FROM THE DIRECTOR 
WRAP and the Wisconsin Idea, call for new WRAP artists, and general updates

PERMANENT COLLECTION FEATURE 
"Swiss Alps" by Frank H Engebretson

NEW TEAM MEMBER 
Please join us in welcoming our wonderful new student assistant, Nina Stemwedel!

REGIONAL COORDINATOR SPOTLIGHT
​Tom Cabezas and the Platteville WRAP

AG HALL EXHIBITION 
A select few of WRAP State Award Winners are featured on campus at ECALS

NEW! CALL FOR ARTISTS 
​Exhibition opportunities in Wisconsin 

EWA & STATE DAY PHOTOS

​LIESE PFEIFER
Wisconsin Regional Art Program Director

The Wisconsin Regional Art Program has been helping Wisconsin artists develop and share their abilities for more than 75 years. We encourage you to create new work, develop skills and share your work with people in your community, gain recognition and expert feedback and perhaps most importantly, connect with like-minded people! Our small but resourceful team is here to maintain, promote and grow the program.

As ever, WRAP strives to engage artistic communities around Wisconsin, and we regularly plan outreach events to this end. Just last week, I spoke to group at Monona Meadows about WRAP and the Wisconsin Idea. A critical component of our program is support and circulation of this Idea, one of the longest and deepest traditions surrounding the University of Wisconsin. It signifies a general principle: that education should influence people’s lives beyond the boundaries of the classroom. Synonymous with Wisconsin for more than a century, this principle has become the guiding philosophy of university outreach efforts in Wisconsin and throughout the world. WRAP artists put it into action, sharing work that represents cultures and communities around the state.

Looking ahead, we will be continuing to seek opportunities for growth, and we would like to call upon you, our current participants. Do you  ​know artists that work alone that would enjoy

WRAP recently hung a piece from our Permanent Collection in the North wing of the 7th floor of 21 N. Park Street, our home base. The piece, entitled “Swiss Alps”, was done by artist Frank H. Engebretson. Frank was born in 1882 on a farm near Gratiot, Wisconsin, to a family of Norwegian birth. In his adult life he lived with his wife and three children in rural Brodhead. He began his work as a house painter, quickly moving on to large scale murals decorating the sides of barns across Southern Wisconsin.
 
His first barn mural was painted in 1914 for his neighbor, a man named Jacob Winn. Engebretson had no artistic training, but when asked to merely paint the barn, he expressed boredom and dissatisfaction with regular house painting jobs: “I wouldn’t mind painting barns if I could paint pictures on them. I don’t see much sense in having barns all look alike. A barn could just as well come to life and have some individuality.” His neighbor agreed to give him creative liberty, Engebretson painted a splashy advertisement depicting grazing Holstein cows, and thus his career as an artist was born!
 
He became well-known in Wisconsin for his vivid murals depicting cheerful landscapes, and was even featured in the Times of London, the Prairie Farmer, Country Gentleman, and a 1942 issue of Life Magazine. Engebretson also did murals on interior walls, such as this image of a bridge from the home of the Condon family. “Swiss Alps” is representative of his later body of work, commissioned by Swiss farmers hoping his nostalgic style could recall the countryside of their homeland.

Nina Stemwedel, our new student assistant, joined the WRAP team in September 2017. She is in her senior year at UW-Madison, expecting to graduate in May with a double major in Art History and Italian, as well as two certificates in Classics and European Studies. She spent her Spring 2017 semester studying abroad in Bologna, Italy, and hopes to return to Italy to pursue an MA after taking a few years to work in the arts field here in the U.S. Outside of school and work, her interests include fantasy novels, cooking, astrology, Italian film, and petting puppies. She has been known to complete entire academic projects about witches, and write mythologically inspired comedic short stories about her friends.

Tom Cabezas, our fantastic Regional Coordinator in Platteville, has been producing and selling his work across the country through art galleries and shows for more than twenty years. He is a wood-worker and mixed media artist, designing and building unique quality furniture. Tom earned a Masters of Fine Art in sculpture from UW-Madison. He strives to create work that does not place form over function or vice versa, but instead strives to create a harmonious balance of the two. His work has been shown nation-wide and has won numerous awards. Tom brings a wealth of experience to lifelong learners through his Continuing Education ceramics courses. He is an active artist, and as ever, continues to be highly involved in the arts community. He is currently the Manager and Curator at the Harry and Laura Nohr Gallery on the UW-Platteville campus. The gallery provides high quality cultural and educational opportunities in the visual arts, free of charge, to the students, faculty, and staff of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and the people of Platteville and the Southwestern Wisconsin region.

Tom is currently overseeing the 2017 WRAP exhibition at the Nohr Gallery. This year is his second experience with coordinating a WRAP exhibition. Before this he has been the juror and workshop artist for two WRAP exhibitions. Of the program, he says "I have always enjoyed the enthusiasm and creative spirit of the participating artist and impressed with the quality of work. It is a great opportunity for the artists and the community to share in this event. I personally enjoy meeting the artists and watching the progression of their work over the years."

Some of the works from the current WRAP exhibit are pictured here:

Lynn Verger's untitled mixed media work is 48" X 30" is an abstract composition that utilizes both a loose expressionistic style while staying in a structured geometric composition exuding an organize and dynamic energy. The overall scale and secondary contours of this piece communicate enough to draw you in and keep you there to interact with the subtleties of the piece.

William Schuele's Wisconsin Wreckage: The Walker Winter 2010 to 2018 is a 60" X 39" oil on canvas. It is well executed and of an ambitious scale that give the work good presence. The composition is dynamic and well contained in the subdued colors and patterns.

Sharon Stauffer's work, Hold On There is the larger of three small scale mixed media works at 6" X 9". She expertly combines her drawing skills with the use of a subtle collage technique. The work achieves an intimate and formal appeal with its overall composition.

Katie Schutte is new to the area and uses traditional techniques of crochet  and contemporary style of using pigments to produce dynamic and unique works. Memory IX is acrylic on paper with hand stitching and crocheted fibers.

Tom formerly directed the Rountree Gallery, one of our WRAP centers, which used to be funded by the City of Platteville. The city was recently faced with a financial crisis that led to significant cuts to the 2017 budget across departments, unfortunately including the entire operating budget for the Rountree Gallery. It is now in the midst of transitioning into an independent non-profit 501c3 community based volunteer promoter of the arts in the region, and is being led by Nancy Collins, who was a part of the board before the transition to non-profit. Much of the current support is offered by Friends of the Gallery (FOG). They have provided volunteers for programming and everyday operations, scholarships for young artists, and awards to encourage artist of all ages. These FOG members make up the volunteers who now run the gallery.

Coming back from near death, Rountree Gallery continues to be dedicated to actively promoting the creation, appreciation, and education of visual arts in the Platteville community and surrounding area. It strives to make art accessible to the public by hosting quality exhibits, by acquiring and preserving the permanent collection and arts resource library, and by offering educational opportunities to all ages. Tom tells us the gallery "will continue to host WRAP after this year. They have access to a beautiful new display area and plan on using it for 2018. The community in Platteville did an amazing job of maintaining the Rountree organization in the midst of severe budget cuts and loss of space and I see them being around for quite a while."

This year’s Ag Hall foyer exhibition features: 

• “Masked Booby” by Jimmy Yanny
• “A New Life” by Amber Pipkorn
• “Arbor Light” by Dan Sivek
• “Ancient Black Bird of Wisdom” by Elizabeth Clayton
• “Bryggen, Norway” by John Bittner
• “Fuzz” by Colette Girard
• “On the Way to Madison” by Rachel Pavlic
• “Torso and Pelvis, Side View” by Lia Scherwinski
• “Elemental Forms, Arches National Park” by Jill Jensen

Facing south, artists and work are listed in order from left to right. Check out the online image gallery!
​
Three other WRAP pieces are hanging elsewhere in Ag Hall.

• “Lillies” by Alice Blue is located in the Dean’s office 
• “Pink Passion” by Audrey Wilde is the Academic Affairs office 
• “Oasis” by Gail McCoy can be found in the External Relations office.

Bucky on Parade
Madison, WI
Entry Deadline: November 10, 2017
Artists whose designs are selected will decorate fiberglass statues of Bucky and receive a stipend to cover materials and time.  Next spring the Bucky statues will be placed in various locations throughout the Madison area as a community art project. Afterwards they’ll be auctioned off to raise funds for local non-profit organizations. More information at www.buckyonparade.com/artists.
 
Spring Art Tour 2018
Mount Horeb, WI
Entry Deadline: November 15, 2017 
Artists who live/show artwork within a radius of about 20 miles of the Mount Horeb area are invited to apply. If in doubt whether your area is included please contact Tamlyn (608-767-1281 or tamlyn@chorus.net). Click here to download the application PDF. 
 
5th Annual Juried Art & Science Exhibit & Fundraiser 2018 Call for Artists
Monroe, WI
Entry Deadline: November 15, 2017
An open call for artwork for our fifth annual juried art and science exhibition, fundraiser, and membership event entitled Seasons of the Sugar River—nature of water.  This exhibition seeks to showcase the scenic landscapes of the Sugar River Watershed from the headwaters region in western Dane County to the lower basin where the river confluences with the Pecatonica River in Northern Illinois.  A popular feature of the exhibition is the array of science exhibits geared for children and adults that explore and illustrate the geography of our watershed and the role of our natural and cultural landscapes in influencing water quality.
With this year's sub-theme — nature of water—we invite artists to explore all aspects and forms of water. As an important life force, it sustains us, refreshes us, inspires us from its microscopic parts to its ability soothe us with its calming meandering and pastoral vistas or to change the landscape with its raw power. More information at https://www.driftlessareaartists.org/calls-for-art/
 
UW-Madison Continuing Studies Art Gallery
Madison, WI
Entry Deadline: November 20, 2017
Apply online
Are you a painter, photographer, or artist who works in a two-dimensional medium? Would you like your work to have a wider audience? We exhibit original art from Wisconsin artists on a two-month, rotating basis here on the 7th floor of 21 N. Park St. Questions? Contact the Continuing Studies art committee CSArtShow@dcs.wisc.edu.
 
Arti Gras Call For Artists
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Entry Deadline: November 27, 2017
The Arti Gras art fair is limited to 100 exhibitors comprised of invited and juried fine artists. Arti Gras also features artist demonstrations, performing arts, and children’s art activities. Great care is taken to choose jurors whose experience and reputation qualify them to select artists and craftspersons who produce the finest contemporary work. More information at http://mosaicartsinc.org/artigras/
 

Connect with WRAP!

Website: go.wisc.edu/WRAP
Facebook: facebook.com/WisconsinRegionalArts

Liese Pfeifer, Director
liese.pfeifer@wisc.edu

Alli Timmins, Program Associate
allison.timmins@wisc.edu