August 14, 2025— The Miller Art Museum is excited to announce thattickets are available for its 50th Anniversary Celebration and Fundraising Gala, taking place Friday, September 12, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. at the newly restored Door County Granary on Sturgeon Bay’s west waterfront. This milestone event will honor the museum’s half-century legacy while raising vital support for its mission to connect artists and community with opportunities to explore, appreciate, and advance the visual arts.

From its founding in 1975 as the vision of celebrated Door County artist Gerhard CFMiller to its role today as a cultural pillar for the Door County Peninsula, the Miller Art Museum has been a gathering place for creativity, dialogue, and inspiration for generations. This golden anniversary marks a unique opportunity to reflect on the museum’s impact and to imagine its next 50 years of artistic growth and community engagement.

“This celebration is about so much more than marking 50 years—it’s about honoring the people, the Miller’s vision, and the shared commitment that have made the Miller Art Museum what it is today. We’re excited to gather in such a meaningful space, surrounded by friends old and new––those that have shaped who we are––and to dream about the future we will create together.”

Set against Sturgeon Bay west waterfront, the Door County Granary—once a workinggrain elevator and now a beautifully reimagined event venue—will provide awarm, timber-framed backdrop for the evening’s festivities. Guests will enjoy a plated dinner by Crave Cuisine, music by Grammy®-nominated cellist Hans Christian, and opportunities to bid in in-person live and silent auctions, and to support a paddle raise, all to benefit the museum’s programming.

The evening promises an elegant blend of culinary artistry, live music, and community engagement. Tickets include admission, full-plated dinner,and access to all activities. Seating is limited, and early purchase is encouraged. Tickets and more information can be found at https://tinyurl.com/5x3uhsvr.

“The community is invited to join in celebrating what the organization has accomplished, where it is today, and where it is going. In advance, we thank ourcommunity for the generous support in helping the Miller Art Museum to grow and serve our community in a greater capacity!” Gigstead continued.

For additional information about the event, tickets, underwriting opportunities, or sponsorship inquiries, please contact Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead, Executive Director, at 920.746.0707 or .

July 31, 2025 - The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay is pleased to announce the launch of its 2025 Dome House Al & Mickey Quinlan Artist Residency Program with artist Douglas Pendleton, a painter known for blending classical influences with contemporary commentary. The program will launch with an Opening Celebration and Meet the Artist event on Friday, August 8 at 6:00pm.This event will take place at the Dome House and is free and open to the public.

Pendleton brings to the Miller Art Museum’s residency a deep interest in historical painting traditions, coupled with a distinct voice rooted in cultural critique and visual storytelling. During his residency, he will explore plein air painting, drawing inspiration from the local landscape to influence and evolve his large-scale, figurative studio work.

“The opportunity to work in Door County represents a meaningful chance to shift the rhythm of my practice and deepen my relationship with painting from observation,” said Pendleton. “I plan to immerse myself in the landscape—spending extended periods working en plein air—and reflect on how that direct engagement can inform my studio work. Ultimately, I hope to develop large-scale work that weaves together figurative elements with visual language drawn from place.”

Pendleton holds an MFA in Painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA from the University of Iowa. His work draws from Renaissance and Baroque traditions, blending historical imagery with contemporary cultural references. Using allegory, theatrical staging, and humor, Pendleton interrogates systems of power, spectacle, and taste—often placing sacred or royal figures alongside consumer goods, inflatable toys, and synthetic textures.

This year marks an exciting new chapter for the Dome House Residency, which was launched in 2021 to support contemporary artists through an immersive residency that prioritizes time, space, and focused exploration. Rooted in the creative legacy of Al Quinlan, the program invites artists to reflect, experiment, and grow within a quiet, inspiring setting. With opportunities for community engagement through public programs, open studios, and conversations, the residency fosters a meaningful exchange between artists and the broader Door County community.

“This residency program continues to grow in impact and visibility,” shared Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead, executive director of the Miller Art Museum. “Douglas’ thoughtful approach to painting and storytelling will add an exciting new chapter to the residency’s evolving legacy.”

In addition to the August 8 opening celebration, Pendleton will lead a series of free public programs throughout August as part of the residency: 

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

ABOUT DOUGLAS PENDLETON Douglas Pendleton is a Detroit-based painter whose work explores the relationship between historical imagery and contemporary mass culture. Rooted in Renaissance and Baroque traditions, his paintings use allegory, theatrical staging, and precise draftsmanship to examine how visual systems of power—religious, imperial, or commercial—shape meaning through spectacle. Figures in his compositions may appear sacred or ceremonial, yet their gravitas is deliberately disrupted by inflatable toys, consumer ephemera, or synthetic textures that destabilize conventional hierarchies of taste and value.

Pendleton earned his MFA in Painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and his BFA in Painting from the University of Iowa. He also studied at the Florence Classical Arts Academy and Studio Arts College International in Italy, where he developed a foundation in classical painting techniques and composition. His solo and group exhibitions include Louis Buhl & Co. Gallery in Detroit, Forum Gallery, and the Cranbrook Museum of Art, among others. In 2022, he was awarded a residency with Rotation Works in Brooklyn, NY, and has previously participated in international arts programs in Italy and the U.S.

His practice bridges technical precision with conceptual inquiry, often merging the reverence of classical portraiture with the aesthetics of contemporary excess. He views painting as both a site of reflection and performance—a stage where history is reassembled and interrogated through layered, often humorous, visual language. Pendleton currently lives and works in Hamtramck, Michigan.

ABOUT THE DOME HOUSE Artist and printmaker Albert F. “Al” Quinlan designed and built the Dome House in 1978—now an iconic Door County structure—with a vision for a live/work space existing in equilibrium with the surrounding natural landscape. His daughter MaryGrace Quinlan and her husband Kurt Wagner purchased and renovated the home in 2018, and, together with their family, operate it as a community space and working studio. The Dome House Al & Mickey Quinlan Artist Residency—a single-artist, application-based program focused in the areas of drawing, painting, printmaking, and photography—was launched in 2021 as a partnership between the Miller Art Museum and Quinlan family, and invites emerging and mid-career artists located from the Midwest to the Peninsula to reside for 8 weeks each year. The iconic structure includes an open-concept residence and a sizable working studio for a unique live/work experience. This collaborative partnership serves the broader mission of the Dome House, which is to provide artists working in all mediums with space for creativity, contemplation, and inspiration. Learn more at domehouseart.org and follow @thedomehouse on Instagram.

Kimberly Burnett’s evocative oil paintings explore isolation, identity, and domestic space in her deeply personal debut at the Miller Art Museum

July 18, 2025—The Miller Art Museum is excited to announce the opening of Sequestered Shadows, a compelling solo exhibition by Milwaukee-based emerging artist Kimberly Burnett, on view in downtown Sturgeon Bay August 2 – September 20, 2025. Featuring 35 intimate oil paintings, Sequestered Shadows invites viewers into a richly layered domestic world shaped by memory, duty, and quiet resilience. An artist reception is scheduled for Friday, August 1, 2025, from 5 – 7 pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibition. Light refreshments will be served and live music will be provided by Craig Schultz.

Kimberly Burnett, Conjugation, oil.Drawing deeply from her childhood in rural North Carolina, Burnett constructs introspective scenes using her own likeness and those of her family members. The resulting compositions portray solitary figures caught in moments of stillness and subtle motion, exploring the tension between personal identity and domestic expectation. Her works transform everyday spaces into quiet stages of psychological complexity—places to hide, to watch, to endure.

“A person is shadows and smears and drips,” Burnett says. “Lines create form, colors create a relationship.”

With this philosophy at its heart, Sequestered Shadows is a study in emotional nuance. Burnett’s use of color becomes both a narrative tool and a mood map, giving life to the silent rituals of care, confinement, and self-expression. Each canvas hums with the weight of the unseen and the unspoken—doorways cracked open, windows offering unreachable light, and figures tethered to their surroundings by duty and longing.

“This exhibition is an extraordinary debut for a remarkable new voice in contemporary figurative painting,” says Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead, executive director at the Miller Art Museum. “Burnett’s ability to evoke such depth of feeling through gesture, color, and form is both striking and deeply moving. We’re honored to bring her work to Door County audiences.”

Kimberly Burnett is a self-taught contemporary artist and illustrator residing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Known for her style of “fractured realism,” Burnett works primarily in oil and charcoal. Her art draws on her formative years in rural North Carolina—surrounded by forests and homesteads—which cultivated a lifelong connection to the emotional textures of domestic space. A passionate storyteller, she has told people that she’s been an artist since the age of 2. Her work reveals strong classical influences from with realism being broken apart a little by the bits of color she sees around her. Her love of the Old Masters and the beauty of nature is revealed in her work. Her representational work often centers on figure and portrait, with recurring attention to hands as narrative focal points, revealing unspoken stories through gesture and posture. Burnett has exhibited across the Midwest, including solo and group shows at institutions like the Evanston Arts Center, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, and Trout Museum of Art.

Sequestered Shadows is presented with financial support from The Cordon Family Foundation, Door County Medical Center, the MMG Foundation, Huehns with additional grant support from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.

July 11, 2025 — The Miller Art Museum is pleased to announce an exciting opportunity for the Door County community to help shape a meaningful addition to the museum’s permanent collection. As part of the Women and Water exhibition featuring the work of Wisconsin fiber artist Mary Burns, the museum invites the community to nominate a local woman water advocate or protector to be depicted in a newly commissioned woven portrait by the artist. This initiative is generously supported by a grant from the Women’s Fund of Door County, whose mission is to build, enrich, and nurture the lives of women and girls through collective wisdom and philanthropy.

Door County is a community defined by the waters that surround and sustain it—but those waters are vulnerable. The County’s fragile karst geology allows contaminants to pass quickly into aquifers, putting drinking water and the environment at risk. Local conservation leaders, many of them women, are working to protect these precious resources. The museum now seeks to honor one of these local changemakers through art.

“This portrait will serve not only as a tribute to the individual, but as a lasting symbol of the community’s commitment to environmental stewardship, women’s leadership, and the deep connection between land, water, and identity,” says Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead, Executive Director of the Miller Art Museum.

Visitors can nominate a woman water advocate by visiting the museum and engaging with the Women and Water exhibition, on display through Saturday, July 26. Nominations will be accepted through the exhibition’s close. The selected portrait will be woven by artist Mary Burns and will become part of the museum’s permanent collection, symbolizing the intersection of local environmentalism, feminine strength, and cultural heritage.

Mary Burns is a master weaver whose Women and Water exhibition features 29 woven portraits honoring women across 20 countries who are advancing water conservation and environmental justice. Her work blends traditional fiber art with powerful storytelling and has been shaped by Indigenous teachings and scientific collaboration. The exhibition is aimed at sparking conversation around water, conservation, and the women leading the charge.

By blending visual art with public participation, the museum hopes to foster greater awareness about Door County’s water challenges, honor the women addressing them, and inspire the next generation of advocates.

“Art has the power to engage hearts and minds—and when paired with community voice, it becomes a catalyst for change,” says Meissner-Gigstead.