​Ella Gardner (1914-2007), was born in Wingville,  and lived in Neillsville, Granton and Marshfield, WI

Her paintings explore rural culture, family life, nature, and the timeless Amish world. Her artworks were widely exhibited in Wisconsin during her lifetime, and she was a long-time member of the Wisconsin Regional Arts Association. 

​Ella Gardner was the daughter of farmers Gina and Robert Haines, and a grand-niece of Wisconsin’s 24th Governor, John J. Blaine. She taught in a rural school for two years before beginning her formal art education at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1936. In 1937 she married fellow teacher Russell Gardner. She put her artistic aspiration on hold and the couple raised three sons, Russell Jr., Wayne, and Keith. They operated a dairy farm in Granton, Wisconsin, for forty years before moving to a smaller retirement farm in Marshfield, Wisconsin.

Ella’s art career began again 1964 after her youngest son graduated from high school and left home to attend college. She began to paint in earnest and quickly began o be recognized for her efforts.  She found an art community in the Wisconsin Regional Artist Association and WRAP.  For forty years she was an active participant in the Wisconsin Region Arts Program, regularly exhibited her work at the Central Wisconsin State Fair in Marshfield, where she received received many awards. Her art was also exhibited in solo shows in Granton, Neillsville, Marshfield, Menomonie, Wisconsin Rapids, Fort Atkinson and Madison, including an exhibit in the Governor’s Office in Madison in 1983. 

​Her legacy continues as a model of how someone can embrace the arts and celebrate their world.  Likewise, Ella Gardner’s family is a wonderful example of how to celebrate the artists you know in life and in maintaining their legacy.  They have preserved her paintings and allowed WRAP to feature them in the Wisconsin Academy Steenbock Gallery. 

Ella's granddaughter, Linda, has also developed a wonderful website that celebrates her legacy. And they have established an award that is given to a deserving artist in her name.  The Ella Gardner Award was established in 2008 by the Gardner family to be awarded annually at the Wisconsin Regional Arts Program (WRAP) State Exhibition.  The award is selected by her family annually to recognize exceptional artwork with a rural theme in a piece they believe Ella Gardner herself would have appreciated for its excellence.

Stop by and see the exhibition and plan to join her family at the reception Saturday, February 27th, 2016, noon to 2:00.    We will celebrate the timeless energy of creative expression to help build a full life.

From A Celebration of Life, by Ella Gardner

In the early eighties, black-hooded buggies began appearing on the roads and highways around Granton (in central Wisconsin) as Old Order Amish families quietly moved into our community. In 1983 we sold our farm to an Amish man and his wife and we had a chance to become acquainted with these God-fearing people who refuse to change with the times. We had bought the place forty years earlier, back in the days of the great depression. From that time until the present the farming methods on the farm have made a complete circle…we started farming with horse power and we had no electricity. When we sold it we had electricity and indoor plumbing plus tractors and modern machinery.

Today the farm is again farmed with horses and the electricity and plumbing have been taken out. They are old fashion, but they survive. They go along at the same pace oblivious to up and down economics. To them the land holds a promise and they are at home in an environment that is constant and rhythmically continuous.

In the Amish society, religious, family, education, vocations and social activities are cherished and loved. The children grow into adulthood with a deep sense of belonging. This helps them survive as a people in the modern world. They are a fulfilled and contented people and there is a certain gallantry in their refusal to be drawn into the whirl of modern ways; there is beauty in their simplicity as they maintain the tone of a quieter past.

The Ella Gardner website, created and maintained by her family, holds a retrospective of images of her art and can be seen at: http://www.ellagardnerart.com/

If you are a member of the Wisconsin Regional Artist Association, you will already have read in Contour Notes that the participation fee for Wisconsin Regional Art Program exhibitions and workshops is now $30.00.  The fee covers the cost of participation in a WRAP exhibition and the educational workshop that concludes each exhibit.   Without the fee increase the program would likely have ended.  Instead, the increased will to allow WRAP to continue to exist and continue to grow as we launch our second 75 years of supporting Wisconsin artists explore their creative potential.   Join us by participating in one of the WRAPS with Entry Forms due in January 2016.

Entry Blank Due: Monday, January 11, 2016 .  (Make checks payable to sponsor: TERRENCE DOELER)
Artwork due: Sunday, January 17, 2016, noon-3pm or Tuesday, January 19, 10am-2pm
(limit 2 pieces per artist)
Public Reception: Friday, January 22, 2016, 5-7pm
Workshop: Saturday March 5, 2016, 9am–3pm
Place: River Arts Center, Sauk-Prairie High School, 105 9th Street, Prairie du Sac, WI 53578
Coordinator: Terrence Doeler, 4919 Tonyawatha Trail, Monona, WI 53716
(608) 221-9849. doeler@charter.net
Artist and Juror: Barry Roal Carlsen

We welcome Terrence Doeler to his new role as coordinator of the Prairie du Sac WRAP.  He is an artist and  member for the Five Painters group that has long supported WRAP and the WRAA.  Welcome Terrance and thank you for your leadership!

This year's juror and artist-presenter for the Prairie du Sac WRAP is is the painter and print maker Barry Roal Carlsen.  He is an accomplished artist who is represented by the Edgewood Orchard Gallery in Door County and the Artisan Gallery in Paoli.  In his own artwork Carlsen seeks to  "convey the physical and psychological impact the landscape has in shaping people. A sense of place is powerful; it can express the feelings of belonging, separation, distance, and loss."

This is the second year for the River Falls WRAP.  It was a rousing success in 2015, showing the artworks of almost 60 artists from Wisconsin and Minnesota.  (WRAP welcomes artists from the region, including artists from states near Wisconsin, especially for WRAP so close to the border!)  Thank you Katie Chaffee for all you work to make this even possible!

Entry Blank due: Extended to Sunday,  January 31st, 2016
Make check payable to sponsor: RIVER FALLS COMMUNITY ARTS BASE
Artwork due: Monday, January 25, 2016, 10:00 am-6:00 pm 
(limit 3 artworks per artist)
Workshop: Saturday, February 13, 2016, 1:00-2:00 pm. Opening Reception: Saturday, February 13, 2016, 2:00-4:00 pm
Artwork pickup: Sunday, March 6, 1:00 pm-4:00 pm, Monday, March 7, 10:00 am-6:00 pm or by appointment
Place: River Falls Public Library Gallery, 140 Union Street, River Falls, WI 54022
Coordinator: Katie Chaffee, Gallery and Event coordinator, River Falls Public Library, 140 Union Street
River Falls, WI 54022, (715) 426-3496, katiec@riverfallspubliclibrary.org
Artist/Juror:  Anastasia Sharti

River Falls Public Library Gallery, now in its 12th season, is proud to host its second WRAP exhibit. Their show schedule varies a bit from the usual plan in that their judging, award announcements, and workshop will be the second Saturday of the show, February 13 from 1-3pm. An artists’ reception is planned for that same afternoon from 2-4pm.

Anastasia Shartin will be  the judge this year, and also the  program presenter. She will be speaking on Do’s and Don’t’s: Advice for artists seeking venues to exhibit their work.  She will address the different types of venues – community galleries, commercial galleries, museums, co-op galleries, and public spaces such as libraries, coffee shops, etc. She plans to cover the importance of presenting oneself professionally, including having good quality images of recent artwork, updated resumes, and clearly written statements. She will stress the need to research potential venues before contacting them, and the importance of having clear expectations

Shartin  is the visual arts director at The Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, Wisconsin, a position she has held since July 2000. Prior to that, she was a member of both the curatorial and education departments at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Shartin attended the graduate program at Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, from 1994 to 1996, and received her undergraduate degree in Art History with an emphasis on 20th century and contemporary art from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991.  Throughout her career, Shartin has developed interdisciplinary, collaborative, and community-based projects that seek to engage audiences and inspire artists.

Madison WRAP is one of our largest annual exhibitions.  Plan to show your work in the Madison WRAP this year.  The four fabulous co-coordinators will make sure it looks good on display!  Thank you to all four for all your hard work to make this a spectacular exhibit.

Entry Blank due: Friday, January 22, 2016.   Send form to and make check payable to sponsor: VINA YANG
Artwork due: Saturday, February 27, 2016, 9:00 am-12:00 pm, Pyle Center, Rm 111 
(limit 2 pieces per artist)
Workshop: Saturday, April 9, 2016, 10:00 am-3:00 pm
Place: UW–Madison, Pyle Center, Rm 111 (AT&T Lounge)
702 Langdon Street
Madison, WI 53706
Coordinators: C.K. Chang, 608-833-1485, ckhakka7601@yahoo.com; and Jean Lang, 608-824-9655, jeanalamo@aol.com; and Tracy Wicklund, 608-886-6844, tracywikso@gmail.com; and Vina Yang, 3423 Ice Age Lane, Verona, WI 53593, 608-798-1005, vyang@aol.com
Artist/Juror: Sue Medaris

Madison WRAP guest artist and judge for 2016 is Sue Medaris, a highly versatile artist from Mt. Horeb.  Her work has appeared in many familiar places—the cover of Isthmus newspaper, the Dane County arts calendar, the UW Vet School’s holiday cards, the Artisan Gallery in Paoli, and the “Birds in Art” exhibit at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum in Wausau, to name a few.  She is a printmaker who also works in oils, acrylics, pastels, and mixed media.  The scale of her work ranges from large prints to small boxes. Her subject matter is primarily the rural scene and especially the lives of domestic animals and livestock. She beautifully captures typical moments of farm life: chickens challenging one another, the eyes of cows following a dog’s every move, a warm afternoon landscape of mowed fields. Besides her fine arts work, she has been an art instructor and an illustrator for magazines and newspapers. A sampling of her works can be seen online at svmedaris.com.

 We thank Hartford WRAP Coordinator Greg Torgeson for all he does to make our Harford WRAP possible.  Maybe we will see you there!

Entry Blank due: Sunday, January 31, 2016
Make checks payable to sponsor:                                   SCHAUER ARTS AND ACTIVITIES CENTER
Artwork due: Tuesday, February 23, 2016, 1:00-5:30 pm 
(limit 2 works per artist)
Artist's reception: Friday, February 26, 2016, 7:00-8:00 pm
Workshop: Sunday, April 3, 2016, 1:00-4:00 pm
Place: Schauer Arts and Activities Center, 147 N. Rural St.
Hartford, WI 53027
Coordinator: Greg Torgeson, 147 N. Rural St., Hartford, WI 53027, (262) 844-5257, pawnee333@yahoo.com
Artist/Juror: TBA

How to enter:
Below is an entry form that will work for all WRAP Exhibits. 
As mentioned above, there is a $30.00 fee for each WRAP exhibit entered.   The entry fee includes the cost of the closing workshop for exhibit participants.            

Non-exhibiting guests may attend the workshops for a modest $5.00 fee.  Artists and art-advocates alike are invited to view the exhibitions free of charge.