lend his voice talent to the project ensuring a professional and thoughtful delivery of the content we’ve worked so hard to produce.

We hope to see you in the galleries and “plugged in” this fall, enjoying all the Woodson Art Museum has to offer.

P.S. Stay tuned to the Woodson Wanderings blog for a review of our studio time with Glen Moberg from Andy McGivern. We can’t wait to see the WPR studios and listen to Glen illuminate the Owen Gromme collection.