Woodson Wanderings

Glass Artworks Are Wisconsin Icons, Too

2012-02-01T08:25:00.000-06:00

Hank Murta Adams, Head with Rods, 1980

The state of Wisconsin lays claim to many icons: the Green Bay Packers, the moniker “cheeseheads,” the tagline “America’s Dairyland,” as well as such tasty foods as bratwurst and cheese.

Another distinction belongs to the University of Wisconsin–Madison where in the fall of 1962 Harvey K. Littleton began a revolutionary hot-glass program. This might not seem to fit with the ranks of the more popular items listed above, but it rates high in the art world. Advanced technology made it feasible as well as cost effective to construct small glass furnaces for use in artists’ studios. Previously, glasswork typically was created in factories by teams, which produced multiples of each design. This evolution was exciting for artists who were eager to stretch the limits of the fluid glass medium.

Margie Jervis/Susie Krasnican, Ice Rain, 1980

During 2012, many museums across the United States will celebrate the 50th anniversary of those humble beginnings. The Woodson Art Museum is one of ten regional museums recognizing this milestone. Others are the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Art Institute of Chicago, Racine Art Museum, and Rockford Art Museum. The events are coordinated by the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass, an organization whose mission is to further the development and appreciation of art made from glass.

Americans in Glass, a thrice-held, triennial exhibition inaugurated at the Woodson Art Museum in 1978, promoted the burgeoning glass movement. The first exhibition featured 110 works created by juried and invited artists, including Harvey K. Littleton, Dale Chihuly, Joel Philip Myers, and Marvin Lipofsky. Subsequent Americans in Glass exhibitions were organized in 1981 and 1984; extended national and international tours followed, garnering considerable attention for studio glass.

The Americans in Glass Legacy, on view through April 7, presents forty-three works from the Museum’s permanent collection acquired from artists participating in the three Americans in Glass exhibitions. The vessels, panels, and sculptural objects demonstrate the artists’ creativity and their abilities to manipulate the fluid medium.

There are no cheeseheads, and no one will be doing the Lambeau Leap (hopefully). But you will see the best of studio glass created during an especially creative and inventive time.

Community Partnership Leads to Exciting Exhibition

2012-01-25T10:04:00.001-06:00

Students, parents, teachers, families, and friends converged for one purpose on Friday, January 20 – student art. Over 200 art enthusiasts showed up to appreciate what the students created. It was wonderful to see parents take pride in their children by seeing their artwork on display at the WoodsonArt Museum.

D.C. Everest Middle School art teacher, Jeanne Archiquette, contacted the Museum on a Saturday in early December to see if the Museum could provide a venue for an art exhibition of the work students created under the instruction of student teacher Hannah Blakey during the fall semester.

It was serendipitous that I was at the Museum that Saturday for a Wisconsin Art Education Association (WAEA) Board meeting and was able to act on the request immediately. Once the proposal was approved, we met the next week to plan installation needs and the reception event.

The pedestals and wall-mounted shelves Hannah selected were given a fresh coat of paint by staff, and we had everything ready for the installation on January 16. Tuesday morning the “oohs” and “ahs” over the students’ artwork already could be heard.

There’s an array of work from nature-inspired coiled pots, aboriginal-styled landscapes, and origami German bells to “Yawnzee” pinch pots. The Yawnzee project was a favorite for Michaela, a student who created “Paul.” Michaela informed me that she used “a garlic press to create the mane” on her pinch pot.

Each nature-based coiled pot is displayed with an artist’s statement explaining the source of inspiration. A seventh-grade student named Faith wrote “I love nature, so when we were told we had to make a nature-themed pot I was so excited. I wanted to include my favorite things like waterfalls and starry skies. After we watched a video about Native American natural art, my mind was exploding with details.”

Family, friends, and teachers showed their support for the students at the evening reception and the Woodson Art Museum was proud to be the community partner that facilitated the exhibition.

A Community of Wood Enthusiasts

2012-01-18T13:43:00.001-06:00

In my last blog post, I expressed my appreciation of wood and fine woodworking. The Museum’s winter exhibitions Boxes and Their Makers, and Think Inside the Box close after this weekend and we then shift our focus to the world of children’s book illustrator James Gurney’s Dinotopia where dinosaurs and humans live side by side. But that’s another blog topic.

As the wooden box exhibitions come to a close, I’m impressed by the public’s embrace of the exhibitions and appreciate the support and programs provided by the Wisconsin Valley Woodturners and other area woodworkers.

On Sunday, January 8, author and Wausau native Mark Duginske gave the first of his three programs that focused on band saw techniques and his portable lumber mill operation. Duginske shared tips on how to maintain and tweak the band saw to get its best performance. He discussed the use of jigs that he had made for the band saw to aid his craft. Many of the tips he discussed are found in his latest book, The New Complete Guide to the Band Saw one of nearly a dozen books and numerous magazine articles he’s written about woodworking.

Mark’s presentations proved so popular that we asked him to give a third program after receiving a call from an Auburndale high school teacher who asked to bring shop and art students to tour the exhibitions and hear Mark speak. In all, nearly 150 visitors came to the Museum for Mark’s programs. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised, given the rich history of lumber and woodworking in Wisconsin.

Before we shift our focus away from wooden boxes, I want to thank Mark Duginske, Roger Zimmermann, Pat Peckham and area artists who contributed to the exhibitions and the many programs. Their participation helped create a community of like-minded woodworking enthusiasts. It’s been great fun, and I look forward to opportunities to work together in the future.

Cuba on My Mind

2012-01-11T08:14:00.003-06:00

Is Cuba on your bucket list? Have you long wished that it was possible to travel to Cuba?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, then you likely know that the Obama Administration has made it possible for organizations such as museums, colleges, and universities to undertake travel programs to Cuba that are focused on meaningful people-to-people exchanges.

The process actually is not as easy as it might sound. The people-to-people requirements are stringent and involve a lengthy application to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which is part of the Department of the Treasury and ultimate issuer of the necessary license for Cuba travel.

The Woodson Art Museum has been in pursuit of a license since early 2011 and now, after jumping through multiple hoops and completing three license application revisions, we can proudly boast a bona fide people-to-people license for Cuba travel.

We’ll offer two trips in the coming months – the first in late May and the second in November – so make certain your passport is up to date and that your name and address are included on the Museum’s Preferred Traveler List to ensure that you receive advance notice of trip details later this month. Either call 715.845.7010 or email museum@lywam.org to add your name.

Cuba is among “the” hot travel destinations for 2012. It was number 10 on the New York Times’ list of 45 top travel spots for the New Year. No surprise, really, despite its tantalizingly close proximity to south Florida – about 90 miles, as the crow flies, from Key West – Cuba has been officially off limits to U.S. travelers since the 1960s.

Now, with our people-to-people license, the Woodson’s Cuba itinerary will offer travelers an exceptional opportunity to experience the “real” Cuba through one-on-one visits with artists, art historians, and art educators as well as farmers, naturalists, environmentalists, and ornithologists. We’ll explore the rich and colorful Cuban culture, too, by sampling music, dance, and culinary treats.

Cuba has been on my mind for some time and if it also has been on yours, 2012 will be the year to check Cuba off your must-visit list.

Christmas Day Owling

2012-01-04T08:17:00.009-06:00

The emails had been flying back and forth. My parents and I were planning my Christmas trip home to Chicago, sharing links to museum exhibitions, movies, and restaurants we wanted to check out. One special emailed story got me particularly excited to return home: a snowy owl had been spotted at our local birding spot on Lake Michigan. The sighting presented a potential opportunity for me to see an owl in the wild for a second time; the first was a barn owl I startled in the Galapagos. The thrill of turning a small street corner at night and practically walking into the owl on a fence post is a strong memory from my time abroad and I hoped to repeat the experience.

When home for the holidays, of course, the time manages to slip away. My plans to visit museums were exchanged for movies on the couch and seeing friends. Christmas afternoon, while dinner was in the oven, my mother and I dashed to Montrose Harbor’s "Magic Hedge" in search of the owl.

The time of day was right – a warm, early evening – and the location was beautiful with pinks and purples streaking across the sky. What owl wouldn’t want to hang around and wait for us? Wandering through the paths, we spotted plump rabbits and familiar bird species. Cast-off white plastic bags in shrubs with deceptive owl shapes proved a disappointment. We stayed quiet, eyes peeled, hoping to spot a graceful and eerily silent owl. No such luck.

The owl had likely moved on in search of food. The life and travels of the snowy owl are determined by food availability. Reports of snowy owl populations moving south this winter have many Midwest birders excited.

I’ve been visiting the Magic Hedge most of my life and have watched the ecosystem change over the years. What began as a simple planting of honeysuckle surrounding army barracks in the 1950s, became a protected and significant rest stop for migratory birds crossing the Great Lakes. The city of Chicago’s Park District protects the land now from dogs, bikes, and recreational activities, opting instead for native plantings and quiet paths. Open grassland and wooded areas both are found on a spit of land that protrudes into the lake and provides a landing spot and nutrition for migrating birds. Sand dunes, a rare and delicate topography, have formed naturally on the lakefront over the last decade and continue to flourish. Every trip to the site offers new natural vistas for visitors and elusive hiding places for birds and small mammals. While I didn’t spot an owl that evening, I did enjoy a family tradition and every visit to the Magic Hedge is worthwhile. Videos and photographs of these marvelous birds will have to suffice for now.

Returning to my cozy home for a filling Christmas dinner, I thought how spoiled we were to have such ample and delicious food for our hungry bellies. I hoped the owl had found something to eat that evening, wherever it was.

Christmas was wonderful this year. I reconnected with old friends and reveled in the quiet joys of the holiday. Hopefully your holiday was a wonderful celebration of people and traditions important to you, too.

Christmas on Washington Island

2011-12-28T09:17:00.000-06:00

By Matt Foss

I’m from Washington Island, Wisconsin. For those of you who don’t know, Washington Island is a small island located off the Door County Peninsula in the northeast part of the state. It’s a community of only 700 year-round residents and boasts the smallest school district in Wisconsin. It was a fun place to grow up with an endless amount of outdoor activities to consume the time, and seemingly every member of my family – immediate and distant – was within driving distance.

Around the lunch table at the Woodson Art Museum, staff members have had more than a little fun with my hometown. Other than director Kathy Foley and curator of education Catie Anderson, no staff member has spent ample time on “The Island.” Through questions and playful ribbing, they like to pin me as a cross between Barney Fife, Garrison Keillor, and “Kenneth” from “30 Rock.” When discussing trips there, especially the one upcoming, I can see why.

On the Friday before Christmas, my wife and I will drive to Door County. We have reservations for the 4:30 ferry. Yes, a ferry boat is needed to reach The Island and because the ferry only runs a few daily trips during winter months, you need a reservation to bring a car across. That night, we’ll probably go out to eat with my parents, and I can guess where because only two establishments on the Island serve dinner in the winter. Later, I’ll probably frequent one of the local taverns to catch up with some of my former classmates. (My graduating class of ten was one of the largest in recent memory.)

On Christmas Eve, along with my wife and parents, we’ll run between dinners at my mom’s side of the family and my dad’s side of the family, seeing a total of perhaps sixty or so immediate relatives, including grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins of various numerical value. For my wife, who doesn’t even know who her second cousins are, it’s mind boggling. Lucky for her, the food is always good and the drinks are strong.

While yes, it can sound like Mayberry + Lake Wobegon + a New England town that hosts a “lottery,” Washington Island is a special place, and after all the years, it’s hard to imagine spending the holidays anywhere else.

Editor’s note: Matt Foss is overseeing a variety of projects at the Woodson Art Museum. He received an undergraduate degree and a Master’s degree, both in history, from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.

Changing Traditions

2011-12-21T07:31:00.000-06:00

I recently spoke with my maternal aunt, Ruth Ann. Among the many things we discussed, one that struck a note for both of us was holiday baking. It was a tradition passed on from my grandmother, who used her considerable baking skills to make gifts for family and friends. My mother and aunt worked alongside grandma in the kitchen, learning her methods and developing their own. Sometimes, they even allowed my generation to share in the fun.

Being totally honest, at the time it didn’t seem like fun. From my perspective, it seemed like the baking and decorating went on and on, and with the exception of tasting the few broken cookies and crumbled bars, there was little reward for the efforts. The sweets were packaged for gift giving and those that remained were stored until Christmas Eve, when finally they would be enjoyed.

Ruth Ann and I both continue this holiday tradition. We bake longtime family favorites like cut-out cookies and struggle with the time commitment necessary to roll, cut, bake, and decorate these favorites. While I stick to cookies and bars, Ruth Ann excels in candy making, especially fudge. She also makes another favorite – not mine, though – Christmas Stolen. She bakes several for family and friends. I don’t understand why you have to ruin a great coffeecake with dead fruit – but that’s just me.

This year, my friend Pat and I started what I hope will be a yearly event. We did our own take on the long-standing cookie exchange. Instead of baking cookies at our respective homes, we came together for the day, she on one side of her kitchen, me on the other. We mixed, baked, laughed, and talked. Pat’s mom, Jeanne, joined in the fun, decorating, cleaning, and keeping us on track. At the end of the day, our combined efforts netted thirteen different cookies and bars, including three batches of the dreaded cut-out cookies. We burned a few pans and tried new recipes – some good, some not. It was a great time, but next year we’ll take two days for our baking marathon.

Overachievers that we are, in the weeks since, both Pat and I have added other varieties to complete our cookie platters.

Although you can only imagine the flavors, here’s a photo of my 2011 cookie platter along with a family-favorite recipe for you to try.

Seasons Greetings!

Caramel Oatmeal Bars

Melt together in a saucepan or glass dish in micowave

32 unwrapped caramels

5 tablespoons evaporated milk

Mix together in a bowl

1 cup flour

1 cup oatmeal

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Cut in 3/4 cup butter or margarine

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Press half of oatmeal mixture into a 9 x 13 pan Bake at 350° for 10 to 15 minutes. Pour caramel mixture over partially baked crust. Add remaining oatmeal mixture. Bake another 15-18 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle on enough chocolate chips to cover. Cool and cut.

Woodson Art Museum Teen Art Council

2011-12-14T10:51:00.000-06:00

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . . .” In reality, it has not been long ago and it’s in this galaxy that the Teen Art Council or TAC, for short, was formed.

This is TAC’s second year and the council members have great energy and fantastic ideas. The group is made up of teens from Wausau East, D.C. Everest, and Merrill high schools. Any teen is welcomed to join TAC; they just need to make a commitment to attend monthly meetings and TAC events throughout the year.

TAC’s most recent success was “Beyond the Box,” on Friday, December 9. Teens learned how to turn wood on a lathe thanks to members of the Wisconsin Valley Woodturners. Excitement filled the room, as participants created tops, pens, vases, mushrooms, and other amazing wood-turned objects.

TAC’s next venture is an exhibition developed by teens for teens!

A call for entries is going out soon and will be delivered to area high schools before winter break. The exhibition theme is SPACE, to go along with the Woodson Art Museum’s spring 2012 exhibition – NASA | ART: 50 Years of Exploration. All area high school teens, ages 13-18, are invited to create and submit artwork in any medium that reflects a personal interpretation of SPACE.

Teens should think about what SPACE means to them and how they would express the concept of SPACE in an artwork. Entries can be submitted as a digital file online through a link at www.lywam.org between February 1 and March 31, 2012. Artworks to be exhibited will be selected by online public vote from April 10 through 20, on a specially designed SPACE exhibition page on the Woodson Art Museum’s website at www.lywam.org. All teen artists selected for SPACE receive an art supply gift package compliments of JackRicheson & Co. Fine Art Materials.

TAC and the TAC adviser wish everyone the best in their creative endeavors: “May the Force be with you.”

Wood You, if You Could? I Wood!

2011-12-07T14:53:00.002-06:00

I’ve always enjoyed working with wood, whether helping my father finish our basement while in grade school, turning a wooden bowl in junior high shop class, or years later building display cases and crates for the Museum. I guess I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands.

Ray Jones
Omega V, 2008 Mahogany, pommele bosse, ebony

In addition to working with wood, I appreciate seeing the creative things that artists make, as well as the fine craftsmanship and variety of domestic and exotic wood types. I especially enjoy artwork that combines unique and creative ideas with the skill of a master woodworker.

Jim Christiansen
Bob, 2008 Curley maple, ebony, wenge, brass

Someone who shares my appreciation for masterful and creative woodworking is Dr. Oscar Fitzgerald, curator of Boxes and Their Makers, on view through January 22, and author of the richly illustrated exhibition catalogue New Masters of the Wooden Box. Dr. Fitzgerald has assembled a fabulous collection of thirty four wooden boxes that combine personal expression and a sensitivity to materials.

Steven Kennard
Hat in a Box, 2005 Snakewood, African blackwood

Dr. Fitzgerald will join us in Wausau this weekend to talk about the book and exhibition on Saturday, December 10, 1:00 – 2:00 pm, followed by a book signing. I’m certain that Dr. Fitzgerald’s presentation will be filled with insights into the world of contemporary woodworking, and it will be just the thing I need to help me grow in my appreciation of this captivating medium.

Wisconsin Valley Woodturners at Woodson Art Museum

If that’s not enough to get you excited about woodworking, members of the Wisconsin Valley Woodturners club will share techniques on lathes following the lecture program and allow visitors to try using the equipment to turn wood.

Ah, a day at the Woodson appreciating and working with wood.

The Gifts of December

2011-11-30T08:37:00.000-06:00

I think about December as an opportunity for nonstop gift giving. My interpretation of gift giving might be non-traditional and even unorthodox. For me, a simple act of kindness – whether a gesture or a pretty package tied with a bow – is a gift.

You can treat yourself to an array of gifts at the Woodson Art Museum throughout the month, beginning tomorrow evening, December 1, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., at Celebrate Woodturning.

It’s an opportunity to view the new exhibitions, Boxes and Their Makers and Think Inside the Box and to meet members of the Wisconsin Valley Woodturners. The terrifically creative and inventive works of these local woodworkers make up Think Inside the Box.

In addition, the Wausau West Master Singers perform at 6:00 and 6:30 tomorrow evening. There will be opportunities for hands-on art, too. You can decorate a provided box that will prove just the thing for holiday gift giving.

And so the month begins. I’m certain that I’ll be both a gift giver and a recipient each day throughout December. Whether it’s a smile and a nod to Museum visitors or a handcrafted or purchased gift, there are unlimited ways to embrace and share the spirit of the holidays.

Boxes on the Brain and in the Hand

2011-11-23T10:24:00.000-06:00

Having just completed my first docent training at the Woodson Art Museum, I can say one thing – I’m exhausted and ready for the holiday. Monday was a busy morning for docents and staff who were introduced to new materials and two new wooden-box-related exhibitions in our galleries. Roger Zimmermann, founder of the Wisconsin Valley Woodturners, who worked closely with curator Andy McGivern to organize the Think Inside the Box exhibition, also participated in training docents and staff. Roger came prepared to teach and passed around woodturning tools and wood samples as well as his own turned-wood artwork as teaching aids. Sharing his knowledge of woodturning techniques, he explained the process of turning a piece of raw wood into a finished product. Docents responded enthusiastically to this expert craftsman whose works are included in Think Inside the Box.

The staff and docents won’t be the only ones who benefit from local woodturners. Museum visitors can observe woodturnersworking on lathes, Friday through Sunday, November 25-27, 1-3pm.

Two exhibitions, Boxes and Their Makers and Think Inside the Box, feature the creative designs of contemporary woodworkers and remain on view through January 22. The works featured challenge traditional notions about the form and functionality of the box and offer exciting reinventions. See these boxes to appreciate the aesthetics of the works as well as the time and effort invested in creating such meticulously crafted pieces. Optical illusions even make their way into Think Inside the Box with mentions of anti-gravity powder and holographic mirrors.

Take time to check out the Museum’s two new exhibitions and meet area woodturners this weekend or during Celebrate Woodturning, 5-7pm, Thursday, December 1, a special Night Out @ The Woodson.

- Catie Anderson

Happy Thanksgiving from the Woodson Art Museum!

Best Chill Chaser: Find Creative Spark at Museum

2011-11-16T09:25:00.000-06:00

While the Wausau area is being marketed as the Best Place to Play in the Snow by the Central Wisconsin Convention and Visitors Bureau this winter, the Woodson Art Museum – as always – is the best place to escape the cold and enjoy the view.

Last week, representatives from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism visited the Museum among other area attractions in preparation for the January 2012 Winter Press Tour. Media representatives from various national and regional magazines and media outlets will visit travel destinations for two days each in Marathon and Vilas counties, January 23-27. The hope, of course, is that the stories these journalists write will prompt tourists to plan trips to our area – to ski, sled, skate, curl, shop, eat in restaurants, stay at hotels, and visit the Woodson Art Museum!

Last winter, one such family came from Madison to ski at Granite Peak. While the mother and one child hit the slopes, the father and son visited the Museum and enjoyed Art Park, the Museum’s interactive family gallery. The dad created a video, “Nicholas at the Woodson Art Museum,” and posted it on YouTube and said the family plans to repeat their Wausau getaway again this winter.

Keep the Art Museum in mind as you host friends and family throughout this holiday season and beyond. Inventive and imaginative wooden boxes are the focus of two new exhibitions that open Saturday – Boxes and Their Makers: Contemporary Woodworkers and Think Inside the Box. An array of programs for all ages – woodworking and lathe demonstrations, hands-on activities to make treasure boxes and family keepsake boxes, and Art History 101 programs – will bring these boxes to life throughout the nine-week exhibition.

In addition, stunningly impressive artworks by John James Audubon, three generations of Wyeth painters, and Andy Warhol among others are featured in A Collective Journey, along with Small by Design, two exhibitions drawn from the Museum’s collection and which remain on view through February 2012.

In early February, Team USA snow sculptors return to work their winter magic and coax a dinosaur to emerge from a block of snow, in a nod to Dinotopia: The Fantastical Art of James Gurney, on view in February and March.

As winter commences, remember . . . the Woodson Art Museum is the best place to come in out of the cold, spark creativity, and stoke the embers of your imagination.

Moving on Down the Road

2011-11-09T10:51:00.000-06:00

To use a well-worn but apt phrase, time does fly! Just five days remain to see the nine-week Birds in Art exhibition at the Woodson Art Museum. Sixty of the 128 artworks travel to five other U.S. Museums where they will be on view throughout 2012. Follow this link for the tour venues. http://www.lywam.org/birdsinart/index.cfm?room=venues

While visitors have been enjoying the artworks in the galleries, the Woodson staff has been busy behind the scenes tending to myriad details.

Several important steps are required to prepare an exhibition for a multi-venue tour. The first, and foremost, is proper packing to ensure the paintings and sculptures arrive safely at each site. To facilitate this we provide lists (lots of lists) and instructions (detailed instructions).

· Inventory List – a detailed checklist of all sixty traveling artworks

· Crate List – inventory of packed works

· Packing and unpacking instructions – step-by-step directions

· Installation Instructions – special handling requirements

A Condition Report Book travels with the exhibition. Each borrower is asked to keep an accurate record of each object’s condition at each stop throughout the tour. The book includes a photo of each artwork, an initial description of its condition, and designated areas for each borrower to complete.

To ensure that we know how artwork is faring along its travels, we request that each venue send us a Condition Report Summary or a Damage/Loss form.

We also provide more supporting information for each venue to use once the artworks are unpacked, arranged, and installed there.

· Gallery labels – specific information about each artwork and artist

· Education materials – for training docents

· Title panel

· Didactic information – a history of Birds in Art

· Digital images and press release – for local media

· Artist/lender contact information

· A list of Woodson Art Museum staff contacts

As I look at the breakdown, the tasks seem simple. The reality is quite different.

Instead of sending sixty individual crates, many of the paintings are grouped in larger crates that are fitted with specially designed compartments.

This involves several staff members and many hours.

Requiring several sets of eyes, and thus more time, are those lists and detailed instructions. Straightforward and concise written materials are critical to a safe and thoughtful installation.

Museums like to plan and promote upcoming exhibitions. To make that easier, the Woodson Art Museum strives to have a DVD with all the materials described above to the tour venues eight to ten weeks before each opening.

Bright and early Monday morning, Birds in Art will be removed from the galleries. The sixty works slated for the tour will be wrapped and placed in the proper traveling crates. Each will be sealed, labeled, and ordered on the loading dock.

The twenty-six crates will be transported to Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure, Salina, Kansas. This is just the first of five stops along the 2011 Birds in Art road trip.

Then, time – as always – will continue to fly until the 2011 Birds in Art works arrive back here before migrating homeward.

Curator Tours Art Supply Warehouse Like Kid in Candy Store

2011-11-02T12:28:00.005-05:00

On October 24, four Woodson Art Museum staffers met in the parking lot at 7 am to take a road trip to Kimberly, Wisconsin, near Appleton. The four of us headed out to visit the Jack Richeson and Company art materials warehouse and studio.

It was a perfect day to spend with Woodson Art Museum co-workers. We arrived at Jack Richeson at 9 am and were greeted by Steve Fusfeld, senior account executive. After a welcome and a cup of coffee, we headed into the warehouse.

What’s so great about a warehouse?

Think about something you love and then imagine a whole warehouse filled with it. I love art supplies, so trying new art supplies is exciting for me. I felt a bit like a child entering a toy store. These are my kind of toys: easels, paint, sketchbooks, stretcher bars, and so much more. Did I drool? Ask my colleagues.

We observed stretcher bars and easels being made. The workmanship of the Jack Richeson employees is amazing. My favorite stop in the warehouse was our visit with the two women in the paint-making department. Based on certain formulas, they mix paint for over four hours, age it for months, insert it into tubes, and apply labels. The labels are all hand painted, too. Kudos to these women; I now appreciate my oil paints even more.

After the warehouse tour, we explored a variety of mediums in the studio. Our new favorite is . . . (drumroll, please) Shiva Artist’s Paintstik oil colors. We tried them on fabric for rubbings and used stencils with a brushing method. Of course we discussed the many ways we could use these paint sticks in programs offered at the Museum.

We left confident we’d forged a partnership with Jack Richeson and Company and look forward to many collaborative ventures.

New Education Curator Joins the Flock

2011-10-26T08:58:00.014-05:00

Because I hail from Chicago, you might think my life as a city dweller was devoid of nature and birds and that moving to northern Wisconsin during the Woodson Art Museum’s 36th annual Birds in Art exhibition may seem a bit foreign. Actually, I feel quite at home. Growing up in the city, I was lucky to have parents who encouraged outdoor time, especially birding. I often traveled to bird sanctuaries on Chicago’s lakefront to watch migratory visitors, and a love of birds – sparked there – has persisted. Throughout my life, I have participated in a variety of environmental activities, including Audubon youth programs and ornithological fieldwork at Beloit College. And someday I’d love to share the photographs I took of birds in the Galapagos Islands! My interests, experience, and fields of study range from museum studies to environmental politics to art history. To my surprise and delight, my post-college job search brought me to a Midwest museum that serendipitously combines so many of my interests.

As I learn more about the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, I realize what an ideal match it is for my talents and interests.

Moving north from Chicago has been a big change, but also a welcome one. As a new curator of education I have many things to learn about shepherding the docent program and coordinating school visits. I know I will enjoy each challenge ahead. The staff, docents, and volunteers at the Museum all have helped make my transition a smooth, albeit busy, one.

During my first two weeks, I have been able to experience the diverse and creative public programming offered by the Woodson Art Museum. From “Green Fire” screenings and Art History 101 to school visits and Toddler Tuesday, the Museum is serving diverse communities. The Museum’s tradition of quality programming and exhibitions meets the high expectations of visitors time and time again – a tradition I am proud to be a part of now.

Starting at the Museum when I did, I missed the flurry of activity that comes with the installation and opening of Birds in Art. However, the excitement of visitors is fresh and allows me to understand the true appeal of the exhibition. High school students during a docent-led Experience articulated it perfectly, saying the exhibition is filled with the energy of both bird and artist. They noted the artists’ different perspectives and how the choices of medium and composition reflected the characters of birds and artists. I was impressed, as were other visitors who quietly listened and smiled as they overheard the conservations in the galleries.

The natural anxiety of settling into a new home is dissipating as I realize I’ve relocated to an intelligent, dedicated, and artistically sophisticated community. My welcome to Wausau and the Woodson Art Museum is turning into a “welcome home” for me.

Serendipity Is Our Friend

2011-10-19T08:38:00.000-05:00

Programs sometimes come together effortlessly. At other times, gathering information or confirming details can feel like herding cats. Then there is the program that seems to drop out of the sky and into our laps.

Such was our experience last week that began with an intriguing email message from formidable community organizer and woman of many talents, Mary Weller, asking me to call her about an “idea.” When Mary has an idea, you want to hear it!

An early morning conversation brought me up to speed on Central Wisconsin’s upcoming final 2011 Honor Flight. Mary and her husband, Bob, had been key players in this important endeavor and had gotten to talking about the spouses who stay behind while the veterans spend an action-filled and exhausting day in Washington.

Mary asked: could something be planned for the spouses at the Woodson Art Museum?

That’s all it took. A simple question.

Mary and I ran through possibilities and within minutes I had notes and a to-do list.

With the Museum closed to the public on Monday and the staff at work, it would be an all-hands-on-deck day that required everyone to play a role from set-up to lunch prep and serving and from greeting our guests to facilitating discussion in the galleries and overseeing watercolor painting.

We were on the case, ready to go.

The program went off without a hitch on Monday, October 17. Two dozen-plus Honor Flight spouses arrived at the Museum with smiles, eager for their own adventure. Following lunch in the gallery, Museum staff and SPARK! friends engaged in conversations that resulted in poems, stories, and memory sharing. The experience concluded with art making – something to take with, mementos of their day.

The returning veterans would certainly have lots to tell their partners, and following their afternoon at the Woodson Art Museum, the Honor Flight spouses would have stories to tell, too.

Some programs are just meant to be.

Aldo Leopold: A Wisconsin Treasure

2011-10-12T10:32:00.001-05:00

Last fall I led a bus trip to southern Wisconsin for Museum members to experience museums, historic sites, theater, and fine dining. Our first stop on this three-day trip was the Aldo Leopold Shack and the Leopold Center Green Building near Baraboo.

We arrived on a beautiful fall day in October. After a short bus trip from the Leopold Center, we pulled up to a path that led through a field of wild flowers surrounded by pine trees planted by Leopold and his family in the 1930s and 40s. Beyond the path, nestled in the pines, was the “shack” where the Leopold family stayed on weekends and school breaks as they worked to bring back the land of a depleted worn-out farm.

Our guide shared stories of the Leopold family and introduced the group to A Sand County Almanac, the collection of essays written by Aldo Leopold that examines our perception and use of the land we live on and our relationship with the natural world. His essays express a reverence and respect for nature and have endured as one of the first publications to encourage a land ethic.

Today, Leopold is recognized as an important figure in the development and understanding of ecological awareness. On Sunday, the Woodson Art Museum proudly presented Green Fire, a full-length documentary film about Leopold and his ideas. The film was introduced by Stan Temple, a senior fellow and science advisor to the Aldo Leopold Foundation and professor emeritus of forestry, wildlife ecology, and environmental studies at UW- Madison. In fact, Stan occupied the same wildlife ecology professorial “chair” as Aldo Leopold; an impressive continuum.

Leopold’s legacy lives on in his many publications, the Aldo Leopold Foundation, and now through Green Fire. He truly is a Wisconsin treasure.

OctoBIRDfest through German Tourists’ Eyes

2011-10-05T08:44:00.000-05:00

I benefited from a “fresh eyes” fix on Saturday while guiding four German media representatives on a tour of the Woodson Art Museum. The Museum was one stop, coordinated by the Wausau/Central Wisconsin Convention and Visitors Bureau, on the Wisconsin Department of Tourism’s fall international tour.

2011 Master Artist James Coe with Ute Bartels of Germany

Representing large- and medium-sized newspapers in the Rhein-Ruhr region (Germany’s most populated area), the Nuremberg region, and fourteen radio stations, this group was particularly interested in the international aspect of the 2011 Birds in Art exhibition. By turns, they each looked closely at artwork by two German artists, Bernd Pöppelmann and Ute Bartels, and were interested to learn that Bartels, a first-time Birds in Art artist, traveled to Wausau for the opening weekend festivities here last month.

They marveled at the varied depictions of birds, the works by Andy Warhol, John James Audubon, and three generations of Wyeths in A Collective Journey, and Steven Siegel’s Let’s fan out repurposed paper sculpture on the Museum's grounds.

Meandering between large white tents and a pumpkin patch, they witnessed preparations for OctoBIRDfest, the annual fall festival that drew about 1,000 youngsters and family members to the sculpture garden later that day.

In a collective nod to central Wisconsin’s German heritage, OctoBERfests pop up throughout the area each fall – sometimes even in September. In Germany, a volksmarch can lead you – with walking stick in hand – from one village fest to another on an even grander scale. Having just seen Birds in Art, the Germans were amused by the OctoBIRDfest title.

What is it about hosting a tour that helps you see your own backyard anew, with the fresh perspective of a visitor’s first impression? It’s invigorating and satisfying to witness the delight and amazement on faces as visitors turn each corner and experience the Museum, inside and out, for the first time.

Make the Woodson Art Museum a stop on your itinerary the next time family and friends visit. For groups of ten or more and with three-weeks notice, we can arrange a docent-led guided tour. To lead your own group, consider checking out audio tour headsets, pick up events calendars, activity guides, and sculpture garden seek-and-find maps. Then experience the Museum and the ever-changing exhibitions anew through the “fresh eyes” of your visitors.

A Collective Gasp

2011-09-28T11:05:00.006-05:00

Perhaps you have read this in my blog before, but “I love my job!” Sure, the last three weeks I’ve been overwhelmed with activity: dozens of artists and specials guests for the Birds in Art opening weekend; Jim Coe’s plein air workshop at which I was only an observer, but learned so much; and Thomas Hill’s weeklong residency that transformed a gallery into a leafy environment, complete with a leaf I created. Wire Woodland, on view through November 13, certainly is not to be missed.

Where else could you have so many amazing experiences as part of your job?

Now that the excitement has subsided, I can shift my focus to collections. Immediately following the Birds in Art opening weekend, the Collections Committee met to make a few selections from the exhibition. It’s always exciting to contact the artists and hear their responses to the request to purchase their artwork.

This year presented a rare opportunity to ask an artist and witness the reaction face-to-face. Having concocted a fictitious blog-related reason to interview Jim Bortz we stood alongside his painting. With the video camera recording, I not so calmly asked Jim if the Museum could acquire Shimmer for the collection. As you can see from the attached file, I was nervous and Jim was stunned. It was so much fun.

Along with Shimmer by Jim Bortz, the Museum also acquired Andrew Haslen’s Curlew and Sunbathing Hare; Splash by Wes Hyde; Arc of Time by Steve Kestrel; Blue Grouse by Bart Walter; and Nipalensis #03 by Yasuo Watanabe. A grant from the John and Alice Forester Charitable Trust made these six acquisitions possible.

Additional acquisitions were possible because the second year of Project Postcard proved even more successful than the first. One hundred-thirteen artists donated 4” x 6” artworks that were sold to benefit the Museum’s acquisition fund. As in 2010, thanks to the artists’ generosity, we were able to acquire four artworks.

The works added to the collection in 2011 are: Julie Bender’s Ivy League; S. V. Medaris’ Turkey Promenade; Michael Todoroff’s Emerald Mantle; and Sherrie York’s Ripples.

Included here are images of a few of the recent acquisitions. All these artworks are exhibited in Birds in Art through November 13.

Visiting Birds in Art also gives you an opportunity to see A Collective Journey, an exhibition featuring fabulous selections from the Museum’s collection by John James Audubon, Martin Johnson Heade, Frank W. Benson, and Andrew Wyeth – to mention but a few.

I assure you, once in the galleries, whether viewing works from the Museum’s collection or Birds in Art, you will gasp with pleasure at the varied and beautiful works.

Wired for Action

2011-09-21T13:59:00.000-05:00

This week, September 20-25, over 700 students and additional visitors will have the opportunity to meet and work with artist Thomas Hill at the Woodson Art Museum. Visitors will be creating wire forms that will become part of Wire Woodland, a forest installation that Hill is creating at the Museum. Each participating school ultimately will take a piece of the Woodland back to their school after November 13, the day that the 2011 Birds in Art exhibition closes.

Thomas Hill is from England and currently resides in San Francisco. At the Woodson Art Museum, Hill is considered part of the Birds in Art family; his artwork has been juried into five Birds in Art exhibitions, including this year. His wire sculptures are whimsical, but their foundations are based on real bird and animal forms.

Everyone can get in on the wire action. Hill even manned a station at the Tuesday, September 20, Toddler Tuesday program. Toddlers made outlines of their hands using chenille stems. Look for these precious wire forms as leaves in the trees of Hill’s Wire Woodland.

It’s not too late to register for an evening or weekend program with Tom. Call 715.845.7010 to learn more and to register. Or, stop in this week to see wire in action under the command of artist Thomas Hill. His Wire Woodland remains on view through November 13.

September 21 Wednesday 6 – 8 pm

Studio Art: Wire Play

Adults add to the wire forest and fashion their own wired wonder. Fee: $5; call 715.845.7010 to register.

September 22 Thursday 4:30 – 6 pm

Young Artists: Wild About Wire (ages 8-12) Create wire sculptures. Fee: $5; call 715.845.7010 to register.

September 23 Friday 7 – 9 pm

Teens Go Social

Teens bring friends to meet Thomas Hill, learn his techniques for creating wire sculpture, and experience the Wire Woodland installation. A Social Event = Music, Food, & Friends.

September 24 Saturday 9 am – Noon

Art Educator Workshop for Wisconsin Art Education Association (WAEA) members. For details and to register, call the Museum at 715.845.7010.

Thomas Hill’s residency is supported by a Community Arts Grant from the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin, with funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board, Community Foundation, and the B.A.& Esther Greenheck Foundation.

A Note of Thanks

2011-09-14T10:38:00.000-05:00

By Cindy Brzeski

It‘s customary to send a note of thanks to the hostess after attending an event. In my case, the hostess of the 36th annual Birds in Art opening, Kathy Foley, sits across the hall from me. I’ve thought about how best to convey my appreciation, and settled on this, my open note of thanks for inviting me to step into the magic that is Birds in Art. I’m sure I speak for others who have enjoyed the gracious and thoughtful hospitality that is a hallmark of Museum director Kathy Foley and the Woodson Art Museum.

Thank you, Kathy, for being the effervescent hostess who invites artists, members, volunteers, media, staff, and the entire community at large to participate in a world-class art exhibition. Calling so many people together in a celebration of art brings peace to our corner of the world. Your warm and welcoming style is replicated many times over as your staff tries to emulate the role model you are to us.

Thank you for your fastidious attention to detail that makes everything run so smoothly. As carefully as the Birds in Art catalogue is edited and works are displayed, every element of the opening weekend is attentively planned, communicated, and executed. Schedules, menus, transportation, and staffing are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to planning at the Woodson Art Museum. I wonder if guests know, for example, that the orange parking cones were washed in preparation for this weekend, or that the dew was wiped from the outdoor chairs. It's all in the details, my friends!

Thanks, too, for bringing out our “inner child” and encouraging us to have fun as we spent time together this weekend. We enjoyed seeing artists casually dressed, sharing their sense of humor, sporting candy lips, playfully competing to purchase one another’s donated postcards, having lunch on a bus, and playing croquet. It was great to see friends meeting and catching up and families coming together. Check out the smiles of young and old alike on our Facebook page and you’ll agree that opening weekend at the Woodson Art Museum is a joyful experience!

Thank you, most of all, for your boundless energy and passion in bringing art to the people of Wausau and beyond. Most of us are not gifted artists, but we can all experience and enjoy the wonder and the beauty on display each year at the Woodson Art Museum. I’m a fortunate “newbie” with the opportunity to drink it all in for the first time. It’s been a whirlwind of anticipation and delight, and I am truly grateful to have been invited to the ball!

Editor’s note: Cindy Brzeski, business manager, joined the Woodson Art Museum staff in April and is a welcome addition to the lineup of staff bloggers.

Rolling Out the Red Carpet

2011-09-07T07:54:00.000-05:00

Most everyone knows that feeling of looking forward to something special . . . and then, in the blink of an eye, it’s come and gone.

Such is the Birds inArt opening weekend experience!

We’re at t-minus forty-eight hours or so until we welcome more than sixty-five of the 2011 exhibiting artists and hundreds of Museum members and guests to an array of Birds in Art events.

We’re rolling out the red carpet now.

No surprise that Birds in Art preparations are ongoing. Work on the 2011 exhibition began while last year’s exhibition was still on view and continues until the first visitors arrive.

We’d like to think that we leave nothing to chance when it comes to ensuring that every “i” is dotted and every “t” is crossed. If you, gentle reader, know of something overlooked or have a suggestion, we’d sure like to hear about it.

The pace of activity today is at a feverishly high level. Everyone has a lengthy to-do list and assignments that span from early-morning until late into the evening. Our goals are to treat every guest like visiting royalty, to creating vivid and lasting memories, to ensure that everyone has a grand experience, and to exceed expectations.

Lofty? Yes. I’m confident that the multi-talented Woodson Art Museum staff is up to the tasks at hand.

Now, back to the carpet rollout. There are still many things to do before the 2011 Birds in Art exhibition officially opens.

Click here for the opening weekend schedule and also let us know how this year’s exhibition and our efforts measure up.

Pinch Hitter Comes Through in Clutch

2011-08-31T09:17:00.000-05:00

By Matt Foss

I love baseball. For those who read this blog and know me personally, this comes as no surprise. I discuss the game often and frequently use baseball analogies in conversation. I have many reasons for being infatuated with the game. The sights, the smells, the nuances of baseball, the way it sounds on the radio, the fact that it’s the only sport where the defense has the ball, and that it begins in the spring when everything is new and ends in the fall, just when you need it most. It’s a special game.

One of my favorite things about the game is September call-ups. For those of you who don’t know, major league teams are allowed to expand their rosters and bring up players from their farm systems in September. For teams in a pennant race (like the Milwaukee Brewers), it can add a much-needed boost for a team fatigued from 130 games already played. For teams out of the pennant race (like my Chicago Cubs), it can be an opportunity to try out younger players who have a shot at making next year’s club.

Well, September call-ups happen in the museum world, too. Curator of exhibitions Andy McGivern recently broke his collarbone, limiting his physical work at the Woodson Art Museum. Andy has been placed on the Museum’s version of the 60-day disabled list. Because now is the busiest time of the year at the Museum, with preparations for the upcoming 36th annual Birds in Art exhibition in full swing, director Kathy Foley made a September call-up of her own, bringing yours truly up to the “big club.”

While working full time at the Museum for the next couple of months, I’ll be doing a number of things to save Andy’s arm from further damage. I’ll be installing exhibitions, handling delicate works in the Museum’s collection, and helping with set up and take down throughout the facility and grounds. This is the baseball equivalent of being a good glove man up the middle, with decent speed and a tendency to get some clutch base hits. I’m thinking of myself as the consummate “utility player.”

Editor’s note: Matt Foss has been sharing his time and talents with the Woodson Art Museum for almost two years. He received an undergraduate degree and a Master’s degree, both in history, from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.

Teens Have SPACE at the Woodson Art Museum

2011-08-24T09:55:00.002-05:00

We're BACK – The Woodson Art Museum Teen Art Council (TAC) is back in session and starting its second year. The TAC participants that met August 8 to kick off another year are creative, energetic high school teens who do a fantastic job of developing events for their peers. This year they’re planning to implement a teen-juried exhibition. The theme and title of the teen art exhibition is SPACE, which leaves plenty of room for interpretation by the artists. To share the endless possibilities of creative direction teens can take, I looked up the definitions of space. The Merriam Webster dictionary website http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/space offers ten definitions of space:

1: a period of time; also: its duration

2 a: a limited extent in one, two, or three dimensions: distance, area, volume b: an extent set apart or available space> space> c: the distance from other people or things that a person needs in order to remain comfortable space>

3: one of the degrees between or above or below the lines of a musical staff — compare line

4 a: a boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction space and time> b: physical space independent of what occupies it —called also absolute space

5: the region beyond the earth's atmosphere or beyond the solar system

6 a: a blank area separating words or lines b: material used to produce such blank area; especially: a piece of type less than one en in width

7: a set of mathematical elements and especially of abstractions of all the points on a line, in a plane, or in physical space; especially: a set of mathematical entities with a set of axioms of geometric character — compare metric space, topological space, vector space

8 a: linage b: broadcast time available especially to advertisers

9: accommodations on a public vehicle

10 a: the opportunity to assert or experience one's identity or needs freely b: an opportunity for privacy or time to oneself

Now TAC and I, as their advisor, must find ways to explore the final frontier and go where TAC has not gone before. At this point in the journey it’s time for TAC to spread the message about the exhibition and to distribute the guidelines to area high school students. Between now and April 14, 2012, the exhibition must be juried, installed and ready to open when the Woodson Art Museum’s presentation of NASA|Art: 50 Years of Exploration begins.

As we embark on this journey, TAC members will learn about exhibition development. October 27, they’ll meet with Museum staff members and find out how each contributes to exhibition development. Then they’ll take a behind-the-scenes tour guided by Andy McGivern, curator of exhibitions, and Jane Weinke, curator of collections. Each Museum staff member will assist and guide the TAC members as they journey into this new frontier.

TAC also has planned the Teens Go Social event on September 23, 7-9 pm. High school teens can meet and work with artist Thomas Hill, learn his techniques for creating wire sculpture, and experience the Wire Woodland installation. Bottom line: it’s a social event, with music, food, and friends.

TAC would like to welcome teens to their SPACE. If you’re interested in joining, contact me, Jayna Hintz, by calling 715.845.7010 or email me at jhintz@lywam.org.

Kids Get a Kick Out of Art

2011-08-17T11:09:00.000-05:00

Looking through a camera lens this past week, the delights of art came into crystal-clear focus. It’s been written all over the faces of the children who’ve flocked to Family Fest, the Woodson Art Museum’s new drop-in, art-making festival.

The glee, the sheer joy was in their movements, too. Skips, twirls, hops, and arms held high.

That delight percolated to the surface and spilled out in giggles while one little girl squirted colorful dye onto a twisted t-shirt. One young boy simply danced while chasing bubbles as they lifted on a breeze. Others crouched, mesmerized, while seeing bright light bleach pink paper where a sun-print stencil had blocked the spray of sunscreen.

Each day, August 9-16, visitors were invited to stop by anytime during regular Museum hours to try a different art-making activity – garden sculpture, sun prints, tie-dye, bubble blowing and bubble prints, kite-making, a graffiti wall, and a movement tour of sculptures throughout the Museum grounds. More than 1,000 attended Family Fest throughout the week.

The seven-day festival culminated last evening with a family yoga class, offered free of charge by River Flow Yoga, and a family concert that drew more than 300 people to the Museum’s sculpture garden on a glorious late-summer evening. Glen Everhart’s parodies and musical fun had families’ toes tapping and hands clapping to this musician’s sing-along tunes.

Museum staff began planning for Family Fest last fall, long before the national initiative Let’s Move! Museums & Gardens was announced by First Lady Michelle Obama and the Institute of Museum and Library Services earlier this spring. But the effort – now 400+ museums strong – to promote healthy food choices and physical activity through interactive programs has been a natural fit for the Woodson Art Museum’s Family Fest and many other programs offered throughout the year for all ages.

Families are encouraged to practice healthy habits together through hands-on art-making activities in a range of monthly Museum programs – from Art Babies and Toddler Tuesday through Art Beyond Sight for those with blindness and vision impairments and SPARK! for individuals with memory loss and their care partners.

This summer’s first Family Fest may be over, but the spirit of the festival and national initiative live on throughout all of the many Museum programs that encourage visitors to let art move them – both through the process of making art and through enjoying artwork on view.

The sculpture garden movement tour lives on, as well. Both you and the children you bring to the Museum can check out an audio tour kit at the greeter desk and, with map in hand and a headset to guide you, embark on a tour called Let Art Move You.

The kit includes a pedometer to help you count steps and even calories as you make your way throughout the grounds. The audio tour includes soothing narration that offers insights about the artwork and the animals depicted, open-ended questions to ponder and music to encourage you to let go with a bit of physical expression.

The tour encourages visitors to dance or slink like a stealthy cat while enroute to some of the sculptures. With children along for the tour, adults can shed a few grown-up inhibitions and just have fun.

Stop by the Museum often to be a kid again, and let art move you, too.

Winning with Art History

2011-08-10T16:39:00.000-05:00

Last March, I blogged about the Woodson Art Museum’s Art History 101 program. It is designed to appeal to adults who wish to learn more about the broader subject of art. The program is presented in the evening on the first Thursday of every month and repeated over the lunch hour two weeks later. It’s tied to a family hands-on activity in an adjoining space that highlights the artwork and techniques of the artist featured in the Art History 101 presentation.

Last week, I examined the life and artwork of American sculptor Alexander “Sandy” Calder. Calder, whose father and grandfather were prominent American sculptors, is best known for his colorful mobile and stabile sculptures.

Alexander Calder, Untitled, 1976
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

I’ve always enjoyed Calder’s work, and one of my favorites is his seventy-foot red-and-black mobile hanging in the atrium of the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, Washington. It’s a majestic sculpture that moves freely with the breeze.

In my lectures, I like to combine images with video. With Calder, I was able to capture archival footage of the artist from the 1950s showing a performance of his circus, or Cirque Calder, in Paris. Calder began making small circus figures of wire and other materials shortly after moving to Paris in the late 1920s; he gave these performances at social events in Paris and New York.

My recent audience consisted mainly of art enthusiasts, including Museum docents. At this lecture I also was honored to have my 92-year-old mother-in-law in attendance. She listened to my presentation and later told me she thought I did a really good job. Our visitor Services desk staff member told me that others who attended the lecture also were complimentary.

Receiving positive feedback makes the time and effort put forth to prepare a program rewarding. I have to say that I enjoy having an opportunity to study and learn about a variety of artists, and that’s a win-win situation for everyone.

Hot Fun in the Summer Time

2011-08-03T12:22:00.001-05:00

Museum purchase with funds provided by

Nan Schaffer and Julie Kreiner

In 1995, The Heavyweight, a life-size bronze hippo by Burt Brent was the sixth large-scale sculpture acquired for the Woodson Art Museum’s garden and quickly became a visitor favorite. I suspect there are two reasons for its popularity. One, most certainly, is its endearing pose. The huge animal appears to have collapsed into the mud, perhaps to escape the heat of the day, or maybe from its immense weight. Another, and I imagine the most appealing factor, is that it’s the single sculpture that can be touched. In fact you can sit on it, slide down it, stare into its soulful eyes, or just feel its texture and folds.

If you ever have shared these experiences you already are aware that at certain times of the day, the metal absorbs the heat of the sun and gets very warm – perhaps too warm. I cannot say it better than the attractive sign placed near The Heavyweight.

“Hi, I am a happy hippo. I love sunshine but it makes me very hot. My tent helps me stay cooler. Moms and dads, please touch me first to make sure I’m not too warm for your little ones to sit on.

PS I am the only sculpture at the Museum that can be touched. That makes me special.”

Pop-up tent canopies have shielded the sculpture for several years. While they served the purpose, more attractive alternatives certainly exist. Finding the perfect product, designing the structure, and securing the funding all have been accomplished, at long last.

The newly installed shade structure consists of two sage-colored, trapezoid-shaped sails supported by four curved posts. Not only are the sails pleasing to the eye, the synthetic fabric is long lasting and allows cool breezes to flow, all while filtering 95% of ultraviolet radiation. All that contributes to the goal of reducing the sun-generated heat on The Heavyweight.

Rob Erickson from Wausau Canvas designed the structure. He and his team have the sails in place. But a few tweaks still are necessary to get the maximum coverage and tension on the sails. This should be accomplished in the next few days.

Why not come and see the new shade structure during Family Fest, August 9-16? The week-long art-making festival will be held on the grounds adjacent to The Heavyweight and focuses on developing healthy habits including – exercise, nutrition, sun safety, and creativity – through art. Check out the schedule on our website.

We are grateful that support for the shade structure was provided in part by the Orville and Geraldine Peterson Family Trust of the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin.

What a Nice Surprise

2011-07-27T10:03:00.000-05:00

I’m blogging this week following the Association of Midwest Museums’ annual conference in Chicago – Museumpalooza, which got underway on Sunday, July 24, with a terrific kick-off party at The Art Institute of Chicago’s Renzo Piano Modern Wing. Wow!

Needless to say, museum colleagues roll out the red carpet for their peers and when sponsors such as Groupon – yes! – get involved, the results are impressive.

It had been seventeen years since the Midwest Museums convened in Chicago and clearly the destination is a draw. In addition, the Midwest Association teamed up with the Illinois Association of Museums and the Visitor Studies Association, resulting in an even more robust array of program sessions and a total registration approaching 800.

First up Monday morning was the Association’s annual business meeting, which included the pro-forma activities of approval of the minutes from last year’s gathering, a finance report, and Board nominations and election. Prior to introducing the keynote speaker, the Association presented awards.

I was delightfully surprised and even a bit flummoxed to hear the name Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum announced as the recipient of the Best Practices Award for Public Programming.

Quite a wonderful surprise, indeed!

In presenting the award, Lin Nelson-Mayson, director of the University of Minnesota’s Goldstein Museum of Design, highlighted the Woodson Art Museum’s leadership in developing programs for all ages and stages, ranging from Art Babies for our youngest visitors to SPARK! for older adults with memory loss and their care partners.

Over the next day and a half, I attended a number of excellent sessions, met new colleagues, and visited with longtime friends. I’m returning to the Woodson with pages of notes, ideas for new programs, and names to share with my co-workers for future projects.

Reflecting on these all-too-quick experiences, I must say that the recognition for the Woodson’s programming is a highlight. The Best Practices Award belongs to each and every Museum staff member, who give their all day in and day out. What a privilege it is to call them a trusted team, valued colleagues, and my friends.

Raku Oohs and Awesome Ahhs

2011-07-20T08:56:00.000-05:00

I need a word better than WOW to describe last week. Right now, WOW is what comes to mind. It was a WOW week and so much more. Last week (July 10-16), I had the enjoyment of spending the entire week outdoors in the Woodson Art Museum sculpture garden. What was I doing? I was assisting Dean Hoegger, a Sturgeon Bay ceramist with 35 years of experience, invited to teach the Museum’s Earth & Fire summer art camp for middle- and high-school students. To prepare for his arrival, we wrapped tables in canvas, set up tents to provide shade, and set up propane gas tanks for the Raku kiln.

After Dean’s arrival on Sunday, we helped him unload and level three pottery wheels, clay, books, and a variety of tools. Everything was ready by 9:30 pm, and we all headed home feeling content that the next day would start without a hitch. During the night a storm hit, and all of us worried what we would find the next day. Based on our experience I recommend plastic sheeting; it worked for keeping things dry. A few wet cardboard boxes needed to be unpacked and replaced with dry boxes but nothing was damaged.

After the first wave of students arrived at 8:15 am, we were up and running with a full class of 14 middle-school students by 8:30am. We started with pinch pots, and Dean covered the importance of drawing the clay up from the bottom and keeping the sides equally thick. This was a precursor for wheel-thrown pottery work that was planned for the next day. The students learned how to wedge their clay to prevent air pockets in their finished pieces. We moved from pinch pots to slab-built construction, creating cylinder-shaped jars with individual embellishments and incorporated different techniques for altering surface texture. At noon the middle-school students were done, and by 1pm the high-school students arrived, ready to start.

The high-school class rolled out in a similar fashion, except the students were introduced to the balloon-pot technique, which is a hand-built form. This technique produced some fantastic results. Students created balloon-pot-formed containers in a variety of shapes including an acorn, a strawberry, a square box, a few capsule shapes, and many others.

Throughout four of the five days, the students created pottery, Dean and I loaded kilns at night, and I unloaded them in the morning. The amount of completed bisque-ware continued to grow in anticipation of Friday’s Raku firing.

What is Raku? Raku is a low-firing process inspired by traditional Japanese Raku firing. Western-style Raku involves removing pottery from the kiln while at bright- red heat and placing it into containers with combustible materials such as straw, paper, or sawdust. Once the materials ignite, the containers are closed. This produces an intense reduction atmosphere that affects the color of glazes and clay pieces. The drastic thermal shock also produces glaze cracking, known as crackling, since it is deliberate.

One teen described Raku as “mind-blowing, awesome amazement, with a side of flame-broiled coolness.” For those of you who never have done Raku, it is very exciting. The surprise of how the reduction affects the glaze is awesome. We heard so many “oohs and aahs” as the students pulled their pots from the water after cooling. We were “oohing and aahing” right along with them.

To see what the students created and enjoy an ooh-and-aah moment of your own, stop by the Woodson Art Museum before August 29 and visit an exhibition of their artwork created during one week of summer art camp.

Paving Paradise?

2011-07-13T11:37:00.000-05:00

By Cindy Brzeski

It may not be paradise we’re paving exactly, but we are putting up a parking lot!

Yes, the noise, the felled trees, the silt fence, the heavy equipment, and the mud are all precursors to additional parking for Woodson Art Museum guests. No, there won’t be a pink hotel, and with deference to Joni Mitchell and Counting Crows, all of this Museum’s works can be viewed free of charge daily. If you recall the lyrics of Big Yellow Taxi, “They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum and they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them.”

For those of you who’ve had to park blocks away on a previous visit, you’ll soon find additional and convenient parking in close proximity both to our main entrance and 12^th Street entrance and, weather permitting, just in time for Birds in Art this fall.

With trees removed and loads of dirt hauled away, a parking lot is taking shape on the east side of 12^th Street, across from the Museum. It will take several more weeks as crews complete the cement aprons, curb and gutters, asphalt paving, stone retaining wall, storm draining, masonry piers, and later the decorative fencing and landscaping.

I had no idea how much was involved in the construction of a parking lot. From acquisition of the property and zoning to the engineering study, design, bidding, contracts, and finally construction, the parking lot is nearly two years in the making. Now that the visible portion of the work has begun, we’re finally starting to see it come together.

It seems only fitting that with all of the trucks, construction trailer, back hoe, and other heavy equipment invading this quiet, residential area, our indoor offerings this summer are entitled Iron: New Work by American Blacksmiths and Ax Lore: Historic Tools from the John and Brenda Henson Collection.

Whether you are intrigued by a construction project underway or by amazing metal works of art, current tools, or something much more primitive, now is a great time to visit the Woodson Art Museum. As the song goes, “...you don’t know what you’ve got `til it’s gone!”

Editor's note: Cindy Brzeski, business manager, has been working at the Museum for almost three months and is being welcomed enthusiastically into our blogosphere!