September 25, 2026 - The Miller Art Museum is pleased to announce the award winners of its 51st Juried Annual. Awards were presented at the opening reception on Friday, September 18, 2026, and the exhibition remains on view in downtown Sturgeon Bay through November 7, 2026.
Established in 1975, the Miller Art Museum’s Juried Annual has grown from a local exhibition of Northeast Wisconsin artists into a statewide platform celebrating visual arts excellence. This year, the museum received 317 submissions from 177 artists across the state. From that field, 64 works by 61 artists were selected, creating a vibrant conversation across media, approaches, and points of view.
"It's a privilege to bring this work together in an exhibition that celebrates the extraordinary breadth of vision, practice, and creative life found throughout Wisconsin," says Suzanne Rose, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections. "The exhibition speaks so strongly to the range and vitality of Wisconsin artists, and it's an honor to share it with our community and the many visitors who come to Door County."
Eight artists were recognized with a total of $1,950 in cash awards:
Gerhard Miller Award of Excellence ($500)
Rebecca Jabs (Manitiwoc), Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Special Merit Awards ($250 each)
Doug Fath (Madison), The Wounded Will Illuminate the Way
Karla Lauden (Sheboygan), Grave Digger
Abby Thiede (Sturgeon Bay), Aftercare
Juror's Choice Awards ($200 each)
Selected by Cristian Anderson: Bonnie Connolly (Sturgeon Bay), Milkweed
Selected by Debra Brehmer: Tania Nelson (Green Bay), Newport Village
Selected by Kimberly Burnett: Daniel Fleming (Milwaukee), Demons II (Prophet)
Bonnie Hartmann Award for Outstanding Creativity ($100)
Nova Czarnecki (Milwaukee), Born with Teeth
The exhibition was juried by Cristian Andersson, artist and curator (Green Bay); Debra Brehmer, gallerist, writer, and art historian (Milwaukee); and Kimberly Burnett, realist painter (Milwaukee). For Burnett, the role brought her relationship with the museum full circle. Her painting The Rearrangement was featured in the 48th Juried Annual, and she presented a solo exhibition at the museum in 2025.
While reviewing the entries, Brehmer noticed that many artists grappled with place, exploring attachment, memory, and instability through the idea of home as shelter, refuge, or stage. That thread runs through works by Olivia Lorber, Sandra Schoen, Sara Willadsen, Nastia Craig, and Jacklyn Berta, among others. "The theme of home, evident in this exhibition, could reflect our contemporary condition," Brehmer writes. "Or perhaps it is a permanent physical and psychological anchor of humanity at any age."
Brehmer selected Green Bay artist Tania Nelson's Newport Village for her Juror's Choice Award. Nelson's paintings draw on her childhood in a 1980s central Wisconsin trailer park, and this small-scale work depicts a modest home nestled within a stand of large trees. Brehmer describes it as "not a touristic study but a tactile knowing."
Andersson praised the entries as a counterweight to a noisy digital culture, calling each work "a humanistic expression, the autonomous choice of the artist." Burnett, reflecting on the many submissions, observed that "an artist's journey is a lifelong rearrangement." She invites visitors to the museum to ask themselves, "How have I been rearranged by the works I saw today?"
The 64 exhibiting artists include: Nadia Khun (New Berlin), Marissa Bagasao (Sturgeon Bay, Karen Becker (Sturgeon Bay), Jacklyn Berta (Milwaukee), Aaron Boyd (Milwaukee), Deborah Brooks (Milwaukee), Bonnie Connolly (Sturgeon Bay), Dennis Connolly (Sturgeon Bay), Nastia Craig (Madison), Nova Czarnecki (Milwaukee), Michael Darby (Milwaukee), Alicia Daubner (Sister Bay), Randall Dettmann (Algoma), Doug Fath (Madison), Daniel Fleming (Milwaukee), Barbi Gossen (Green Bay), Karen Hertz-Sumnicht (Sturgeon Bay), Patricia Hidson (Glendale), Jason Hill (Monticello), Kristine Hinrichs (Milwaukee), Katie Hohmann (Sister Bay), Rebecca Jabs (Manitowoc), Jayne Reid Jackson (Madison), Virginia Janssen (Green Bay), Meg Johnson (Milwaukee), Thomas Jordan (Sturgeon Bay), Dale Knaak (Sheboygan), Jody Larson (Middleton), Karla Lauden (Sheboygan), Laura Lemna (Wauwatosa), Olivia Lorber (Shorewood), Stephanie Lord (Sturgeon Bay), Issis Macias (Madison), Valerie Mangion (Muscoda), Madeline Grace Martin (Milwaukee), Donna Miller (Two Rivers), Tania Nelson (Green Bay), Tracy Nickolaus (Shorewood), Tommy Nigbor (Grand View), Michael Nitsch (Egg Harbor), Britain O’Connor (Sturgeon Bay), Ahmed Obeidat (New Berlin), Brian Pirman (De Pere), David Ray (Sturgeon Bay), Patti Ray (Sturgeon Bay), Lori Jae Ricci (De Pere), Laurie Runnoe (Brookfield), Sandra Schoen (Madison), Mary Ellen Sisulak (Ellison Bay), Steven Stanger (Baileys Harbor), Carol Straubel (Egg Harbor), Abby Thiede (Sturgeon Bay), Hermke Timm (Sturgeon Bay), Sarah Vandersee (Oshkosh), Carter Voras (Milwaukee), Deborah Wage (Plover), Carleyrae Weber (Sturgeon Bay), Kathryn Wedge (Neenah), Mark Weller (Waunakee), Sara Willadsen (Sheboygan), and Stephen Wolter (Sturgeon Bay).
The exhibition will be on view in downtown Sturgeon Bay through Saturday, November 7, 2026. The Miller Art Museum is located within the Door County Library at 107 S. 4th Avenue in Sturgeon Bay. Museum hours are Monday 10 a.m.–7 p.m. and Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission is free, and an elevator provides access to all gallery levels.