This posting has been updated.

There are two Wisconsin Regional Art (WRAP) Exhibits and workshops coming up with entry forms due the end of February.  The Richland Area Arts Council (RAAC)  again sponsors of the Richland Center WRAP exhibition/workshop at the Schmitt Woodland Hills Retirement Center, and the for the first time the River Falls Community Art Base will sponsor a WRAP exhibit/workshop at the River Falls  Public Library in honor of WRAPs 75 anniversary in 2015.  Both sponsors inivite the participation of Wisconsin Artists in the Wisconsin Regional Art Program (WRAP) exhibition/workshops opening in March 2015.  There is a $20.00 fee to enter each exhibit.

The non-profit membership organization Wisconsin Regional Artists Association in collaboration with Wisconsin Regional Art Program administered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Liberal Studies and the Arts co-sponsor the WRAP exhibits that feature the works of Wisconsin and regional lay artists at both venues.   WRAP organizers invite any non-professional artist in the region to submit artworks for the exhibitions. (For our purposes 'non-professional' is defined as someone who does not make their primary income from their art.)

Plan to enter the exhibits AND plan to stop by and see the exhibitions.  

Entry Blank Due: Friday, February 27, 2015 
DUE DATE EXTENTION.  Entry forms now due with art drop off on March 8th and 9th.
Exhibit: March 9-April 18, 2015
Artwork due: Sunday, March 8, 2015, 1-4pm OR Monday, March 9, 2015, 10am-6pm
(limit 3 artworks per artist) 
Workshop: Saturday, April 18, 2015, 1:00PM-4:00pm (Please note change in time from earlier postings)
Artist's Reception: Sunday, March 15, 2015, 2-4pm
Place: River Falls Public Library Gallery, 140 Union St., River Falls, WI 54022
Make check payable to sponsor: RIVER FALLS COMMUNITY ARTS BASE
Coordinator: Katie Chaffee, Gallery and Event Coordinator, River Falls Public Library, 140 Union St.
River Falls, WI 54022, (715) 426-3496, katiec@riverfallspubliclibrary.org

The Wisconsin Regional Art Program is delighted to have our first WRAP exhibit and workshop in River Falls at the Public Library as a part of our celebration of our 75th anniversary in 2015.


The River Falls WRAP will offer a workshop for participation artists on Saturday April 18th.  The workshop theme is:
THE BUSINESS OF ART: It doesn't just happen

Presenters and show judges are Steven Braker and Kim Losse, who between them  represent four art disciplines ~ photography, painting, pottery and printmaking. They will share strategies and practices that will help artists develop their creative talents into a viable business.

All artists participating in the exhibit are welcome to attend the workshop for free.  Guests can attend for a $5.00 fee.

The Exhibit Juror for the 2015 Richland Center WRAP will be Black Earth, Wisconsin watercolor painter Nancy Cox.   

An accomplished artist and teacher, Nancy considers art to be her vocation, her life, and her passion.   Working both representationally and with abstraction, Nancy carries her painting supplies with her in all her travels and is a master of capturing impressions of the world around her with gesture, mark, and hue.  

The Richland Center WRAP  Workshop Presenter  will be artist Barbara Kettner whose work is featured at the top of this post.  Barb paints portraits of animals and people, landscapes en plein aire, still lifes, and also paints from photographs. She has exhibited at the Driftless Area Art Festival for the past six years, and was chosen as the feature artist for the 2011 fund raising raffle.   She has lived in the Driftless area since 2006. Barb makes sure to paint or draw for a few hours every day and she finds the Driftless Area endlessly inspiring with its rolling hills, meandering rivers, fast disappearing tobacco sheds, and ever changing skies. 

The fee to participate in either of the  WRAP exhibitions and workshop is $20.  Artists should send their entry fee with a completed Registration Form, found on (WRAP's website and below)  to the coordinators listed above by the due dates, and deliver their art to the appropriate venues during the hours designated for delivery.

Wisconsin and regional artists from surroundign states who are at least age 14 are invited to participate.  Artwork must be original and completed in the last two years. Entries will be juried and meritorious works will be displayed at a state exhibit in August and  September 2015 at the Pyle Center in Madison where the award winning artwork by WRAA members is eligible for cash awards.

Guidelines to participate encourage the exhibition of art in a variety of media including:  PAINTING: Oil, Acrylic, Watercolor GRAPHICS: Drawing, Prints, Pastel SCULPTURE: Any Material, Mixed-Media CRAFTS: Clay, Wood, Metal, Fiber, Paper PHOTOGRAPHY: Black and White, Color, Digital: print or photograph. No giclee reproductions of paintings.   

Artists and art-advocates alike are invited to view the exhibitions free of charge.

Iris Furman Tellefson grew up on a farm near Oshkosh.  She was a charter member of Rural Arts Program when it started in 1940 and she was in her early twenties.  She continued to paint as she married and raised her family.  This painting and a dozen more from the historical collection of the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies'  Wisconsin Regional Arts Program (WRAP)  are currently on display at the Steenbock Gallery in the offices of the Wisconsin Academy of Science Art and Letters, at 1922 University Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin.  The work will be accessible weekdays during working hours until March 13th. 

Plan to join WRAP for a reception for the exhibition on Saturday February 28th from 12:00-3:00PM. 
At 2:00PM a short video from the 1950's of the Rural Art Program founders discussing the inspiration for the program and its relationship to the Wisconsin Idea will be shown. 

All of the paintings included in this exhibit were created in 1950 or earlier and were originally shown in the  annual state art exhibition which has featured Wisconsin’s lay artists since 1940.

Wisconsin Regional Art Program (WRAP)

Since 1940 the Rural Arts Program (which would become the Wisconsin Regional Art Program (WRAP) has provided statewide art workshops and exhibits for Wisconsin’s lay artists.   WRAP was established to encourage Wisconsin citizens with a serious interest in Art, people who make art purely for the love of it, rather than for fame and fortune. The purpose of WRAP is to encourage artists to develop their abilities.  Focusing on Wisconsin artists, 14 or older, who make art for the sake of the creative experience and to not earn their living as artists, the program encourages creative growth among non-professional artists.  

WRAP History

In 1940s what was then called the Rural Art Program, was conceived as part of a larger effort to manifest the philosophy and policies of the Wisconsin Idea through the arts. The Rural Art Program, along with such programs as the Wisconsin Ideas Theatre were formed out of a commitment of the University towards educating not only its students, but encouraging and teaching residents across the state in their creative growth and understanding of the vital role the arts can play in day-to-day lives of people from all backgrounds. 

The first Rural Art Exhibit was held at the Memorial Union during Farm and Home Week in 1940. Under the guidance of well-known regional artist John Steuart Curry, the exhibit grew rapidly, expanding from 30 nonprofessional artists in 1940 to over 100 by 1947. Since its earliest focus on rural artists WRAP has expanded to include non-professional artists from all parts of Wisconsin, including urban areas. 

For seventy five years the program flourished, initially under the leadership of as John Steuart Curry, Aaron Bohrod, and James Schwalbach, and then guided by the energy and enthusiasm of artists and educators Ken Kuemmerlein, and Leslee Nelson, with strong participation by Wisconsin’s non-professional artists, not only from rural areas but also from cities and suburbs.   WRAP continues its seventy-five year tradition to make the exhibition and workshops cornerstones of activity for nonprofessional artists throughout the state.

Joan Arend (Kirkbush), Rt. 1, Almond, WI, 1926-2006

Born in Milwaukee but raised on a farm. Joan Arend received early attention in RAP/WRAP winning recognition with this painting in 1945.  Joan She trained as a book illustrator at Layton School of Art in Milwaukee.  In 1953 she moved to Alaska with her husband and embarked on what became a career painting Alaskan native children. She wrote and illustrated several coloring books that were popular with Alaska Natives because the images were so lifelike.

Clarence Boyce Monegar (Red Arrow), Black River Falls, 1910-1968

Clarence Boyce Monegar was a Ho-Chunk who also created under the name Red Arrow.  Born in the town of Eland, in Shawano, County.  He received some art instruction at the Tomah Indian School as a boy.  At 17 he traveled with the circus as a rider in a covered wagon act.  He made a living as a sign painter and thrived until his young wife died of tuberculosis, and his despair made it hard to provide for his four young children.  Jailed for non-support he drew and painted from memory in his cell.  The Clark County district attorney paroled him and personally drove him with his paintings to John Steuart Curry’s studio.  After a short period of study with Curry to learn lithography, Monegar began making and selling art.  Drafted he was an ambulance driver.  After he returned to art making and used his GI Benefits to attend the Art Institute of Chicago, and continued to create paintings and prints for the rest of his life.

Plan to see these and other paintings from the historical collection of the Wisconsin Regional Art Program between now and March 13th.  Join us for the February 28th, 2015 reception, and check out the 24 WRAP Exhibits and Workshops offered with cosponsoring arts organizations across Wisconsin.  Better yet, enter your artwork in one of the exhibits.  Find out more here.