Where Did Summer Go?!

by Catie Anderson, curator of education

It’s perhaps cliché to say things like “where’d the summer go?” or “these weeks just flew by!” but I am earnestly shocked by the date on my calendar.

Friends and fans of the Woodson Art Museum can imagine our Birds in Art workload during the month of August . . . and it’s already mid-August, so the heat is really turned up.

In addition to the thirty-eighth annual Birds in Art exhibition that will soon grace the Museum’s galleries, an exciting series of renovations also will debut this fall. Project coordinator, Matt Foss, gave blog followers a preview of the Museum’s updated main entrance but there’s lots more to look forward to – including five new permanent collection exhibitions.

My to-do list consists of preparing educational materials for Birds in Art, continuing to rehouse and organize the Museum’s hands-on education collection in the Museum’s GORGEOUS new docent room, planning Paul Rhymer’s October bronze-casting residency, and preparing the interpretive media for the fall audio tour app. Even with all these exciting projects on the horizon, I’m sad to see summer go.

Joseph McGurl, Light Effect, Maine, oil

There is still time to relish the fleeting summer sun at the Museum, whether through the artworks featured in Celebrating Summer: The Plein-Air Painters of America or outdoors in the sculpture garden.

The Museum’s grounds are bursting with activity this week thanks to Family Fest, which features hands-on art making opportunities and outdoor fun each day. Watercolor, window paints, and charcoal sketching in the gardens encourage families and the young at heart to embrace their creative spirits and make memories at the Woodson Art Museum.

Family Fest continues through Tuesday, August 20, with an expanded outdoor edition of our beloved Toddler Tuesday program, featuring family yoga sessions led by River Flow Yoga instructor Mary Hilliker with music and movement experiences led by Jennifer Bellmer Callope of Wausau’s Forte Creative Culture.  

School is back in session soon so don’t miss these fantastic programs that encourage students, friends, and families to make the most of the remaining weeks of summer and find time to play, too. Adult blog readers in our area can join me next Wednesday, August 21, over the noon hour for a presentation and discussion on the development of Impressionism in nineteenth-century France. Learn how the Impressionists served as pioneers of plein-air painting and how this painting practice evolved over time.

I hope you’ll join me next week, although, in my humble opinion, playing and painting in the Museum’s beautiful sculpture garden between now and next Tuesday sounds like more fun!