Regional Coordinator responsibilities: 

• Manage communications between WRAP Central (in Madison) and their Regional WRAP 
• Interact with participating artists and help them through the WRAP process 
• Find an artist to act as Workshop Facilitator, and find a Juror 
• Coordinate the WRAP (choosing entry deadline, art drop-off time and location, exhibition and workshop dates) 
• Spread the word locally (word of mouth, emails, distribute posters provided by WRAP Central) 
• Report stats back to WRAP Central after your workshop 

WRAP Central provides a Coordinator Toolkit online, sends email updates, and checklists 12, 6, and 2 weeks in advance of your workshop, creates and sends posters and award cards, and does email outreach to libraries local to your WRAP. If you are interested in becoming a WRAP Regional Coordinator, please email wrap@dcs.wisc.edu or angela.johnson@wisc.edu.

Follow this link to find information regarding all upcoming WRAP Exhibitions!
https://continuingstudies.wisc.edu/conferences/wisconsin-regional-art-program/wrap-schedule/

Reach the team by email at wrap@dcs.wisc.edu or by phone at (608) 262-4911 ​

Wisconsin weather has decided to stabilize finally, leaving us with warm days, sunny afternoons, and chill nights. Why not add a little art to the mix? Here are a few listings of events happening in Wisconsin that could be of interest to WRAP participants!

- 2019 Art & Chalk Fest: July 27-28, Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend

- Art at the Park: July 28, Trout Museum of Art, Appleton

- Waukesha Art Crawl: August 3, Waukesha

- Starving Artist Fair: August 4, Gateway Technical College, Racine

​Looking to spend your leisure time exploring Wisconsin art museums? Here are some of Wisconsin's best art museums with their current exhibits!

​- Chazen Museum of Art: "In the Studio focuses attention on the artist’s studio, and the unique environments in which artists do their work. The objects on view are selected from across the museum’s collection, and draw connections and inevitable comparisons between artists of different times, cultures, and media". It will run until August 11

https://www.chazen.wisc.edu/

- Museum of Wisconsin Art: "2019 Member's Show showcases works by 250 MOWA members hanging salon style in the State Gallery. With work by professional artists and weekend warriors installed on equal footing, this exhibition offers an invaluable look into the creative vision of contemporary Wisconsin art."

https://wisconsinart.org/exhibitions/current.aspx

- Racine Art Museum: "Represent: Exploring Portraits from RAM's Collection features pieces that embrace the idea of a portrait as an investigation of character and situation, tangible details, and abstract elements. From self-portraits to works that encapsulate the essence of a subject through metaphor or emotion, these works encourage contemplation about how human beings understand one another as well as the world around them."

https://www.ramart.org/content/represent-exploring-portraits-rams-collection

​- Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum: "Flora, Fauna, Font: Illustrating the Alphabet features Kandis Vermeer Phillips’ illuminated alphabet intertwined with plants, mammals, and insects. Phillips integrated extensive research into the history of and the natural materials used in medieval illuminated manuscripts into an alphabet primer for her granddaughter, combining decorative letters with representations of flowers and creatures found in her garden or during family travels."

https://www.lywam.org/exhibition/flora-fauna-font-illustrating-the-alphabet/

Hello all 2019 State Day Exhibition participants! There will additional drop-off dates at the Center for Visual Arts in Wausau.
Times: Saturday, July 27 from noon to 4 pm or Sunday, July 28 from noon to 4 pm
The artwork will be transported to the Pyle Center for you.

If you have any questions regarding 2019 State Day Conference and Exhibition participation, feel free to email wrap@dcs.wisc.edu with your inquiry. If you would like to volunteer with art drop-off or hanging the pieces, please reach out as well! Thanks much and we look forward to seeing you there!

The annual Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account reported that Wisconsin's arts and cultural production accounts for $9.75 billion of the Wisconsin economy. That is around 3.1% of the state's cumulative economy. The arts and cultural production industries support around 94, 167 jobs, creating $5.6 billion in compensation for creative workers.

Interesting enough, the creative industry employs more Wisconsinites than Wisconsin’s beer jobs (63,000), biotech (35,000) and papermaking (31,000) industries, reported Arts Wisconsin. Arts Wisconsin is "Wisconsin’s community cultural development organization, the only independent statewide organization speaking up and working for the arts, arts education, creative economy, and creative placemaking in every corner of Wisconsin" (Arts Wisconsin website).

“The takeaway is that the creative industry, which ranges from nonprofit organizations to design firms to TV stations, is a force to be reckoned with,” said Anne Katz, director of Arts Wisconsin. “To succeed in the 21st century, Wisconsin needs diversity in its economy. Hopefully, we will continue to be a strong manufacturing and agriculture state, but also a very creative state. We want to make sure that our decision makers know this and that people pay attention that it’s a sector worthy of investment.”

According to the study, Wisconsin’s top five creative and arts industries, measured by the value they add to the economy, are: printed goods manufacturing, other goods manufacturing, custom architectural woodwork and metalwork manufacturing, publishing and construction.

With the volatile nature of our state's economy, Katz maintains taht she's encouraged to see a growing awareness of "creativity as a resource".

Source: https://www.biztimes.com/2019/industries/arts-entertainment-sports/study-wisconsins-creative-industries-have-9-7-billion-annual-impact/

Arts Wisconsin website: https://www.artswisconsin.org/
​

​The new piece of sculptural eye candy at the bottom of State Street intersecting Library Mall features sprawling stainless steel panels and a cut out which resembles the sun. The panels have incisions that mimic the movement of shadows. Deliberately, this piece was oriented towards the vernal and autumnal equinox. At night, the piece illuminates with LED lights to catch the gaze of all walking past. 

“Both/And — Tolerance/Innovation” was completed by David Dahlquist and Matt Niebuhr of RDG Dahlquist Studio in Des Moines, Iowa. Dahlquist, his son, and daughter are all alumni of UW. He received an undergraduate degree in arts education here.

“Matt Niebuhr and I have been a public artist team for many years, and we work all over the country and in Canada,” says Dahlquist. “Matt is not only a visual artist; he is an architect, so our experience and expertise come together on projects like this.”

Dahlquist and Niebuhr have been a team for years, working all over North America. Both are visual artists, but Niebuhr is also an architect, which is beneficial in a project like this that deals with city planning, etc. 

Both artists try to focus on story, structure, and site in their sculptural installations. Many hours were put in to photographing the space, walking around and surveying the traffic flow of students and people moving around State Street and Library Mall. “It is uniquely situated,” Dahlquist says of the sculpture, explaining  that the title is about the acceptance of many ideas. This idea is reflected in the space which it sits within, as the site is surrounded by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Memorial Library and three different churches. “It’s really, I think in some ways, what a university is about,” Dahlquist proclaims.

https://isthmus.com/arts/visual-arts/tolerance-innovation-sculpture-state-street/

Over the weekend, I was able to visit the Museum of Wisconsin Art for the first time. Currently, they are showing “Among the Wonder of the Dells”, a retrospective exhibition following photography of Wisconsin’s very own “water park capital of the world”. The photography spans the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, using eight different artist’s perspectives to portray the vastly different aspects of tourism in the Dells, shedding light on how humans have shaped the Dells with their versions of relaxation and travel over the decades.

The photographers featured are H.H. Bennett and studio, Leroy J. Gates, John A. Trumble, Dennis Darmek, and three contemporary photographers commissioned by MOWA; Mark Brautigam, Tom Jones, and Kevin J. Miyazaki.

H.H. Bennett (1843-1908) was one of the firsts to photograph the Dells. He was innovative; he created his own cameras, printing presses, stop-action shutter and other necessary equipment. LAter in life, he started to hand-tint his photographs to further bring them to life. His  photography studio was kept within the family until the late twentieth century. Leroy J. Gates (1831-1895) utilized the cartes-de-visite method of photography production, which allows the photographer to expose up to eight images on a single glass plate negative that could be cut out and mounted on cards. This sort of created a trading card economy for family and friends in the Dells at the second half of the nineteenth century.

John A. Trumble was always drawn to the Dells. He grew up around the area. Many of his photographs focus on the geology and Native American ancestry of the Dells, which are fundamental to the iconography of the tourist area. His photos evoke mom-and-pop nostalgia for many. Dennis Darmek started photographing his wife swimming at the start of their relationship in 1979. He focuses on the appeal of aquatic adventure and recreation, which has come to shape the Dells in last decades of the twentieth century.

Tom Jones, one of the MOWA commissioned artists, is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. The Ho-Chunk have strong connections to the Dells, and Jones plays on this connection through his photographs. He seeks to display the indomitable spirit of his tribe and their never-ending, important presence in the Dells. Mark Brautigam, another commissioned MOWA photographer, oscillate between people and place. Brautigam has described them as a “more than a pause than an exclamation point”. The tranquility of his photographs comes across, which is in stark contrast to the bustling nature of waterparks. The final commissioned photographer, Kevin J. Miyazaki, set up his studio within H.H. Bennett’s old space. He invited people who walked by to have their portraits taken, and encouraged them not to smile to honor the old tradition of portraits in early history, as one did not have their picture taken constantly.

​

Information will be sent out in the coming weeks regarding the 2019 State Day Conference and Exhibition being held in Madison at the Pyle Center. We appreciate you all for being so patient with us as we pull together all of this information!

Angela Johnson, WRAP Director, and myself (Abi Case, student assistant to WRAP Director) had the opportunity to take a tour through the newest temporary exhibit at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. It is titled “In My Spare Moments: The Art of Harold Schmitz” and curated by Yvette Pino, whom gave us the tour.

Yvette Pino spent the last three years researching and planning this exhibit. Along with working at the Veterans Museum, Yvette is apart of the Veteran Art Movement, “a decentralized network of veterans and service members committed to making art and using creative practices to transform themselves and a society grappling with endless war, militarism and dehumanization.” She is a practicing print and painting artist, whose most recent work involves the examination Native American imagery themes while trying to reinterpret them through Illuminated Manuscript appropriation. Yvette constructs her artistic pieces from “experiences in Iraq as a deployed soldier and overlap with symbols of her [my] Catholic upbringing in New Mexico”. Here is a link to her personal website: http://yvettempino.com/ and the Veteran Art Movement’s page: https://www.veteran-art-movement.net/

Harold Schmitz was a World War II veteran from Milwaukee. He attended the Layton School of Art (now the Milwaukee Institute of Design and Art) from 1934-1937 to study advertisement design. After graduation, he was employed by the Hammersmith-Kortmeyer Company, an engraving and printing agency. Because of his experience with printmaking, he was hand selected as a topographical draftsmen in the South Pacific, specifically New Caledonia. He started his service in November of 1942, and began to paint the landscape of Noumea Harbor with colored pencils and graphite. In his words, these were the most practical mediums. As time passes, his fascination with the surroundings subsidizes and many of his drawings emulate Hollywood magazine illustration styles. Harold Schmitz’s art reflects a different side of conflict, one that oscillates between personal art production and mandated service. In his spare moments, he was able to shine light on his life on service.

We touched on the Wisconsin Idea while on our tour. Yvette said “Wisconsin artists and veterans are able to go to that experience, which is global conflict, document it, bring it back and communicate it to the community.” Through the implementation of the G. I. Bill, veterans are able to go back to school and become instructors, teachers, professors. Yvette emphasizes the “impetus to serve” that returning veterans feel for their community. They have encountered a breadth of life many haven’t, and search for a way to process their experience through service to the community. Yvette mentions specifically the Veteran Print Project, which pairs veterans with printmakers to exchange a dialogue that will result in an edition of prints made based off of the conversation. They have collaborated with Combat Paper which takes material from uniforms, breaks it down, and processes it to paper for use. 

Link to their website: http://veteranprintproject.com/

“In My Spare Moments: The Art of Harold Schmitz” will be open until summer of 2020. The Wisconsin Veterans Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 9:00 am to 4:30 pm, and Sunday (April-September) 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm. The address is 30 W. Mifflin St., Madison, WI 53703. Their phone is 608-267-1799.

Again, thanks to Yvette Pino and Karen Burch for the awesome tour and information! Make sure to check it out.

WRAP operates under UW-Madison's Division of Continuing Studies, which also offers a plethora of opportunities to be creative! Listed below are some of the art classes being held this summer:
​
- Drawing Fundamentals: Classical Approach: 6 weeks, Tuesdays, June 25-July 30, 7:15 pm to 9:45 pm, $165

- Drawing on Nature: Vignettes in Scientific Illustration: 5 weeks, Tuesdays, June 4-July 2, 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm, $155

- Painting with Acrylics: What I Wish I Knew at the Beginning: 8 weeks, Thursdays, June 13-August 1, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, $210

- Papermaking: A Transformative Art Process: 6 weeks, Sundays, May 19-June 23, 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, $195

- And not to mention... WRAP Regional Workshops! $30, check out our website for more specific information

A lot of times, the question “What happens at WRAP workshops?” is posed. This past weekend, the Madison workshop occurred which provides a great opportunity to detail the inner workings of a workshop day. Here is a typical workshop schedule:

8:45 am – 9:45 am: Registration and viewing the exhibit

9:45 am – 11:00 am: Presentation by workshop speaker/judge

11:00 am – 12:00 pm: Morning critique session

12:00 pm – 1:15 pm: Lunch time

1:15 pm – 3:30 pm: Afternoon critiques

3:30 pm: End of the workshop

On our website, https://continuingstudies.wisc.edu/conferences/wisconsin-regional-art-program/, we have started to include the regional Honorable Mention and State Award winners on a tab on the far left side of the site. This will act as an archive for upcoming WRAP workshops. We plan on starting with this year, and carrying on for many to come.

Mary Betzenderfer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota but lived in Wisconsin for a majority of her life. Throughout her childhood, she entertained herself with music and painting. She graduated from the University of Iowa in occupational therapy, but continued to continued to study art and emphasized her focus on portraits. Betzenderfer has been noted for a style that reflects light and color in floral landscapes and wildlife depictions. ​

Regional Coordinator responsibilities:

- Manage communications between WRAP Central (in Madison) and their Regional WRAP
- Interact with participating artists and help them through the WRAP process
- Find an artist to act as Workshop Facilitator, and find a Juror
- Coordinate the WRAP (choosing entry deadline, art drop-off time and location, exhibition and workshop       dates)
- Spread the word locally (word of mouth, emails, distribute posters provided by WRAP Central)
- Report stats back to WRAP Central after your workshop

WRAP Central provides a Coordinator Toolkit online, sends email updates and checklists 12, 6, and 2 weeks in advance of your workshop, creates and sends posters and award cards, and does email outreach to libraries local to your WRAP. If you are interested in becoming a WRAP Regional Coordinator, please email wrap@dcs.wisc.edu or angela.johnson@wisc.edu.

Reach the team by email at wrap@dcs.wisc.edu or by phone at (608) 262-4911!

February is Black History Month, a time to pay tribute to generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve fully accepted citizenship in American society. Black History Month began as Negro History Week, it was only a week long in February which coincided with Frederick Douglass's and Abraham Lincoln's birth dates. Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard-educated historian is credited with the creation of Negro History Week. In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford expanded the week into a month, to "seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” 

Throughout history, art serves as a communicative tool to express injustices, culture, and ideas. Many times when words are not heard, art is seen. This proves true for Milwaukee artist, Della Wells. Wells struggled to process certain aspects from her youth, a schizophrenic mother and stern father. When she was 18 or 19, she sat at a bus stop across from The Gallery Toward the Black Aesthetic at 4th and Garfield. She peered in the windows for weeks and finally entered when someone invited her in. Her eyes were open to the world of art. This was her first exposure to black and female artists. 

Wells has been working to return the favor her whole life- educating people on the history of African-American art in Milwaukee, and throughout Wisconsin. Many of the great galleries, publications, and meeting places of the Black Art Movement did not persist like in other cities. Wells actively works to unearth and educate people on the thriving artist community and remind them that it still exists. 

Wells has since had her pieces purchased by the Smithsonian and participated in major art fairs such as the Kentuck Festival of the Arts, had gallery representation, and collaborated on a play inspired by her life. 

Celebrating Black History Month, through many mediums such as art, serves as a way to remind everyone that black history is our collective history. It is important to honor and preserve African American art and learn about African American history which is the heartbeat of American history.

Make sure to check out your local museums, libraries, and community centers to see how they are celebrating Black History Month.

Reach the team by email at wrap@dcs.wisc.edu or by phone at (608) 262-4911

 The Madison office will focus on the three following initiatives working towards a creative and focused 79th year of WRAP.
 
1. Build capacity for more participants to attend WRAP workshops and state day/s, spread awareness of this rich and historic program and work to diversify participants.
Here are a few ways we are doing this:

• Continue with our quarterly newsletter, Facebook page, and blog
• Grow new WRAP programs (3 new potential WRAP regional sites in the works for 2020)
• Looking to foster relationships in areas of the state that do not currently have WRAP’s and make connections with local art clubs and organizations
• Ongoing outreach to UW system schools for students to learn about WRAP
• Ongoing outreach to branch libraries to promote regional workshops specific to their regions
• Partner with the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences Arts and Letters who put out the quarterly Wisconsin People and Ideas magazine – a box of complimentary  magazines will be sent to each regional site before each workshop to be passed out to participants. The magazine shares articles and stories that embody the Wisconsin Idea around our state including articles on mid-career artists and photo journal essays
• Partner with Arts Wisconsin to have visibility and a table at the annual Arts Day event in Madison
• Conversation with the Chazen about having docent led tours during state day that highlight the work of John Steuart Curry and Aaron Bohrod in their permanent collection

 
Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/WisconsinRegionalArts/) and share arts news you find interesting. Your word of mouth is our most productive outreach!
 
2. Support regional coordinators with small changes to website to navigate how the toolkit can be best utilized.

• I have been scheduling phone and some in person conversations with coordinators to find out from their standpoint what is going well, what can be improved and suggestions for how that might be accomplished
• Small changes coming in the next few months to the website to the coordinator toolkit -  make it more intuitive and user friendly. Perhaps a short video/s that live in the toolkit and condensing some of the PDF’s

 
3. Work to make the WRAP permanent collection more visible
Did you know we have a fantastic permanent collection that was started by John Steuart Curry almost 80 years ago? Many of the pieces are currently on view in the Continuing Studies building on campus. We are looking to:

• Formally organize the space that permanent collection (not currently on view) lives in

(possibly storage space on casters)

• Researching possible venues in which to showcase the work
• Requested a Service Learning in Art student from UW-Madison to work with us this semester to help move initiative #3 along

​Regional Coordinator responsibilities:
​

• Manage communications between WRAP Central (in Madison) and their Regional WRAP
• Interact with participating artists and help them through the WRAP process
• Find an artist to act as Workshop Facilitator, and find a Juror
• Coordinate the WRAP (choosing entry deadline, art drop-off time and location, exhibition and workshop dates)
• Spread the word locally (word of mouth, emails, distribute posters provided by WRAP Central)
• Report stats back to WRAP Central after your workshop

WRAP Central provides a Coordinator Toolkit online, sends email updates and checklists 12, 6, and 2 weeks in advance of your workshop, creates and sends posters and award cards, and does email outreach to libraries local to your WRAP. If you are interested in becoming a WRAP Regional Coordinator, please email wrap@dcs.wisc.edu or angela.johnson@wisc.edu.

Reach the team by email at wrap@dcs.wisc.edu or by phone at (608) 262-4911

- Over 200 State Awards given by 23 judges representing 23 regions.

- 174 artworks In this exhibition, 60 first time State Award winners.

- Eight WRAPs held in established art centers.

- Youngest WRAP: Barron hosted by new art Professor new to Wisconsin!
                   
- Oldest WRAP: Wautoma celebrated 70 years with a presentation including Maryo Gard Ewell, community arts leader, and me.   
​                                            

WRAP dove into our permanent collection, located on the 7th floor of 21 N. Park Street to find a piece by celebrated artist, Lois Ireland. This piece titled “Morning Glory” was completed in 1948. Ireland was born in 1928 in Waunakee, a rural community north of Madison. She graduated in 1947 and subsequently enrolled in the art program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Two years later, she moved to New York to study at the Art Students’ League. In 1950, she returned to Wisconsin to recommence painting the American landscape in her regionalist style. She went on to marry and have two sons, which she raised in Oconomowoc.
 
When Ireland was a teen, John Steuart Curry was the artist-in-residence at UW. A neighbor of Lois encouraged her to set up an interview with Curry. With his guidance, she became fond of oil painting, her favorite medium. Ireland acknowledges Curry’s paintings “Line Storm” and “The Tornado” made a great impact on her painting style and livened her technique. He also led her to the newly-formed Wisconsin Regional Art Program. Her other inspirations include the likes of Grant Wood, Peter Hurd, and Thomas Benton.
 
Her subject matter mostly depicts nostalgic rural Wisconsin life; the land, the people, and the vast farming country around her hometown of Waunakee. Ireland’s first showing was in 1943 at the Rural Art Exhibit. In 1944, the Wisconsin Salon accepted a portrait of her mother for its annual exhibit. Since then she has exhibited in the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend, the Wisconsin State Historical Society in Madison, and the Milwaukee Art Institute. Throughout her long illustrious career, Ireland has stayed true to regionalism style of remembered Wisconsin country sides.

 
Read more >>
https://www.wisconsinregionalarts.org/blog/spring-2018-newsletter6315575/
​

​It is a great pleasure to announce to our WRAP community, these staff changes. I am incredibly grateful for my time working with WRAP and WRAA, the relationships built, the encouraging stories I’ve heard and the beautiful art I’ve seen. I am ready to move on to my next adventure in life. I have been assured that our Division of Continuing Studies embraces the strength of WRAP. Because of that, we have hired Angela Johnson as the next Director of the Wisconsin Regional Art Program. I am confident in passing the torch to Angela and know she will continue to foster positive interactions through WRAP.

​Abigail Case, our new student assistant, joined the WRAP team in August 2018. She is in her sophomore year at UW-Madison, expecting to graduate with a double major in Anthropology and Art History, as well as a certificate in German. Her ideal line of work would be curation within an art museum, but she is overall interested in many aspects of history. Outside of school and work, her interests include old films, listening to music, joking around with her friends, and working in the Wisconsin Union galleries. Not to mention, she is a connoisseur of poutine (a French-Canadian dish consisting of french fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy) in the Madison area. She participates in the student organization run through the Chazen and the Art History Society advised by the Art History department on campus.
 
Beyond volunteering for student organizations, this is Abigail’s first exposure to a position within arts administration. She could not be more excited! On Tuesdays and Thursdays she works closely with Liese and Alli, assisting with public outreach, administrative tasks, communications with Regional Coordinators, social media updates, and WRAP promotion. Her main professional goal in working with WRAP is to increase awareness of the amazing artists within Wisconsin!
 
She had the privilege of working the State Day Conference and found the event to be very formative and powerful. Artist’s testaments to the outlet WRAP provides solidified her reason for joining the program. During lunch, she had the chance to meet some talented artists and create relationships that furthered her understanding of the creative process of making art. Overall, Abigail is eager to continue working with artists and the Wisconsin Regional Art Program to provide the same experience for others. 

Find us all at wrap@dcs.wisc.edu. Now we have a general mailbox that goes straight to everyone at once!