March 11, 2022—The Miller Art Museum has announced plans for the launch of a satellite education space in downtown Sturgeon Bay called M3—the three signifying the core pillars of education, engagement and exchange—which will be housed in the former Healthy Way Market space at 142 S. 3rd Avenue. The new venue will provide an active education space for the visual arts that invites engagement, conversation and creative exchange. Centrally, it will serve as a multifunctional community art space with myriad opportunities to foster creative thinking, ignite creativity, and encourage experimentation and dialogue.
“One of the challenges we face in our existing facility is the lack of appropriate space to conduct hands-on programming,” says Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead, executive director. “The addition of dedicated education staff this past fall coupled with the acquisition of adjacent space will allow the museum to build on its longstanding commitment to the visual arts and artists of our Door Peninsula community by expanding our capacity to serve.”
March 11, 2022—The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay announces it will host back-to-back events on Saturday afternoon, March 19, 2022. The museum will welcome exhibiting artists Sally Duback, Peggy Macnamara, Pamela Murphy, and Sandra Shackelford for an artist reception featuring live music by Cathy Grier from 3 – 4:30 p.m., which will follow a conversation between Curator Helen del Guidice and guest Peggy Macnamara in a new Studio Door event starting at 1:30 p.m. The events will also be streamed virtually through Facebook LIVE.
Deadline extended! Applications accepted until May 15, 2022! Learn more here.
February 25, 2022—The Miller has announced it is accepting applications for the 2022 Dome House Al & Mickey Quinlan Artist Residency. Midwest artists residing in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin can apply online at https://www.domehouseart.org/apply; the deadline to apply is Saturday, April 30, 2022.
The application-based residency invites emerging and mid-career artists to Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula to reside for an 8-week period at the iconic Dome House. The program, which is scheduled for August 15 - October 9, 2022, aims to give artists working in the fine art mediums of drawing, painting, printmaking, photography and other mediums the space and support to create work in an inspiring and unique location, in addition to providing opportunities for public access to an artist at work through supplemental programming and educational content for the community.
“Our Artist Selection Committee couldn’t have chosen more fitting artists for the launch of the program last year,” says Miller Art Museum Executive Director Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead. “Fiber artist Amy Usdin (MN) and painter Ariana Vaeth (WI), brought so much heart, dedication and professionalism to their residencies, both leaving an indelible mark on our creative community. It evidences the impact of an artist’s presence in shaping and influencing the artistic landscape and development and growth of artists in the area.”
January 7, 2022—The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay is set to unveil the first exhibition of 2022, Marine Life from Shore to Floor by Peggy Macnamara, which is scheduled to open on Saturday, January 15, 2022. The exhibition presents 35 large-scale watercolors depicting ocean life as well as behind the scenes research activities at the Field Museum, Chicago and will be on display through April 11, 2022.
Peggy Macnamara is an internationally recognized painter and has been the sole artist-in-residence at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History for the last thirty years. Macnamara has years of experience as both a naturalist artist and author and is often paired alongside scientists and conservationists to illustrate the subjects of their research.
The soon-to-be-released book, Marine Life from Shore to Floor, features the artist’s series of large-scale watercolors depicting the research of the Field’s Ocean Conservator Janet Voight, whose work takes her from coastal tidepools to deep-sea ocean basins. The paintings featured in the exhibition burst with color and depict in great detail the intricacies of the inhabitants and environs of the marine world.
Above from let to Right: Peggy Macnamara, Blue Ringed Octopus, watercolor, 2020; Peggy Macnamara, Aqua River Underwater, watercolor, 2020; Peggy Macnamara, Angler Fish, watercolor, 2020.
The Miller Art Museum is excited to host a free lecture given by Nancy Aten and Dan Collins of Landscapes of Place on Saturday December 11, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. Titled “Re-Meandering,” their talk will focus on the ecological restoration work at Crossroads at Big Creek and how it has influenced their artwork currently on display in the Museum’s Wildlife Biennial XX, which can be seen through Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021. The event will take place in the main gallery of the museum at 107 S. 4th Avenue, Sturgeon Bay; admission is free but donations are welcomed and appreciated.
"We strive for a wholeness to our lives that supports our efforts to have a restorative effect on the earth and in our community,” says Nancy Aten. “Our monotypes are inevitably about natural places we know or wild places we hope to restore. In between printing episodes, we are collecting ideas, experiences and stories we want to convey in our monotypes, and a leaf or image or grains of soil from these wild places to use or inspire us.”
Nancy Aten, PLA, ASLA, and Dan Collins, P.E., form the award-winning Landscapes of Place, an ecological restoration and conservation planning firm with projects in Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York. Nancy is a printmaker whose monotypes (unique original prints) are inevitably about natural places she knows or wild places she hopes to restore, telling the stories of her ecological restoration practice. Dan creates monotype prints an works in wire and stone that are inspired by the exuberance, grace, and raw beauty of Door County's natural places.
The presentation will also be streamed virtually live through Facebook @millerartmuseum. Photograph by Kelly Avenson / Avenson Photography.