September 17, 2021—The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay is set to unveil its 46th Juried Annual to the public on Saturday, September 25, 2021. This year’s exhibition features 71 works from 61 artists residing regionally across the state of Wisconsin. It will open with a scaled-back in-person opening reception due to COVID-19 on Saturday, September 25 from 5 – 6:30pm with remarks and awards scheduled for 6:00pm. The 46th Juried Annual will be on view through November 8, 2021.
In continuation of this revered tradition, the Miller Art Museum is proud to present this year’s selections, which represents contemporary two-dimensional work from regional artists in a broad array of media, subjects and styles. Each submission was carefully evaluated and selections were made by a jurors Patrick Smith, Exhibitions Preparator at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Terri Warpinski, Professor Emerita of Art at the University of Oregon of De Pere, WI; and Artist and Educator Leslie Iwai from Middleton, WI.
Juror Warpinski states, “When viewing art, just as in reading a new book, seeing live theater, or even cooking a new recipe, I am most excited by when I am provoked to learn something, or have an encounter that is new and expected. There was much of that to take pleasure in when jurying this show. I was confronted with work that rose above my expectations, work that challenged my ideas about processes and materials, and most importantly, work that provoked me to think anew.”
2021 marks the first year that artists from across the state were eligible to submit work. The increased number of works will be displayed as a full museum exhibition in both the main galleries on the lower level of the museum as well as on the second floor Ruth Morton Miller Mezzanine.
September 3, 2021—The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay is pleased to host concert pianist Jodie DeSalvo on Friday evening, September 17. DeSalvo will take center stage on the Museum’s stunning Mason and Hamlin grand piano in an evening that will feature classical pieces, including Clair de Lune, Malagueña and Rhapsody in Blue. The concert is scheduled for 7pm with free will donations accepted at intermission.
Jodie DeSalvo has been a Birch Creek faculty member for over 20 years and has captured national and international attention with her classical and jazz interpretations of the masters of keyboard literature. Upon winning the Artist International Competition in 1988, Ms. DeSalvo made her Carnegie Hall debut to critical acclaim with an encore performance two years later at Lincoln Center.
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10:30 am Program
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6:00 pm Program
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August 27, 2021—The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay is pleased to present a set of free discussions featuring Dustin Renwick, Story Content Editor for National Geographic Partners and Erika Skogg, Explorer with National Geographic on Thursday, September 9. The two-part series, part of the Museum’s Second Thursday Educational Program, is scheduled to take place at 10:30am and 6pm in the main gallery of the Miller Art Museum. In addition to the in-person programming, both events will be available virtually via the Zoom and are free and open to the public.
In the first program, Renwick will discuss his journey into the National Geographic archives to discover a series of never before published 1933 photographs by journalist Maynard Owen Williams, which focuses on Door County’s Cherryland agritourism.
The second of the 2-part program will feature Renwick giving attendees a behind the scenes view of his role as a National Geographic Storyteller, exploring how his career has developed, and how visual storytelling has evolved. Renwick will be accompanied by Erika Skogg where she will share details of her career and path and journey to a National Geographic Explorer.
July 30, 2021—The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay announced today the selection of two visual artists for its inaugural year of the Dome House Al & Mickey Quinlan Artist Residency, set to kick-off later this month. The residency program, administered jointly with the Quinlan/Wagner family, seeks to re-establish the Dome House, as it was originally intended by Al Quinlan, as a creative haven for living artists and 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. Minnesota-based artist Amy Usdin 
and Milwaukee-based artist Ariana Vaeth were selected from a pool of nearly 30 applicants by the program’s Artist Selection Committee. In addition to being awarded an unrestricted $500 stipend, each artist will receive access to time, space and resources to advance their work at the iconic Door County structure.
“The two distinctly different visual artists exemplify what we were looking for and are reflective in some aspect of the history of the Whitefish Bay community or of Quinlan’s artistic practices,” says Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead, executive director of the Miller Art Museum. “As difficult as it was to narrow the broad and diverse applicant pool, what emerged in the selection process was rather serendipitous, revealing unexpected connections to place. We’re thrilled to welcome these artists to our Door County community and we look forward to sharing more details of this exciting new endeavor with the community in the coming weeks.”
The application-based program invites mid-career level Midwest artists to Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula to reside for a 6-week period at the 5,073-square-foot Dome House and allows artists to focus in the areas of creative development, fellowship, sense of place, learning and community.
2021 DOME HOUSE AL & MICKEY QUINLAN ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
Amy Usdin is a Twin-Cities-based fiber artist. She reclaims vintage fiber nets as armatures for sculptures that speak to memory, nostalgia and the meaning of objects. She exhibits regionally and nationally with recognition including the 2019 Surface Design Award from the Surface Design Association’s International Exhibition in Print and a 2020 Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Most recently, her work has been featured as curatorial selections for online artist interviews with warp and weft magazine and through-objects.com.
Ariana Vaeth is a Milwaukee-based artist whose work is focused on contemporary realism through the self-portrait. Raised in Baltimore, MD, the artist is a Graduate of MIAD (Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design) and fulfilled an exchange program at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Following undergrad, she completed a studio-based Artist in Residence program at her alma mater. Vaeth has shown in Milwaukee at the Portrait Society Gallery, the Charles Allis Museum, and Haggerty Museum of Art as well as Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, and the Museum of Science and Industry for ‘Black Creativity.’ She is a 2017 Mary L Nohl Fellow in the Emerging Artist category and was an inaugural recipient of Fellowship.art, a grant and 12-week program modeled on Gener8tor’s recognized accelerator for creative entrepreneurs.
The Door County landscape has long inspired artists of all disciplines visiting or residing on the Peninsula. The Miller Art Museum’s permanent collection reflects this history with the nearly 1,500 works it holds, comprised of many of Door County’s most celebrated artists, past and present. Its new Dome House Al & Mickey Quinlan Artist Residency seeks to further broaden this scope and allow a new generation of artists to discover and immerse themselves in the amazing creative playground that is the Door Peninsula.
July 16, 2021—The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay is pleased to partner with Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant in presenting Scandinavian American: Photography by National Geographic Explorer Erika Skogg. The exhibition is scheduled to open to the public on Saturday, July 24 at 10am and an in-person opening reception will be held from 5 – 6:30pm. The event marks the Miller’s first opening reception since the pandemic began in early 2020.
Scandinavian American is a photographic essay comprised of 24 photographs by Door County, WI, born National Geographic Explorer Erika Skogg. The photographs depict the lifestyle, celebrations and ethnic traditions of Scandinavian-American communities taken throughout the Midwest to visually preserve Scandinavian-American culture; a project funded by the National Geographic Society.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity for the museum and the Door County community to come together, celebrate and learn about Scandinavian culture,” says Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead, executive director. “We have so much gratitude for all who have helped realize the exhibition, especially Door County’s most legendary Scandinavian icon, Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant, and have no doubt that visitors will connect to Erika’s images in a very personal way, given our deep Scandinavian roots.”
Together with the Scandinavian imagery, the exhibition also features 14 photographs from Skogg’s extensive travel collections, including images from Morocco, Norway, Germany, Cuba, Colombia, and 8 images depicting Door County’s 1933 Cherryland agritourism by National Geographic Photographer Maynard Owen Williams. The Miller Art Museum was granted permission from the National Geographic archives to publish and exhibit Williams’ images, never before published and never before been seen by the public.