Open Call to Visual Artists Living or Working in Wisconsin
June 25, 2021—The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay is now accepting submissions to the 46th Juried Annual, an exhibition highlighting contemporary work from the State’s visual artists.
The exhibition is open to artists at all career levels and invites a range of media and artistic practices from traditional to abstract. Artists over the age of 18 who live or work in Wisconsin are eligible to apply. Artists can register and submit work via the ArtCall platform through the Museum’s website. Artists may enter up to two (2) original works for a $30 non-refundable entry fee.
This year marks a new direction for the exhibition, a longstanding pillar of the Museum’s exhibition program, with the broadening of the geographic scope from a 6-County radius to all 72 counties throughout the state.
“By broadening the reach of eligibility, we’re inviting new visual artists to the Northeast Wisconsin region specifically and encouraging diversity in the competition, while also bringing awareness statewide to the talent of the tremendous creative community that is Door County,” says Helen del Guidice, curator of exhibitions and collections.
Eight artists will be recognized with a total of $1,950.00 presented in cash awards at the opening reception on Saturday, Sept. 25; three Special Merit Awards ($250 each), three Juror’s Choice Awards ($200 each), the Gerhard Miller Award of Excellence ($500), and the Bonnie Hartmann Award for Outstanding Creativity ($100). Submissions are being accepted online through Monday, August 16 at 5pm at ArtCall.org. Submission information, including the prospectus and link to the online submission portal, is available on the Museum’s website at millerartmuseum.org.
Artists selected for inclusion in the exhibit will be notified Wednesday, August 25. The 46th Juried Annual exhibition is scheduled to be on display in the main galleries of the museum from Saturday, September 25 through Monday, November 8, 2021.
June 3, 2021—The Miller Art Museum, located in downtown Sturgeon Bay, invites the public to participate in a Land Scouts Exploratory Walk, part of the Museum’s Second Thursday Program Series, with Katie Ries, educator and visual artist who is represented in the Museum’s newest exhibition, Factory Made: Artists Explore the Industrial Scar. Ries will lead participants on a mini excursion in and around the exterior perimeter of the museum where the basics of land scouting will be discussed and maps created based on the group’s findings. The FREE program is set for Thursday, June 10 at 10:30am. All materials will be supplied and no previous experience is required. All ages are welcomed but minors are required to be accompanied by an adult. All participants should be able to cross the street unassisted. No advance registration is required.
Katie Ries received her B.A. in Studio art (Phi Beta Kappa) from the Colorado College in 2005 and her Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in Printmaking from the University of Tennessee–Knoxville in 2010. She is an interdisciplinary artist, cultivator, and teacher living in Northeast Wisconsin where she is an Associate professor of Art at St. Norbert College in De Pere. She makes artwork about modern environmentalism, community and the power of observational drawing. Her prints, objects, drawings and events invite viewers to participate in actions of amateur naturalism and iterative making. She is the founder of the Land Scouts, a program promoting foundations of land stewardship through simple and affordable actions. Her work is represented in public and private collections throughout the United States.
May 28, 2021—The Miller Art Museum is set to unveil Factory Made: Artists Explore the Industrial Scar on Saturday, June 5. With a focus on industry’s impact on the environment as well as the ordinary citizen’s role in changes to our environment, Factory Made presents work from five distinctly different artists—Brendan Baylor, the late James Cagle, Holli Jacobson, Melissa Resch, and Katie Ries—for exploration of the complex landscape with man’s relationship to nature. The exhibition is set to run through Monday, July 19, 2021.
In the Museum’s main galleries, 17 works by printmaker Brendan Baylor of Norfolk, VA present industrial maps as they are engineered over the landscapes they effect, revealing how the landscape is used and altered by industry from both artistic and scientific points of view. In addition to the lumber industry, the production of ethanol and greenhouse gasses, as well as coal and fossil fuel emissions, are included in Baylor’s explorations.
May 14, 2020 – The Miller Art Museum is pleased to partner with the Door County Medical Center, Jacksonport Women’s Club, The Townsend Foundation, John and Kathy Campbell, Dennis and Bonnie Connolly, Mike and Barb Madden, and Carl and Ruth Scholz in presenting the 47th Annual Salon of Door County High School Art (SoHSA) exhibition. This year’s exhibition features representation from 83 Peninsula high school students and nearly 100 works in a wide variety of media from the 2020-21 academic year from all five Peninsula schools: Gibraltar, Sevastopol, Southern Door, Sturgeon Bay and Washington Island High Schools. 
Due to the varying circumstances related to COVID-19 and impact on each participating school, the exhibition will be available to the public through the museum’s website where it will reside for viewing virtually. The museum invites all—students, families, guests and the general public—to visit at www.millerartmuseum.org. The annual exhibition celebrates the artistic accomplishments of Door Peninsula youth with representation from the Southernmost party of the County all the way north to Washington Island Each year a diverse range of ideas and concepts emerge from this collaborative exhibition. “We are both excited and honored to partner with our community and local art educators in this capacity to share the creative work of Door County’s talented young artists,” says Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead, Miller Art Museum executive director.
April 29, 2021 — The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay is pleased to present, in collaboration with Jodi Rose Studio and participating partners, Home Grown. The 6-foot-wide public art project is featured alongside Mike & Schomer: Cows, Color and Camaraderie and is a grass roots response to the cancellation of much-needed summer youth programming during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. The piece is scheduled to be on display through Saturday, May 29, 2021. In conjunction with the public art display, the Museum’s Second Thursday Program on May 13 at 3pm will feature Jodi Rose Studio presenting Scribble Draw!, a virtual workshop focusing on fostering one’s inherent creativity.
Home Grown evolved from a consortium of mental health providers from Door County Health and Human Services and the United Way of Door County, including members of the Door County Mental Health Focus Group, STRIDE and STRIDE Creative. It simultaneously addressed questions such as What is our response to the pandemic? and Can we make a group-created artwork while social distancing? Further, participants were asked to consider How can the public interact with the completed piece? and Can we design and complete our piece in just a few weeks’ time?