Young Artists, Big Ideas: A Celebration of Student Creativity in Downtown Sturgeon Bay
April 18, 2025 – The Miller Art Museum proudly announced the student award recipients of the 51st Annual Salon of Door County High School Art during a free public reception held on April 7, 2025. The celebratory event recognized the creative accomplishments of young artists ages 14 – 18 years from all five Door County high schools: Gibraltar, Sevastopol, Southern Door, Sturgeon Bay, and Washington Island.
Certificates of Participation were presented to all student artists by their respective art teachers, honoring the creativity demonstrated across the nearly 150 works on view. Certificates of Excellence, Honorable Mention awards, and the Rericha Legacy Award were presented by Executive Director Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead during the event, all highlighting outstanding artistic achievement.
Image credit left to right: Ombeline Finck, Untitled, charcoal (GHS, grade 12); Rowan Ploor, Rabbit, mixed media (SBHS, grade 10), Anna Massart, Dancing in the Kitchen, mixed media (SDHS, grade 11); Corbin Kellerman, Lines, acrylic (WIHS, grade 10), and Angeni Herula, XXX Tentacion, oil pastel (GHS, grade 11).
March 29, 2025 – The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay is excited to announce the opening of its 51st Annual Salon of Door County High School Art, a vibrant showcase of creative expression from Door County’s talented young artists. This favorite annual exhibition opens to the public on Saturday, April 5, 2025, with a celebratory reception honoring the young artists on Monday, April 7, from 7:00 – 8:30 PM at the museum, located inside the Door County Library in Sturgeon Bay.
The annual exhibition, the Miller Art Museum’s longest-running exhibit, this year features the work of 114 young artists from schools on the Door Peninsula. Working with their art teachers, the students demonstrate creativity, enthusiasm, and technical ability across diverse media, ranging from painting to sculpture, drawing, and photography. This year’s exhibit will feature 122 pieces from students attending Gibraltar, Sevastopol, Southern Door, Sturgeon Bay, and Washington Island High Schools.
February 20, 2025—The Miller Art Museum is honored to announce that it has been awarded a Creation and Presentation grant in the amount of $3,000 from the Wisconsin Arts Board for the fiscal year 2025. The grant program provides artistic program and operational support to established nonprofit arts organizations whose primary mission is to create or present ongoing arts programming that significantly impacts the cultural life of Wisconsin.
The Creation and Presentation Program is designed to sustain the vitality of Wisconsin's arts sector by supporting organizations that demonstrate strong operations, stable management, and high artistic quality. By investing in these institutions, the Wisconsin Arts Board ensures that communities across the state have access to enriching artistic experiences.
“The visual arts are essential to a thriving, healthy, and vibrant community,” said Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead, executive director. “This grant supports our vital programming and contributes to ensuring the visual arts and the creative history of the Peninsula remain a vital part of our lives here in Door County. We are incredibly grateful for the support, which strengthens our ability to connect artists and community.”
February 14, 2025—The Miller Art Museum is excited to host a special literary event and artist reception featuring award-winning illustrator and author Aaron Boyd on Friday, February 28, 2025. The evening will feature a book reading by the author at 4:00 PM, followed by an artist reception from 5 – 7 PM with light refreshments and music, where visitors will have the opportunity to meet Boyd, and view the original illustrations from his latest book in the Miller Art Museum’s current exhibition, Giving Good: The Art of Illustration by Aaron Boyd. The event is free and open to the public. The exhibition will be on display in downtown Sturgeon Bay through March 29, 2025, and features 32 original works from the book that inspired the exhibit, Giving Good, and 14 additional works that reach into the artist’s 31-year career as a professional illustrator.
Aaron Boyd, a Milwaukee-based artist, has illustrated over 40 books for children, celebrated for their rich storytelling, vibrant imagery, and ability to capture the cultural experiences of diverse communities. His latest work, Giving Good, is a heartwarming story for readers of all ages about a father-son relationship navigating the challenges of parental separation, where the father, despite difficulties, consistently tries to provide love and support to his son, demonstrating a persistent act of "giving good" even in the face of difficulty.
“I do believe Giving Good has a purpose. To give what it says, “Give Good.” We can all do this,” says Boyd.
Aaron Boyd brings the themes of kindness, human connection, and love to life with depth and emotion. In addition to viewing more than 40 original illustrations, visitors can explore the process the artist often utilizes to test colors, textures, and values in his work through an interactive installation, which are a fusion of mixed media techniques, blending of watercolor, collaged paper, textiles, oil pastels, and found objects.
Honoring artistic excellence and community connection through dual exhibitions
January 17, 2025—The Miller Art Museum is excited to announce its first exhibition of the organization’s 50th anniversary year, Giving Good: The Art of Illustration by Aaron Boyd, opening on Saturday, January 25, 2025. Featured alongside Giving Good on the Ruth Morton Miller Mezzanine will be Malin Ekman in the Permanent Collection, an installation featuring work by Marlene (Malin) "Tudy" Ekman, a female Door County artist celebrated for her evocative illustrations in pencil and watercolor. The exhibits open to the public at 10 am on Saturday, January 25, 2025, and will be on view through March 29, 2025. A free artist reception with author/illustrator Aaron Boyd will be held on Fri., February 28, 2025.
Giving Good, an exhibition celebrating the beauty of human connection and cultural diversity, features Wisconsin artist Aaron Boyd’s vibrant and evocative mixed-media illustrations––a fusion of mixed media techniques, blending of watercolor, collaged paper, textiles, oil pastels, and found objects. Visitors will discover the artist’s lifelong passion for storytelling and his commitment to representing the diverse experiences of the world around him.