PERMANENT ART COLLECTION
We welcome visitors to explore the many artworks in our permanent art collection. Download this pdf to take a tour in person, or take the tour from the comfort of your home, and learn about our permanent art collection.
Five Wisconsin artists were selected to create works of art that are integrated into the building's design, adding to the warm and welcoming ambiance. Two other works of art were donated to the Wilson Center by generous benefactors. More permanent art has been added over the years.
Lynn Chappy ArtsPark: Sculptures & Design
Inspired by geological history and the natural flow of water, ArtsPark features works of art integrated into the beautiful park surrounding the Wilson Center, taking our mission to be a catalyst for lifelong learning outdoors. ArtsPark was designed by a multi-disciplinary team of artists, architects, and members of the community. Phase I began with the installation of our inaugural ArtsPark sculpture, Flit by Nizar Schaller, in Soerens Circle Drive, and has grown as more sculptures and design elements have been added.
Growth in the arts – conrad scmitt studios, Inc.
The life-sized, etched glass tree that fills the windows of the Elmbrook Rotary Fireplace Lounge in the Wilson Center's Kuttemperoor Grand Hall embrace vibrancy and growth among the arts in this community, inspired by the beautiful setting surrounding the Wilson Center. The unusual, Leptat® etching technique used for the project was patented by the artist who conceived the design, Bernard O. Gruenke, Sr., and his son, Bernard E. Gruenke, Jr. The project was donated by the Gruenke Foundation for the Arts in conjunction with New Berlin's century-old, national decorative arts studio, Conrad Schmitt Studios, Inc., of which Mr. Gruenke is President Emeritus, and which remains under the direction of his family. Mr. Gruenke is a longtime resident of Brookfield, a donor to the Wilson Center, and an early proponent of establishing an art center in Brookfield. An internationally recognized glass artist who was one of the first to introduce faceted glass to the U.S. in 1949, Bernard O. Gruenke has been honored with numerous awards, including the Stained Glass Association of America's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Streaming – susan falkman
A towering 40-foot high limestone sculpture surrounds the fireplace that is the focal point of the Wilson Center's Elmbrook Rotary Fireplace Lounge and Kuttemperoor Grand Hall. The sculpture is a celebration of earth, fire, air and water, an aesthetic expression of the universal energy that sustains the rhythm of life. Work on the sculpture began before there were walls built around it and it took Falkman nine months to hand-carve the entire sculpture on-site, much of the time with little to protect her from the elements. Falkman has lived and worked abroad, her sculptures recognized nationally and internationally. Carving marble for the past twenty-four years, Falkman has lived, studied and worked in Naxos, Greece and Carrara, Italy. She has been the recipient of several international awards for her work and is included in the book Contemporary American Women Sculptors. Her exhibit "Body Memories" is comprised of 33 marble sculptures and is a tribute to women who have breast cancer—has been seen throughout the upper Midwest. susanfalkman.com
Given in memory of Richard and Marie Honkamp by The Honkamp Family.
flock – steve feren
Designed to hang from the ceiling of The Harris Theater a flock of unique hand-blown birds soar over patrons' heads. The 18" birds of various types are suspended at different heights and lit with fiber-optic pastel lights that slowly change color. Representing nature and the park setting surrounding the Wilson Center, the birds enhance the spirit created by performances onstage. Feren is a nationally recognized artist and accomplished professor of art at the University of Wisconsin. His work has been commissioned, awarded, and collected throughout Wisconsin as creations of public art and permanently exhibited in academic institutions, and other areas of public use.
A gift from Lyle and Nancy Campbell.
midsummer dream – lawrence d’Attilio
The 42" x 90" black and white photo mural located on the wall adjacent to the Wilson Center's development office is truly a fantasy for the viewer, blending the visual and performing arts into a natural setting. One can see new objects with each new viewing of this delightful mural.
art suite – michael gross,
Michael Gross's art creates a whimsical theme with a series of handmade ceramic tiles representing dance, music, art, and nature. Designed specifically for the restroom areas, these brightly colored vignettes celebrate artists, musicians, and dancers at work. Decorative tiles surround the mirrors and sink areas. The natural tone glazes are complimentary to the interior's color scheme, while the artistic imagery highlights the Wilson Center's educational mission. Well known for his artistry in clay, Gross' colorful ceramic pieces can be found in many public and private collections across the country, including Milwaukee's Midwest Express Center.
The ceramic sculptures of Wisconsin artist Michael Gross are personal narratives that reveal an unusual mix of earthly magic and primal vitality. The artist works in a variety of forms, including figurines, large vessels and furniture. With over a dozen museum exhibitions under his belt, the artist is a regular exhibitor at SOFA in New York and has received a Wisconsin Arts Board fellowship. SELECTED COLLECTIONS: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, Brookfield, WI (Commission); Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR; Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI; Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY
joy of music – george lundeen
Lundeen's impressive life-size bronze sculpture depicting various musicians located on the west side of the Wilson Center was created for a surprise gift from Don Wilson to his wife, Kate. Models for the sculpture are taken from Lundeen's own family members. A native of Holdrege, Nebraska, Lundeen was a Fullbright-Hayes Scholar studying at the Academia de Belle Arte in Florence, Italy. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor of Arts from Hastings College in Nebraska. He established his sculpting studio in Loveland, CO in the mid-1970's where he currently lives and wor
Bridging the Arts – facilitated by Joel Pfeiffer
These geometric forms situated at the front entrance to the building were created with the help of hundreds of hearty community members on September 8, 2001. Prior to the opening of the Wilson Center, young and old alike gathered in Mitchell Park and took part in a "Clay Stomp,"—an activity which encourages people to "stomp" wet clay with their bare feet. The clay was then placed into tile forms and participants carved designs that depicted the importance of the arts in our lives. Pfeiffer then glazed and fired the tiles and assembled Bridging the Arts. Pfeiffer has facilitated nearly 100 Clay Stomps around the world. He is best known locally for his exchange project with Leningrad, Russia and Milwaukee in 1989 that resulted in a tile installation at Mitchell International Airport. He also facilitated a World Clay Stomp project in 1993 in Flagstaff, Arizona with participants from 37 countries. An art teacher Arrowhead High School since 1978, Pfeiffer holds a B.S. in Art Education and a Masters of Arts from UW-Milwaukee. He continues to do clay stomp projects with schools, communities, and corporations.
22 Steps – Peter Flanary
Twenty-two limestone boulders each weighing 5,000 pounds are placed like Greek columns along the walkway that leads to the Wilson Center's main entrance. The stones deflect space through flow and pattern along the walkway, drawing visitors to the Center's entrance, and extending inside to the Grand Hall through a ribbon of polished river stone. 22 Steps engages site, material, community, nature, and the visitor and reflects an emphatic concrete materiality, which flows symbolically from the outdoors to the indoors, reinforcing the natural beauty of the site. Flanary teaches sculpture at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and his work is well known across the region. He is the owner of Foundry Arts, located in Mineral Point, and held the position of Technical Liaison for the Arts/Industry Program at the Kohler Company. He is best known for his large-scale commissioned pieces featuring stone, metal, or wood. His accomplishments include an extensive list of commissions, grants, and residencies and his work has been widely exhibited regionally and internationally.
Dancing Cranes – John Rawlins
Inspired by nature and interpreted in bronze, Dancing Cranes is one of many sculptures created by Rawlins to recreate the beauty that surrounds us in our natural world. Expressing the sweeping lines of the powerful wings in rhythm with the graceful arching necks, his bronze sculpture located in the Strohmaier Sculpture and Botanical Garden, located on the west side of the Wilson Center, portrays the nuptial rites and displaying of our indigenous sand hill cranes. Rawlins began creating artwork at an early age. His love of nature was encouraged by his Native American father, and his sense of design nurtured by his mother, a floral designer. jroriginals.com
A gift from Andrea and Anthony Bryant.
flit – nizar schaller
Wisconsin artist Nizar Schaller drew his inspiration for Flit while watching a sparrow on the campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture that was building its nest. “The sculpture is a tribute to nature. Growth in nature happens over extended periods of time; when you go out into the garden to observe a plant, it doesn’t seem to change, but if you go a week later and then another week later, it is completely transformed,” said Schaller. “There’s an underlying geometry, but the unfolding is never the same.”
Selected by jury and public vote as the winner of the Circle Drive Sculpture Contest and unveiled at the Wilson Center's premier arts education fundraiser, The Big Event, on June 4, 2016, Flit stands 15 feet tall in the Soerens Circle Drive outside the Wilson Center main entrance. Flit's graceful presence creates interesting shadows by day and a lighted presence by night. A programmable 122-LED light array offers opportunities for connection art and technology.
About the Artist: Nizar Schaller is an artist and designer, with training in both the United Kingdom and South Africa. Exploring relationships between natural and built environments, Schaller takes a philosophical approach to his creative processes and design principles. Structural interventions are used to echo the natural environment, creating a place for open discourse and social exchange. His work exists in its natural state, combining raw materials with manmade to question the perception of natural environments. Schaller holds a Bachelor’s of Architectural Studies from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and is a Master of Architectural Studies candidate from the Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. He has worked as a designer and architect contributing to both residential and commercial projects; most recently, he designed and built an architectural folly on the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture Campus in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Recent awards include the Taliesin Fellows Scholarship Award.
Click here to watch a WISN 12 NEWS interview between Nizar Schaller and WISN co-anchor Melinda Davenport.
Varied Recurrence – Terese Agnew
A series of cast concrete sculptures resembling the stumps of native Wisconsin trees are designed to act as benches or simply to artistically enhance the landscape on the east lawn of the Wilson Center. Recalling the origin of theater, Agnew's design concept emulates the custom of the early Greeks in gathering for a theatrical performance. In the year 2050, students from the School District of Elmbrook will open "time capsules" that they buried under the sculptures. The hope is that future musicians, artists and actors from the Elmbrook Schools will return to see where they got their start. Agnew's work varies from large scale (20 feet) quilt patterns on glass, steel, concrete, stone and fiberglass to collaborative work with theater and dance groups. She was awarded a Mary Nohl Fellowship in 2004 as an established Milwaukee artist for a body of work that includes Practice Bomber Range in the Mississippi Flyway, currently at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC. This highly detailed quilt was created in 2002 through a process that Agnew refers to as, "drawing with thread." Another of Angew's quilts, The D.O.T. Straightens Things Out is included in the permanent collection at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Agnew's public art includes the Wisconsin Workers Memorial in Milwaukee's Ziedler Park as well as several temporary works. In 2005, Agnew opened her art quilt, "Portrait of a Textile Worker" at the Wilson Center—the 8' x 9' quilt is made entirely of clothing labels and depicts the Madonna-like image of a young woman at her sewing machine in a sweatshop in Bangladesh.
Water’s Way – susan falkman
The path of water, as it flows over our land, filling our lakes, rivers and streams is the path of life. Created by artist Susan Falkman, who also created Streaming located in the Wilson Center's Kuttemperoor Grand Hall, Water’s Way is a visual representation of one aspect of that journey. Carved from red granite, the sculpture is virtually indestructible. Rain falls, filling a polished basin at the top that overflows and runs down the face of the granite through cut grooves that represent a river. The river starts from a narrow point at basin and widens as it flows toward the bottom. From the hillside above the sculpture, the river cut into the face of the red granite suggests the graceful shape of a feminine form, a drawing in the stone. The drawing is echoed in two granite benches set at angles just near the opening of the river and opposite from the basin. From one side of each bench, a rain garden can be seen, where native plants create a home for butterflies, birds, and other native life forms. From the other side of either bench is the view of the sculpture and the parkway beyond.
shifting perspective – ray chi
Originally proposed as an integrated sculpture for the Lynn Chappy ArtsPark Circle Drive Sculpture Contest in 2016, Milwaukee artist and educator Ray Chi has been commissioned by the Wilson Center to reimagine Shifting Perspective as a decentralized sculpture installed at five locations along the existing ArtsPark perimeter path. Shifting Perspective is a field of colorful abstract shapes reaching upward on stainless steel stems, like a field of wildflowers, and is intended to be experienced both close-up and at a distance. At specific locations, the jumble of shapes coalesces into crisp and clearly legible text—five words that invite us to discover and celebrate our relationship with the arts: inspire, play, connect, explore, and dream.
Shifting Perspective is designed to embrace the natural serenity and openness of each of the sites throughout ArtsPark while encouraging viewers to become active participants in discovering the artwork and create a unique sculptural experience that can be enjoyed by all, 365 days a year.
About the Artist: Ray Chi is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the University of Michigan. Recently, he was awarded a public art commission for the East Milwaukee Public Library and is currently focused on researching and rethinking playscape design as a viable site for abstract and interactive sculpture. Chi’s work has been exhibited in galleries and theaters in New York, Los Angeles, and throughout the Midwest. He has been awarded grant funding through the Wisconsin Arts Board and the Mary L. Nohl Fund for Individual Artists, and was named “Artist of the Year” by the Milwaukee Arts Board in 2005. He currently works as an associate lecturer in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
strohmaier sculpture garden
The Strohmaier Sculpture Garden, which surrounds the Wilson Center and is located adjacent to the new Burke Colonnade, is created by the Southeast Wisconsin Master Gardeners, Inc. (SEWMG) to enhance the visual appeal of the immediate grounds through the botanical arts. In June 2009, the Wilson Center became an SEWMG-approved garden to provide an appealing educational experience for the community. Approximately 30 gardens in SE Wisconsin have gained approval including hospital healing gardens, local school projects, and gardens in other major attractions such as the Milwaukee County Zoo, Ten Chimneys, and Old World Wisconsin.
Two beds have already been transformed at the Wilson Center by Master Gardeners and community volunteers. One bed was dedicated to native perennials in 2009, and a butterfly garden was established in the following year. In 2012, the butterfly garden was registered as a Monarch Way Station providing a habitat conducive to Monarch preservation. The garden contains several types of milkweed and many nectar plants. Plants are identified by markers labeled with both scientific name and common names.
Numerous plein air classes have already taken place in the gardens, including a family nature photography class led by SEWMG volunteers which provided exploration and learning opportunities to students of all ages.
Community support is encouraged. For more information about the garden or volunteer opportunities, contact the Wilson Center Facilities Manager.
whole trees architecture – burke colonnade
One of the first visual impressions of the Wilson Center has become an eye-catching landscape that greatly enhances the arts-rich environment. Combining the beauty of nature with state-of-the-art sustainable technology, the Wilson Center unveiled its newest building enhancement at our annual arts education fundraiser, The Big Event, on June 3, 2017: The Burke Colonnade.
Combining the beauty of whole trees from nature with state-of-the-art technology, The Burke Colonnade is a breathtaking structure designed by WholeTrees Architecture and Structures that reimagines the area adjacent to the Kuttemperoor Grand Hall.
Long-term plans surrounding the Colonnade include collecting rainwater from the roof into an integrated system of artfully designed downspouts, woven throughout the pathways, and through a “seep wall” to gently infiltrate and become part of the water system in a more environmentally responsible way.
Thank you to our ArtsPark Donors: Lynn Chappy, Andrea and Tony Bryant, Murph and John Burke, Bill and Sandy Haack, The Honkamp Family, Mary Ann and Llody Gerlach, The Strohmaier Family, Southeast Wisconsin Master Gardeners, National Endowment for the Arts, and Greater Milwaukee Foundation - Mary L. Nohl Fund.
Thank you to our Contributing Artists and Partners: Ray Chi, Shifting Perspective; Peter Flanary, 22 Steps; George Lundeen, Joy of Music; John Rawlins, Dancing Cranes; Terese Agnew, Varied Recurrence; Nizar Schaller, Flit; Gail Simpson and Aristotle Georgiades, Host; Joel Pfeiffer, Bridging the Arts; Caerulean Design, ArtsPark Master Site Plan; Whole Trees and VJS Construction Services, The Burke Colonnade; Susan Falkmann, Water's Way.
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