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.

 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!

Conference Dates
Deadline to Confirm Conference Attendance: Sep 7, 2018
State Day Conference: Sep 21‑22, 2018
Pyle Center: 702 Langdon St, Madison, WI 53706

Exhibition Dates
2018 Annual Art Exhibition: Aug 17‑Sep 22, 2018
Enjoy viewing State Award winners curated by arts professionals from 23 Regional competitions.

The Wisconsin Regional Art Program (WRAP) and Wisconsin Regional Artist Association (WRAA) jointly invite you to the State Day Conference which celebrates Wisconsin art, artists, and a year of regional exhibitions and workshops. The conference is a chance to enjoy the festivities in camaraderie with other Wisconsin artists.

​go.wisc.edu/WRAPconference

​Despite Carl Marty’s first 13 years in Switzerland, he was a true Wisconsinite in many ways—particularly due to his deep and abiding love of cheese! Before achieving success as an artist, he was quite a good old-fashioned cheesemaker, creating huge Swiss cheese wheels. Born in 1873, Carl made cheese from 1885 to 1890, ages 11 to 17, across two different countries. During the off-season of cheesemaking, which occurred in the winter, Carl had many free hours to fill, and he chose to spend that time reading, drawing and sketching. After his second year of secondary school, Carl had withdrawn to move to America and work, but prior to that, he had two years of drawing lessons, occurring once a week for one hour. He excelled in the class, to the point that admiring fellow classmates would steal his class assignments once he completed them.
 
Carl left his job making cheese to travel around America, and moved back to Europe for a time. But once he had left America, he longed to go back, telling his sister that “In America every man who was honest and willing to work was as good as his neighbor.” He came back to Wisconsin in October of 1895, began a writing job at a German language newspaper, and got married to a widow named Verena, who already had three small children. Their family struggled to make ends meet, but working at the paper Carl not only wrote, but made original zinc plate sketches to accompany his articles. He held a series of odd jobs throughout his life, including cheesemaker, newspaperman, farmhand, business student for a brief time, bag boy at a grocer, bookkeeper, banker’s assistant, and at times even attempted politician. He remarked that these jobs were vantage points from which to observe all manner of life, and his varied experiences in rural farm life certainly influenced his art. This oil painting, entitled Lunch Time, radiates calm, peace, and safety. Not only did Marty manage to accurately depict a common farm scene, but he captured the spirit and emotions he felt observing this equestrian interaction.

Confused about how to enter your artwork's dimensions? You're not the only one!

​Different industries have different standards of measurements. The Graphics' industry standard is width by height. Meaning that when you write your measurements, you write them from your point of view, beginning with the width. Hence a piece of paper is 8.5 x 11 in.
 
The art world ALWAYS uses height x width x depth in inches unless you are in a country where the standard is centimeters. Depth is used when you have a sculpture or dimensional object.
 
Do you include the frame? In museums, the answer is no. For WRAP, the answer is YES, include the frame in your dimensions. The reason why the Regional Coordinators have chosen this method is for planning purposes in designing the exhibition.
 
One of WRAP’s goals is to educate you, the artist. If there is a topic you would like us to explore, please let us know!

All are invited to attend the 2018 WRAP/WRAA State Day Conference    

Untrained Recreational Artist Lloyd Scarseth Still Resonates

Self-taught Wisconsin artist Lloyd Scarseth’s grandparents originally settled the family in the western region of the state, trading in the Norwegian mountains for the hills of Wisconsin. Lloyd grew up on a farm near La Crosse surrounded by two dozen cows and other farm animals, and beautiful expanses of nature. His surroundings inspired an interest in rural art, and later in his life Lloyd painted this whimsical line of cows peacefully winding through a beautiful farmland, now a part of the WRAP Permanent Collection.

Lloyd came from a family that was incredibly creative, greatly influencing his own passion to create. He grew up seeing his mother crochet, make rugs, and weave baskets out of corn husks; and admiring the carved and painted animals his father crafted from observation. Despite their shared interest, his artistic streak got him in trouble at times, as Lloyd admitted he used to "spoil a lot of good books" by drawing in the blank pages. In school his art was also encouraged, despite the fact that no art classes were offered. Admiring his talent, teachers always asked Lloyd to decorate the blackboard in chalk drawings for holiday celebrations.

By the age of 11, Lloyd was already making a name for himself, winning the first prize in a Trempealeau County Fair exhibit for his illustrated booklet on birds. In the eighth grade he began teaching himself watercolor painting, and in the ninth began his exploration of oil painting. Within his small community, there was much admiration of Lloyd’s artwork, but never much interest in selling on his part or in purchasing on the part of his friends and neighbors. Lloyd remained a farmer for his whole life, and never became a typically successful artist, because the way he saw it, “many people like my painting, but they have never been taught to place much value on a good picture.”

We have a new email! Find us all at wrap@dcs.wisc.edu

Have you emailed Alli, Nina or Liese only to find out they were out sick? Now we have a general WRAP email, that goes straight to everyone at once!