CONTACT: Anne Pryor, Wisconsin Arts Board Folk and Traditional Arts Specialist
apryor@travelwisconsin.com
Paula McCarthy Panczenko, Executive Director of Tandem Press
panczenko@education.wisc.edu
Media Room: Artsboard.Wisconsin.gov
LOCAL FOLK ARTISTS FEATURED IN EXHIBIT AT DANE COUNTY REGIONAL AIRPORT
MADISON, Wis. (October 12, 2012) — The treasured stories, talents and cultural heritages of artists in the Wisconsin Arts Board’s Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program are now on public display at the Dane County Regional Airport. “Wisconsin Folks: Masters of Tradition” runs now until March 31, 2013 at the Dane County Regional Airport’s Art Court. The exhibit was organized by the Wisconsin Arts Board and coordinated by Tandem Press of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The exhibition showcases the artworks of 26 nationally recognized master artists from Wisconsin, representing a dozen different ethnicities. Exhibitors include members from Wisconsin’s Native American tribes to descendants of 19th and 20th century immigrants from the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Slovakia, and Sweden. African-American artists and representatives from more recent immigration waves from countries such as Ghana, Mali, Togo and Mexico are also part of the collection.
Several artists from “Wisconsin Folks: Masters of Tradition” will present programs at the Wisconsin Historical Museum and the Madison Children’s Museum during the six months of the exhibit. Featured artists include:
•Else Bigton, Barronett – Norwegian carved furniture
•Coleen Bins, Egg Harbor – Iroquois (Oneida) silverwork
•Jose Chavez, Milwaukee – cartoneria (Mexican papier mache sculptures)
•Tani Diakite, Madison – Malian lute “kamalin’goni”
•Pat Ehrenberg, Ripon – quilting
•Roberto Franco, Greendale – Aztec/Mexica feather art, regalia, dance and drumming
•Elena Greendeer, Black River Falls – Ho Chunk traditional regalia
•Karen Ann Hoffman, Stevens Point – Iroquois raised beadwork
•Wyona Jack, Lac du Flambeau – Ojibwe birchbark basketry
•Ramona Kochendorfer, Bruce – Dutch Hindeloopen painting
•Frank Montano, Bayfield – Woodland flutes
•Phil Odden, Barronett – Norwegian woodcarving
•Christine Okerlund, Wittenberg – porcupine quill decorated birch-bark baskets
•Nancy Schmidt, Waukesha – Norwegian rosemaling
• Bob Siegel, Mequon – Dutch wooden shoes
•April Stone-Dahl, Odanah – Ojibwe black ash basketry
•Jarrod Stone-Dahl, Odanah – birch-bark canoes and baskets
•Bobby Bullet, St. Germaine/Iron River, Mich. – Ojibwe songwriting
•Djam Vivie, Madison – Ghanaian drum making
•Ethel White, Milwaukee – African American quilting
Photos of the artists are available upon request.
Folk traditions run deep within the cultures that have emerged from or relocated to Wisconsin. In partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program fosters the continuation of folk art so that traditions and cultural identities are preserved. Through the program, a master artist skilled in the artistic traditions of his or her culture trains one or more apprentices in these crafts. Art traditions can include song, dance, stories, baskets, painting, textiles, or any other traditional medium.
The Wisconsin Arts Board is the Wisconsin state agency which nurtures creativity, cultivates expression, promotes the arts, supports the arts in education, stimulates community and economic development and serves as a resource for people of every culture and heritage. For more information visit http://artsboard.wisconsin.gov.
