July 27, 2023—The Miller Art Museum's popular Art & Treasures Fundraiser, now in its 18th year, is set to debut to the public on Saturday, August 5, 2023. The fundraiser will take place at the museum’s satellite education space M3, located at 142 S. 3rd Avenue in downtown Sturgeon Bay.
The free public event kicks off on Saturday, August 5 at 10am; fundraiser hours are Tuesday – Friday 10am – 4pm and Saturdays 9am – 1pm through August 18, 2023. Hours on Saturday, August 19 are 9am – Noon.The Art & Treasures Fundraiser presents a fun and eclectic collection of items from year to year, including new and gently used original fine art and reproductions, art-related items, objects d’ art, art supplies, books, a diverse selection of high-quality frames, household décor, vintage goods, collectibles, holiday items, fabrics, small furniture items, linens and unique oddities. All donated goods are sold by the Miller Arts Museum and proceeds support museum activities.
July 13, 2023—Miller Art Museum is pleased to debut Blind Spot — to pass among them, organized by the Museum of Wisconsin Art, and Séjour: Impressions of Giverny by Brigitte Kozma on the second floor Ruth Morton Miller Mezzanine.
Both exhibitions will be on view from July 22 - September 9, 2023. An opening reception with the exhibiting artists will be held on Friday, July 21 from 5:30 – 7pm. The reception is free and open to the public; light refreshments will be served and music will be provided by Craig Schultz and Mike Miller. The solo artist exhibition featuring the work of Wisconsin artist Suzanne Rose in the museum’s main galleries encompasses a collection of 27 large-scale photographs that explore the understated study of human folly and nature's resilience through an aesthetic influenced by pioneer photographers of the nineteenth century. The photographs resist timestamping. The lush black-and-white images are toned with a custom gradient that Rose developed by studying vintage prints. Their rounded corners, emerald-cut rectangles, and elongated oval formats are directly derived from the 1860s. Despite the influence of yesteryear, Blind Spot is resolutely of the present, gently nudging viewers toward a more thoughtful relationship with their environment.
Whereas her predecessors captured the majesty of mountains and grand vistas, Rose photographs the gentle presence of the Anthropocene in the Midwest. Blind Spot presents the subtle violence that humans commit to their environment and the quiet strength of nature. To Rose’s eye, trees suggest the human condition. Pruned to make way for telephone wires, saddled with hunting blinds, or set shoulder to shoulder with sheds, her trees exhibit the scars and imperfections associated with anthropomorphic personality. Abandoned buildings overgrown with wild vegetation demonstrate a resilient nature’s pushback.
July 7, 2023 – The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay has announced preparations for the organization’s annual Art & Treasures Fundraiser, now in its 18th year and scheduled to open to the public on Saturday, August 5, 2023. The Museum is seeking tax-deductible donations of new and gently used art and art-related items from the community to support its fundraising efforts.
The Art & Treasures Fundraiser presents a fun an eclectic collection of items from year to year, including new and gently used original fine art and reproductions, art-related items, objects d’ art, art supplies, books, a diverse selection of high-quality frames, household décor, vintage goods, collectibles, holiday items, fabrics, small furniture items, linens and unique oddities. This year’s fundraiser will again be held at M3, 142 S. 3rd Avenue in downtown Sturgeon Bay, the organization’s newly launched satellite education space.
June 28, 2023—The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay is pleased to announce Christopher T Wood as its 2023 Dome House Al & Mickey Quinlan Artist in Residence. Wood will be in residence in Door County from August 1 – September 25, 2023.
The residency, now entering its third year, is administered jointly with the Quinlan/Wagner family and carries on the original intent of the Dome House, as visioned by Al Quinlan, to serve as a creative haven for living artists. The program advances the museum’s mission to expand its role in education and to shape and influence the artistic development and growth of artists in the area. Milwaukee-based artist Christopher T Wood was selected from a pool of 24 applicants by the program’s Artist Selection Committee. In addition to being awarded an unrestricted $500 stipend, he will receive access to time, space, and resources to advance his work at the iconic Door County structure.
“I plan to immerse myself in the local environment and the character of the Dome House. As a Pataphysician I am drawn to study that which is exceptional, and the house surely is. I will listen to the stories the Dome House has to share and represent them within the tales of the supplementary universe as depicted in my ethereal powdered graphite drawings.”
By applying unique processes Wood has developed over time, he creates drawings consisting of powdered graphite and exquisite shading that form distinct creations. He plans to draw a new piece each day that will eventually become a set of drawings, each serving as an extension of the other. The drawings may overlap, enhance or repeat to further showcase the experiences felt at that particular point in time. Wood’s work has been exhibited in exhibitions around the globe.
In celebration of Expanding Perspectives by Mauree Childress and Door County Through the Eyes of Joseph Friebert and Betsy Ritz Friebert, an opening reception is scheduled for Friday, June 2 from 5:30 - 7pm. The reception is free and open to the public; music will be provided by Craig Schultz and Mike Miller and light refreshments will be served. The two new exhibitions open to the public on Saturday, June 3, 2023 at 10am.
Expanding Perspectives presents 35 artworks by Milwaukee-based artist Mauree Childress whose artwork magnifies issues of social equity for women and people living with disabilities. As a person living with a physical disability these two subjects have been, and continue to be, the focus of the artist’s sustained activism.
1. Mauree Childress, Homage Teacher, acrylic. 2. Mauree Childress, Yikes!, acrylic on dyed canvas. 3. Mauree Childress, Dreaming of the WASP, acrylic on dyed canvas.
A lifelong Wisconsinite, Childress received her degree in art education from the University of Wisconsin—La Crosse. She spent the early years of her career teaching, which preceded a 30-year period in television advertising. She went on to serve in development roles with the American Red Cross and later the Neville Public Museum Foundation in Green Bay. Now retired, she creates in her fully accessible home in Milwaukee and is actively engaged as a docent for the Milwaukee Art Museum where she contributes to Docent Learning Community workshops and Art for All, a docent committee dedicated to developing and promoting strategies and behaviors that encourage inclusivity for all visitors.
Childress’ Strong Women series, featured in the main gallery, presents paintings that highlight women who have contributed to making a difference. The series recognizes the importance of everyday women, who perform the necessary work to make our society function. From the 1942 machinist who worked in the factory during WWII to the 2021 essential worker, whose collective efforts in resilience saw the nation through the global COVID-19 pandemic, the series pays homage to the contribution of women’s work across history.
“I am interested in the everyday lives of people who push equality forward and expand our perspectives,” Childress states. “Since I was a young woman, I have been passionate about gender equality and women's rights.”
A collection of works in the west gallery on the main floor depict a variety of day-to-day experiences through the lens of people living with disabilities. These paintings invite the viewer to understand with a newly expanded perspective. The paintings are accompanied by a series of “groundscapes” that showcase the beauty and challenges of living with a mobile disability.
In 2013, Childress experienced an incomplete spinal cord injury and was paralyzed from the waist down. This forced her to transition her artistic practice from textiles, which required challenging physical ability, to painting and drawing. “Becoming disabled expanded my perspectives. I learned about the challenges of disability. I also discovered there is still value and beauty beyond, and through my artwork I portray aspects of my life. The groundscapes interpret and honor the often-overlooked precious ground we roll and walk on.”
Betsy Ritz Friebert, Man and Boats, Jacksonport, pen and ink, 1938. Joseph Friebert, Blue Landscape, gouache, 1966.