Four Honorable Mentions were given to: Bruce Hustad, Kathryn Klemp, Mary Ulm Mayhew and Mary Ellen Mueller. The Second Place award went to Susan Hale for her large scale oil paintings. The First Place award went to Christopher Behrs for his miniature pastels. The Best of Show award went to Vicki Reed for her encaustic photographs. With the award, Reed wins a future solo exhibit of her work at the CCC.

One of the most ancient painting mediums in the world, encaustic dates back 5,000 years to the Greeks. They applied a layer of wax to their ships to make them weatherproof and when they discovered that they could add pigment to the wax they began creating paintings on the hulls. “Encaustic” comes from the Greek word, encaustikos, meaning “to burn in”, referring to the use of heat to fuse the layers of wax together.

Most of Reed's encaustic work begins with coating a substrate (wood or hardboard) with encaustic gesso and then adding three layers of wax, each layer fused to the previous one by using a heat gun. Her images are from scanned silver gelatin prints produced in her wet darkroom using traditional and alternative methods. Images are transferred to handmade Japanese rice paper using a digital printer with pigmented inks or by making alcohol transfers. They also can be printed on silk, cotton or canvas.

According to Reed, "Depending on the effect I want, an image is added early or late in the process of applying wax. I sometimes work the surface of the piece with tools and oil sticks or pastels to add texture and color to the work."

Also participating in this year’s annual juried exhibit were artists: Patty Aker, Allen Caucutt, Dottie Diggs, Patrick Doughman, Julie Frothingham, Shirley Gruen, David Henke, Diane Henke, Claudette Lee, Paul Madura, Deb Mortl, Gary Warren Niebuhr, Jim Selle, Kitty Sturrock, Helen Waldschmidt and Susan Willets.

Award winners were chosen by Lee Ann Garrison. Garrison is a painter, arts writer, and chair of the Department of Art and Design, Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She writes art reviews periodically for Third Coast Digest and has exhibited her paintings nationally.

The exhibit and sale runs from Saturday, January 7 through Sunday, February 5.

The 2011-2012 Exhibit Season is proudly sponsored by Tri City National Bank.

McMann & Tate Productions

I had asked troupe co-founder Vance Edwards for some insights and history of the group. Additionally, I was able to reach into our archives and find a decades-old press release that—taken together—gives us a pretty rounded (and only slightly revisionist) history of McMann & Tate.

According to Vance, “In the late part of the twentieth century, Spring 2000, a group of friends went to see a theater production. Midway through the performance, Phyllis Lukas and Carrie Edwards turned to their husbands, Jeff Lukas and Vance Edwards, and whispered, ‘If you two think you're so funny, why don't you guys go write your own show. Now shut-up! We're trying to watch the play!’ And from that, McMann & Tate Productions was born.

“After sweet-talking, blackmailing and bribing others to join the group, the next step was to find a place to put on the show. Soon a deal was made with the Cedarburg Cultural Center to perform an off-beat, comedy holiday show called The Holidays (Some Assembly Required).

“Next, this theater group needed a name. Many monikers made the first draft, including Cliffs of Insanity Productions, Beyond Parsley, and What Are You Looking At Productions. All were shot down by the groups' voting spouses. Then one day, the day that followed the night they stopped letting spouses vote, McMann & Tate Productions (remember the old TV show, Bewitched?) was agreed upon.”

Both Jeff and Vance had been part of Cedarburg Players. “We wanted to branch out and do something different than Rogers and Hammerstein and Neil Simon,” continued Vance. “Nothing against those type of shows. Very popular and well written shows, and worth seeing, but we were just done doing them.”

This is a creative bunch. Even the titles of the shows make you laugh:

· The BiPolar Express
· Bologna Quesadillas (and other reasons you’re single)
· The Love Handle Monologues
· Claus-trophobia

And then there’s “Tomato Dodgeball,” an annual Improv extravaganza and fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The word Improv means impromptu or unrehearsed. That’s a bit of a misnomer. Sure, the group never knows what the audience is going to throw at them (tomatoes are discouraged), but Improv is hard work, and it takes a lot of practice to make it look like a bunch of really funny guys and gals just horsing around on a Saturday night.

You know the type: These were the kids who probably spent a lot of time being escorted (by the ear) down to the principal’s office by a decidedly not-amused, long-suffering English teacher. But these kids were probably the best and brightest in that class! McMann & Tate's first original full-act play, "Family, Frying Pans & the FBI," went on to win two national play writing competitions and was performed by theater groups in Vermont and New Jersey. McMann & Tate has also done murder mysteries and children's shows, and although they have performed at other venues from time to time, “the Cultural Center remains our home.”

Your next opportunity to see McMann & Tate will be “Tomato Dodgeball: CFF FUNdraiser” on April 14, 2012, beginning at 6 pm. Tomatoes may be consumed but not thrown.

McMann & Tate is:
Gary Draxler
Tami Draxler
Vance Edwards
Mick Jaynes
Jason Krukowski
Jeff Lukas
Heidi Mabie
Scott Mabie
Mike Maniaci
Kimberly Manthey
Melissa Schirz

So I would be remiss, or at least greatly bothered, if I did not take a moment to say thank you. 'Tis the season after all. There seems to be a connection, at least for me, between guilt and thankfulness. My own guilt over perceived sins, “things done and left undone,” has deepened my appreciation and thankfulness for those who have made so many things so much better in my life and the life of my community.

Of course, top of mind for me these days is always the Cedarburg Cultural Center. The Center is nothing if not a monument to the belief by members of our community that Cedarburg and the whole of Ozaukee County is very special. And that incredibly special quality was—and is—worth nurturing, celebrating, and preserving. It’s evident everywhere you turn. It’s in the architecture which we celebrate in our annual Architectural Treasures Tour. It’s in the arts community, the creativity of whom we joyously hang on the walls and experience on the stage of the Center. It’s woven through our rich history which we bring alive through books published by the Center and thousands of historic photos from the Ed Rappold and Harold Dobberpohl collections made available to the public. It’s in the belief that little seeds of talent, watered in our classrooms, can grow into careers or at least a lifelong appreciation for the arts.

I think about the founders of the Cedarburg Cultural Center who still pour their passion into this place: Mal Hepburn, Phil Schmidt, Dick Ellefson, Nancy Messinger, Vic DiCristo, Susan Hale. And there was the late Carl Edquist, whose commitment has become a philanthropic benchmark for so many. Our presidents, some of whom are still involved on an almost-daily basis, include: Jim Meinert, Fred Beyer, Herbert Neuer, John Stevens, Jim Yarger, Gail Ostermann, Allen Caucutt, James Myers, Philia Hayes, Ann Murray, Barbara Hunt, and current president Larry Gergens.

And so, in the spirit of the season, I thank them all. I thank also our members and those who support us by attending performances, buying artwork, and taking classes. I thank our talented, loyal, and long-standing staff. Have a meaningful holiday season, and if you are thankful for the Cedarburg Cultural Center, please share us with others.

a) A tiny Eastern European country
b) A boutique clothing store specializing in retro-inspired, “shabby chic” clothing
c) An electrifying local band with a sound that unabashedly channels wandering minstrels, Simon and Garfunkel, with a dash of Jack Sparrow swagger.

The answer is “C,” and I admit it: Spending an evening with The Vitrolum Republic made me want to run away with the gypsies...

A few months after hearing the group on public radio, David and Courtney Olson invited a small group to their home last weekend for a party. It was a brilliant way to introduce this home grown phenomenon to friends and to raise money for the CCC in the process. The evening was a success by all measures and one of the most exciting things I’ve experienced in recent memory.

Twelve bars into the first number I felt like I was slaloming downhill, wind in my face. Wake up, wake up, WAKE UP! This was some exciting stuff. Accordian. String bass. Drums. And a very intense violin. Gorgeous and sensuous. Spicy. Like hot chocolate with a sprinkle of cayenne pepper. Or whiskey with honey, very appropriately the group’s favorite beverage.

Suddenly, just as quickly as the wild ride began, we were gently floating down a river (the Danube perhaps?) on a lovely, warm, star-lit evening. It was the stuff of fairy tales. Pure enchantment.

And then there were the voices, smooth as the honey in that whiskey. The harmonies could bring you to tears. I remember turning to our hosts after the third song began and just saying, “Wow.” That's really all I could manage.

There was so much that was magical about the evening. But the most amazing thing was the realization that these were local boys, ages 25 - 30. Chuck Lawton (string bass, guitar) is a Grafton High School graduate. Benjamin Schaefer (drums) hails from Cedarburg High. And the Waraksa brothers, Nick (accordion, keyboards) and Jordan (violin, guitar, mandolin, banjo), grew up just down the road in Milwaukee.

In my opinion, this is what the Cedarburg Cultural Center does best: We celebrate and encourage local talent. Thanks to the Olsons for introducing us to The Vitrolum Republic. Check out our website in the next few months: We’re working on a very special event featuring the band. You won’t want to miss it.

Oh, and an interesting post script and further local tie-in: Jordan is the very talented artist behind the elemental "kinetic sculptural artwork" in Grafton's Ale House!  www.jordanwaraksa.com

The UWM Faculty Art Exhibit stretches the imagination as well as—for many—the definition of Art. “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Or Cedarburg for that matter. This is an exhibit that evokes visceral reactions. It makes people talk and think. On Friday, I found three teenage girls seated in front of one of the video installations, giggling and blushing.

I love the work of our Ozaukee County artists. My office is happily filled with it. But the urbane perspective of the UWM faculty has turned our generally gentile space into a creative riot! The staff is enjoying having such a diverse collection of media and styles in the Columbia St. Mary’s Gallery. Approximately 50 artists are represented, and only one of them is a regular exhibitor at the CCC: Allen Caucutt. Change is good…and interesting…and—well—different! (To the right is Fig Leaves by Marla Goldstein Brauner. Dyed vintage textiles anigital embroidery.)

Sharing the Center with the UWM faculty is Cedarburg’s own Vicki Reed in our East Gallery. No stranger to our walls, Vicki was the winner of our 2009 juried Miniature Show. Her current exhibit displays a wide range of techniques and photographic processes including hand tinting and a beautiful array of “encaustic” pieces, a method involving the use of beeswax to impart a lovely, soft patina to the piece. Vicki’s Bee Balm Quilt uses an image she captured with a scanner and “cut” into “quilt” blocks: five inch wood squares coated with beeswax. The first nine tiles are on display at the Center, and over the course of the exhibit, she will add forty more panels to complete the quilt.

I urge you to visit the Center prior to Sunday, November 27, and experience our newest exhibition. All pieces are available for sale, and there’s never any admission to look!

Thank you once again to our season exhibit sponsor Tri City National Bank.

But we’re equally proud of what’s old at the Center!

The CCC curates and maintains the General Store Museum located at the Cedarburg Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center building a few blocks south of us on Washington Avenue. The 1860s era building is home to the Roger C. Christensen collection of advertising art and antique packaging, dating from the first four decades of the 1900s. It’s also home to a whole lot of very old candy! I’m always drawn to the candy counter and those jars of vintage lemon drops and packages of Necco wafers. What exactly is the shelf life of a Necco wafer? 

Our Kuhefuss House Museum, an 1849 Greek Revival structure is north of the Cultural Center on Washington Avenue and was home to five generations of the Kuhefuss family. Seriously, I think it’s noteworthy just from the perspective that they had five daughters and only one bathroom…which, given Wisconsin winters, was a significant improvement from the original outhouse. The home underwent a few “modernizations” in its 160 years (they never did add a second bathroom) but is preserved largely as it was when the family lived there. CCC volunteers open the Kuhefuss House for guided tours during the summer months and during the winter holiday season.

The CCC also stewards a 1920s-era schoolroom a few blocks south of the Kuhefuss House in the Lincoln Building. For a large number of visitors, it’s a trip down memory lane. For the large number of school children who visit there yearly, it’s a living history lesson. (The schoolroom is open by appointment only. Please contact us.)

You can’t really have a discussion about Cedarburg history without talking about the Noel and Judy Jepson Collection. Spanning approximately 100 years, the collection is still a work in progress and labor of love for Judy. Artifacts include anything and just about everything made or manufactured in Cedarburg including 17 Mercury Marine outboard motors, local advertising signage, paintings, and reams of documentation on Cedarburg citizens. At a recent meeting with Judy, we tried to estimate the amount of space it would take to properly display it all, and we guessed at around 3,000 square feet of floor space and an equal amount of wall space!

Judy very generously wishes to donate the collection to a nonprofit organization that can properly curate it. We are helping her find exhibit space, and a committee has been formed to assist. A number of creative ideas have been vetted including displaying small portions of the collection on a rotating basis at the CCC or the library, or finding a larger, permanent museum space to present a majority of these artifacts as well as other Cedarburg memorabilia from local collectors. Obviously funding is a huge issue; facility maintenance and staff costs are ongoing expenses that could dwarf the initial cost of procuring space. But even in this challenging economy, the attitude around the table is hugely optimistic. We will find a way to preserve local history and make it accessible to the public. Because that’s what we do.

This is the place where art, music and HISTORY thrive!

Starting out at the venerable Edgewood Orchard Galleries in Fish Creek, we focused on the art of Door County. True to its name, the galleries are housed in a 1918 stone fruit barn on an 80 acre orchard. It’s the perfect backdrop for the works of over 100 artists, many with national followings. The outside sculpture garden is lovely, and we were greeted by a good number of bronze pieces by Cedarburg’s C.T. Whitehouse: simple and graceful vessels—some crafted into fountains—that will live out their days as the centerpiece of a lucky collector’s home garden.

From there we entered Edgewood Orchard's Courtyard Gallery where, now through the end of October, Cedarburg’s own Renee Graef is featured with original illustrations from the newly published book “D is for Dala Horse: A Nordic Countries Alphabet.” The work is gorgeous, rich in color and charming detail. In one of the pieces, I was sure I saw Renee’s own face as a young girl in the crowd.

What a thrill it was to walk into the main gallery and be in the midst of such beauty…and so many Cedarburg-area artists. The art of Door County turned out to be, in significant part, the art of Ozaukee County! Marcia Boyd, Jean Crane, Susan Hale, Bruce Hustad, Shelby Keefe, Mary Ulm Mayhew, Jane Boller Stroebel, Tom Uttech, and Catherine Laing. Without doubt, the Cedarburg Artists Guild (CAG) is the most represented guild in Door County. From Edgewood Orchard and onto the Fine Line Designs Gallery in Ephraim and in and out of little pockets of loveliness all up and down the peninsula. And over and over and over again, we ran into CAG artists! Is Door County actually Ozaukee County North?

I like to say that the arts community in Cedarburg is its greatest natural resource. I would venture an educated guess that Cedarburg is home to more people in the arts professions (artists, authors, furniture makers, architects, musicians, etc.) per capita than any other place in Wisconsin and maybe in the Midwest. Richard Florida’s “Creative Class” stresses the importance of having a healthy percentage of residents in the creative professions. The Creative Class infuses a community with vibrancy, economic resiliency, and a sense of place. Certainly this is the case in Cedarburg! If you at all doubt me, get out your calendar and plan to attend the CAG's Covered Bridge Studio Tour: October 7th, 8th and 9th, 2011.  You’ll enjoy “a weekend of discovery as you explore the studios of over 60 artists in the quaint, historic towns and countryside of Newburg, Port Washington, Grafton, Cedarburg, Mequon and Thiensville.”

Door County? It’s a lovely place. But if you want to see the place where much of that art is born, come to Ozaukee County!

It was a thought-provoking exhibit. I am not sure if I would have categorized some of it as “art.” Some would probably be more aptly dubbed “assemblages”: collections of objects and words and pictures that make up all the flotsam and jetsam that bump, chase, and bounce around our brains in the course of a lifetime. And then there was the fascinating yet disturbing work of autistic savant artists who spend countless hours, painstakingly “dumping” their internal photographic memory-albums onto paper by reproducing calendars, maps, lists, etc. in impossibly-small script. Whoa.

But the exhibit moved me. I had an epiphany. My children are now young men in their 20s. Like most parents, I have precious memories of them as infants, as toddlers, on their first day of school, at Christmas, as Ninja Turtles at Halloween. Or do I? What I realized is that what mostly passes for memories of them are actually recollections of the photographs in our family photo albums. Truly! Think about it. Think of any event older than a decade ago (maybe even five years ago). Picture it. Now, is there actually a photograph that corresponds to that memory? I’ll bet in most cases there is.

How much of our memory of the important people and events in our lives are actually tied to actual “hard copy” visual imagines: photographs, artwork, and videos? Advertisers believe it takes up to 20 times for an advertising message to take root in a person’s brain. Could most of our memories of our family be due to pleasant perusing of the family photo albums, framed portraits on our walls, and repeated viewing of the old wedding, vacation, graduation and (ewww) childbirth videos?

Creating art can be a way of making a record of what we actually see around us or what our imagination constructs out of our waking and sleeping experiences. Not being an artist, I ask those of you who are: How does your art serve to help you remember the world around you?

Images from the work of Gregory Blackstock.

This is from the Jurors’ Notes: “The jurors’ first impression of the show was that the overall quality of the work submitted was excellent.” They cited “freshness in the approach to traditional subject matter” and complimented the artists on the “variety and stylistic diversity” of the artwork. When you come to see the show, you will no doubt agree: This year’s show is an embarrassment of riches.

Three Blue Ribbons were awarded to Tracy Ferrence, Jean Crane, and Patrick Doughman. They represent three dramatically different styles and subject matter.

Tracy’s “Head in the Clouds” portrays a young boy brought to life with pencil, the perfect soft medium for this dreamy piece. Judges pronounced it “a technically superb drawing.” “Calla Lilies in Space” by Jean Crane is “a mystic way to present flowers…outside their environment.” Jean’s watercolors are technically superb, and this piece is a show-stopper. Patrick Doughman’s “Rivoli Restoration,” a 4-color reduction linoleum print, “speaks of everything good about small town America.” There’s just something warm and comforting about it.

Red Ribbon Award Winners are an impressive group, any of which (all of which!) I would love to take home to hang on my own walls:
· Tom Kubala’s “Snow Path”
· Claudette Lee-Roseland “Migration Series – Speeding South”
· Mary Ulm Mayhew “Mon Ami”
· Christopher Behrs “Restless Wake”
· Nancy Camden “Crowing”

The CAG Fall Show will be on the walls of the Cedarburg Cultural Center through October 9, 2011.

Claudette Lee's ribbon may be seen at Kohl’s on South 108th Street in West Allis.

Thus far, 41 pieces have been returned, and more are coming in every hour! Some of them are exquisite. Some of them are whimsical. Some of them are riots of abstract color. One is..thought-provoking. And one of them is the work of a woman who hasn’t picked up a paintbrush in about 40 years. That one’s mine. I imagine you’ll know it when you see it. I suspect the whole world will know that this canvas was painstakingly painted, itty-bitty brushstroke by itty-bitty brushstroke, by a person who just doesn’t have a clue.

For the record, the beautiful canvas to the right was created by artist Jane Boller Stroebel, NOT executive director Lauren Rose Hofland.

How is it that real artists paint so effortlessly and fluidly when, for me, it was like trying to count backwards from 1,000 by sevens…on one foot? But in the process of putting paint on the canvas, I learned a lot:

1. You don’t hold a paintbrush like you hold a pencil. Unfortunately I didn’t learn that until after I finished.
2. Being "naturally" creative is harder than it looks.
3. It is possible to be very creative but still not be able to paint.
4. Although you can tell a lot about what’s inside a talented artist’s head by what’s on her canvas, the only thing you can tell about an untalented artist by looking at her canvas is that she’s untalented.
5. Artists are an encouraging and gracious lot. They have been generously parental with their encouragement and patience of my attempts to emulate what comes so naturally to them. (Thank you.)

Come to the Cedarburg Cultural Center and watch the building of our spectacular 6” x 6” Mosaic Mural Project! Buy a canvas or two: All proceeds benefit the Center. And, if you’re so inclined, stop in and pick up a canvas to create your own piece of art to contribute to the wall. The deadline is September 1, 2011.

Now, it’s oil painter Catie Barron’s turn at the easel. Catie is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute Chicago, and—like her art—she is colorful, beautiful, and just looking at her makes you smile. Catie’s specialty is flowers. Her pieces meld fantasy into realism, a kind of cross between a botanical study and an illustration for a children’s picture book. (You just KNOW there are Lilliputian pointy-eared, pointy-shoed fairies hiding between the petals of Catie’s gargantuan flowers!)

As magical as Catie’s paintings are, something magical is also happening at the Center. People are coming in from off the street, pulling up a chair, and just watching the artists working. They ask questions, they comment, they share. They are engaged. And the artists seem to bloom right before these visitors eyes! They talk about their technique, their history, their creative process, and—when young and budding artists are present—they encourage. And all the while, they create. Catie is prolific, and a veritable garden of canvases has sprung up underfoot.

I urge you to come and watch. Be a part of the process. It’s a unique opportunity for both the artist and our guests. Catie will be with us every Tuesday and Thursday in August from 10 – 5, except when I steal her away for lunch! For photos and more about the Artist in Residence program, check out our Facebook page.

The word “Treasures” conjures up images of hidden riches. Yet here in Ozaukee County, we find Architectural Treasures around every bend.

Our county is dotted with jewels: homes and public buildings of every shape, size, style and material. Grand or humble, welcoming or austere, these gems have stood the test of time. They remain well used and well loved. Adapted to today’s lifestyles, their current owners and caretakers bridge two radically different eras, turning our founding fathers’ homesteads into their own.

The tour homes each had their own stories: tales of immigrants seeking religious freedom, fortune, and family security; and accounts of current homeowners who have willingly taken on the responsibility of guardian and custodian to wards who are constantly requiring more and more of their attention but who have given back even more.

Thank you to Architectural Treasures Tour co-chairs Amy Cordio and Cynthia Matchette, and house captains Buffy Godfrey, Barbara Hunt, Erin Ortiz, Jill Hepburn and Philia Hayes.

And a very special thank you to Phoebe and Stuart Parsons, David and Courtney Olson, Dan Lanzdorf and Lisa Bruce, Julie and Mark Harrington, Jean and Dave Johnson, and the parishioners of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. Thank you not only for allowing us to share in your Treasures but also for preserving them as the jewels in Ozaukee County’s crown.

Sounds like the name of a beautiful, exotic woman. Italian? Celtic? Can't you just picture her? She wears very expensive Italian linen tailored slacks (which never wrinkle) and a wispy cloud of a blouse with shell buttons: RIGHT?!

Wrong.

Louro Faia is an exotic hardwood, not an exotic woman. It’s found across Central and South America, especially Ecuador and Brazil…and in the latest fantastic creation of local furniture maker Charley Radtke.

Charley is one of Cedarburg’s precious natural resources. His work has found its way to the Smithsonian (http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=44245) and into the homes of fortunate collectors worldwide.

His current work is called a Collector's Vault, designed to hold a collection of specific things. Charley’s intent is to build seven to nine small lock boxes that will fit snuggly inside the vault to house whatever collection it is holding. In addition to lauro faia, the vault is crafted of maple, tiger maple, pernambuco (a scarce wood used mainly for stringed instrument bows), cork and gold leaf; and it is lined with Spanish cedar.

I have had the thrill of visiting Charley’s studio twice now, and both times I feel like I have visited a cathedral. I come away awestruck. To say that Charley makes furniture is like saying that Pavarotti sings songs. Like all great artists, Charley has defined or redefined the genre.

Charley coaxes rich and deep pattern from the grain of the lumber lying in piles around his studio and then—somewhat like Native American parents waiting until the personality of a child shows itself before naming her—he waits to see what the pattern reveals. The results are pieces of “furniture”—mostly cabinets—whose only resemblance to the stuff in my house is that they’re made of wood and have legs.

Under his plane and application of layer upon layer of French polish (he applied 80 layers the day after I was there), Charley breathes life back into dead trees, creating boards that feel like velvet, look like a reflecting pool, and become the basis for museum-quality pieces.

For a comprehensive and revealing interview with Cedarburg furniture maker Charley Radtke by (Cedarburg’s own) W.A. Reed in (Cedarburg’s own) “Porcupine” magazine, click here:

http://www.porcupineliteraryarts.com/CharlesRadtke.html

Charley's own website offers a furniture feast for the eyes (take a walk around his "gallery" pages) at: www.charlesradtke.com.

We recently watched a movie titled, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” a controversial documentary on street art that, according to the NY Times, may have actually been an elaborate hoax. That aside, it was a darned good story.

Street art can be synonymous with public art...or it can be worlds apart. They’re both found in an urban environment, create dialog, and can be a form of creative enhancement and renewal.

But street art is much more democratic—in a “free speech” sort of way—than public art. Anybody can do it…or paint over it. No committee approves it. No foundation funds it. Nobody censors it, at least not right away. Street art is often synonymous with graffiti and vandalism and is, in most places, illegal. It was, I have read, originally devised as a way to mark gang territory.

Public art is a form of civic pride and a statement of vitality. If there was an award for public art, the Village of Grafton would receive it. Not only do they have their own Public Arts Board (notice it's “Arts” not “Art”), the citizens of Grafton are peppering the village with visual, literary and performing arts. Public arts, not street arts. Paramount Plaza. Grafton Blues Association. Grafton Area Lives Arts (GALA). North Shore Academy of the Arts. Art Bark. The Pick ‘n Save shopping center (yes; take a look!). Rain Barrels on Parade. And now: Poetry Paths.

Taking its cue from the award-winning St. Paul, Minnesota, public art program, Poetry Paths will immortalize 10 new poems each year in stamped concrete on city sidewalks. Larger than a Tweet but diminutive nonetheless, Poetry Paths poems can only be 250 characters…including spaces. The first three poems are being installed this month: Click here for locations and more details.

Thanks to the Zaun Memorial Foundation whose funding has made the project possible and to the Village Board (President Jim Brunquell), staff (Administrator Darrell Hofland), and Public Arts Board (Chair Angelica Chalmers) of the Village of Grafton whose support of public art has put Grafton on the arts map.

For the next two hours, the crowd was almost-literally blown away by the sheer power of first the Cedarburg drummers and then the Japanese group. It was a study in contrasts. From the costumes, to the instruments (ours very refined, theirs unchanged since 500 BC), to the playing style, the only similarity between the two was the emotion it evoked in the audience. The children literally danced in the street. I, like most of the adults I stood near, was exhilarated and thrilled.

This was the Cedarburg Cultural Center at its best. It was Art, Music, and History all rolled into one explosive evening. We would have been proud to be able to offer this program at any cost. But it was free of charge! This is the power of collaboration. Thanks to Concordia University (especially Christine Kao), Gathering on the Green, Cedarburg Festivals, the City of Cedarburg (Mikko Hilvo), Milwaukee Sake, Izumi Japanese Restaurant, Retailworks, Inc., and members of the fabulous CCC staff who stayed late to help.

If you haven’t had an opportunity to stop by recently, please don’t miss the colorful, fascinating, and beautiful collection of Japanese artifacts on loan from Cedarburg resident Takako Willden!

Thanks to Claudette Lee for the photographs.

A recent article proclaimed, “A new National Endowment for the Arts analysis projects a healthy rate of growth in arts jobs through the year 2018.” Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the NEA projects a growth rate of 11 percent for arts-related occupations over the next seven years. That’s a higher than the projected increase of 10 percent for the overall labor force!

Of course, if you’re a biomedical engineer, the 72 percent projected increase in that job field leaves our poor artists in the dust. But there are a number of arts-related fields that are anticipated to see impressive growth: museum technicians and conservators (26 percent); curators (23 percent); landscape architects (20 percent); interior designers (19 percent); architects (16 percent); writers and authors (14 percent); graphic designers and actors (13 percent); art directors, photographers, and film and video editors (12 percent).

So what’s going on with the interior design field? “Employment of interior designers is expected to grow faster than average, primarily due to the health care industry,” the report states. “With a rapidly aging U.S. population, there is growing demand for health care facilities, and interior designers will be needed to ensure pleasant surroundings for patients.”

Not quite as optimistic, the jobs for painters, sculptors and illustrators are expected to grow at only a 9 percent rate, and jobs for fashion designers will grow an anemic 1 percent. My daughter-in-law (the recent Mt. Mary fashion design major) will not be happy to hear this.

Oh, and hey Dad, careers in education are expected to increase almost 16 percent…contrasted with only a 12 percent increase in management-related jobs. And I couldn’t even find non-profit jobs in the report!

Finally summer has truly arrived. There is no going back this time. Some call it “the three months that make the other nine months tolerable.”

Today, in with that warm southerly wind, came Mary Groh Mendla, the Cedarburg Cultural Center’s first Artist in Residence! Mary just radiates “breezy.” Something about the way she dresses perhaps? I knew of Mary from her FACETS Fashions clothing line, www.facetsfashions.com. Her designs are richly textural and colorful with long, lovely lines. It’s magical: You slip on one of her pieces and you look instantly graceful. (Mary, where were you when I was 13 years old and seemed to have a real talent for tripping over pattern in the carpet?)

Mary’s two-dimensional art reflects the same sensibility and beauty as her wearable art. As the July Artist in Residence, Mary has set up her easel by the east window (parking lot entrance) to the Center. She will be working on site from 10am – 1:30pm, the next three Tuesdays and Wednesdays (July 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, and 20). Mary will be painting in oils and working in soft pastels. Stop by and watch, learn, ask questions, be inspired!

In addition, Mary will be holding a special workshop on Saturday, July 23 from 10 am - 3 pm. Watercolors, water color pencils and all other supplies are included. Cost is $45 for Members and $50 for non-Members. (You are a member; right?)

Today, I am surrounded with beauty in our galleries. It is my first Plein Air experience, and everywhere I look, I see warmth and light and “fecundity” (love that word) spilling forth from the paint brushes of our winter-weary artists and igniting canvas after lush canvas. The Plein Air Painting Competition painters, in complete defiance of Mother Nature’s statements to the contrary, have decided that summer has arrived.  

And then there are the fresh artists of the Plein Air Youth Division! Come visit our Harris Bank Founders’ Room where the work of 200 young artists covers the walls and reveals the joy and wonder inside the heads of these fledgling painters and crayon artistes! The grandmother of one of the youngest entrants (a curly-haired two year old) translated her entry, “She looked around and saw a red car, grabbed a red crayon, held it out in front of the car to make sure it matched, and then made a red line across the paper. Then she saw a tree, found the green crayon, held it up, and made her mark…” Perfect!

Throughout this beautiful, little city, there is great natural beauty. Artists from near and far away have captured it, each in their own way, this past week during the Plein Air Painting Competition. But I have come to believe that the greatest natural resource in this charming corner of the world is not the flora and fauna and archetypal architecture reflected in the hundreds of works of art created in the past 10 days. The greatest natural resource here is the arts community.

Per capita, we have the greatest concentration of resident artists than any other place in the Midwest. That adds up to a lot of Creative Capital, a a unique and valuable asset.  Come up with a list of other places like this. I can come up with just three. This is the Capital of Creative Capital...and the Cedarburg Cultural Center is the CENTER of it all.

Best of Show: was awarded to Michael Santini, who will be featured in a future solo exhibition to be held at the Cedarburg Cultural Center.First Place: was awarded to Pamela Ruschman.Second Place: was awarded to Becca Mulenburg.Eight Honorable Mentions were awarded to artists: Mary Ellen Mueller, Alice Struck, Dave Henke, Helen Waldschmidt, Frank Juarez, Diane Kaye, Ron Brenwall , and James Michael.
The exhibit was juried by Michael Flanagan. Michael Flanagan is currently the director of the Crossman Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he has been working since 1995. In addition to managing the gallery, he teaches a survey class and a basic art course in the Department of Art. Flanagan is a member of the Board at the Walker’s Point Center of the Arts where he chairs the Exhibition Committee.

Lauren previously was the Director of the Women's Division and Women's Annual Campaign at the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. Prior to that, she was the Assistant Manitowoc County Executive and formed a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation "Friends of the Manitowoc County Courthouse" to facilitate restoration of this historic building. Other career positions included executive director of a non-profit serving youth, newspaper features writer/editor, talent booking agent/manager, and marketing director for Natural Ovens of Manitowoc.

Lauren joined us on November 15, 2010 and has found her first six weeks, "rewarding and exciting." Her focus will be on developing collaborative relationships within the Ozaukee County business and arts communities and ensuring the Cedarburg Cultural Center flourishes during its next 25 years.

Lauren resides in Grafton with her husband Darrell. They are the proud parents of a blended family of five boys, three daughters-in-law, and one adorable grandson.

Please stop by the Center and say hello to Lauren.