The Art Preserve is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. ...

and a satellite campus of the

Sheboygan, Wisconsin Sheboygan () is a city in and the county seat of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 49,929 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Sheboygan, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a populati ...

. Opened in June 2021, the Art Preserve is the first museum dedicated to the exhibition, preservation, and care of artist-built environments. The museum also serves as a research space for the art environment genre.

History

The museum was first envisioned by

Ruth DeYoung Kohler II Ruth DeYoung Kohler II (October 24, 1941 – November 14, 2020) was a museum director and teacher from Wisconsin who championed under-recognized, self-taught artists and vernacular art. She was the director of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center ...

, who served as director of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center from 1972 to 2016. Kohler traveled through rural Wisconsin as a child and became fascinated with artist-built environments, in particular Fred Smith's

Wisconsin Concrete Park The Wisconsin Concrete Park is a sculpture park located along Wisconsin Highway 13 in the town of Phillips, Wisconsin. The park includes over 200 folk art sculptures built with concrete and decorated with glass bottles and other found objects. Fre ...

. Kohler worked throughout her life to preserve and display these artist-built environments. The artist-built environment genre of art-making refers to spaces transformed by an artist to express their personal identity, culture, or history. These spaces can include homes, gardens, parks, or built structures covered with art. While artist-built environments are designed to be permanent or semi-permanent, they often require care and preservation in order to maintain the original artistic integrity.

Design

The three-story building of the museum is , on a site. Ruth DeYoung Kohler II was committed to the idea that the building should include natural materials such as stone, wood, and earth, as a sign of respect for the materials often utilized by artists in creating the art environments held in the collection. The Art Preserve was built into a hill, with construction beginning in 2016. The museum was designed by the Denver-based architectural fir
Tres Birds
using timber, concrete, and river stones from the nearby Sheboygan River. Eighty percent of the building is made from local ground rock. The building was also designed to shade itself in order to protect the art inside. The museum's four artist-designed washrooms respond to the collection and continue in the tradition of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center washrooms. The washrooms at the Art Preserve were designed by

Michelle Grabner Michelle Grabner (born 1962 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin) is an artist, curator, and critic based in Wisconsin. She is the Crown Family Professor of Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she has taught since 1996. She has curated sever ...

Beth Lipman Beth Lipman (born 1971, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a contemporary artist working in glass. She is best known for her glass still-life compositions which reference the work of 16th- and 17th-century European painters. Biography Beth Lipm ...

, and the team of Joy Feasley and Paul Swenbeck with

Kohler Co. Kohler Co., founded in 1873 by John Michael Kohler, is an American manufacturing company based in Kohler, Wisconsin. Kohler is best known for its plumbing products, but the company also manufactures furniture, cabinetry, tile, engines, and ...

materials.

Collection

The first floor of the building is dedicated to the history of the preserve, its focus on Wisconsin artists, and the acquisition of

Eugene Von Bruenchenhein Eugene Von Bruenchenhein (1910–1983) was an American self-taught artist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Over the course of fifty years, from the 1930s until his death in 1983, Von Bruenchenhein produced an expansive oeuvre of poetry, photography, pain ...

's work. The second floor upends the assumptions made about artist-built environments and shows works by artists from the mainstream art world and urban areas. The third floor contains fully immersive artist-built environments. Many artist-built environments in the collection were originally domestic spaces, as artists in this genre frequently blur the lines between studio, home, and gallery. The environments in the collection include more than 25,000 objects by over 30 artists. The collection includes works by

Emery Blagdon Emery O. Blagdon (July 25, 1907 – June 1, 1986) was an American artist. Biography Blagdon was self-taught and did not receive formal art training. From the late 1950s until his death in 1986, Blagdon created a constantly changing installat ...

, Loy Bowlin,

Lenore Tawney Lenore Tawney (born Leonora Agnes Gallagher; May 10, 1907 – September 24, 2007) was an American artist known for her drawings, personal collages, and sculptural assemblages, who became an influential figure in the development of fiber art. Ea ...

Dr. Charles Smith Dr. Charles Smith (born 1940, New Orleans, Louisiana) is a visual artist, historian, activist and minister who lives and works in Hammond, Louisiana. His sculptural work focuses on African and African American history. Early life and education C ...

, Mary Nohl,

Vollis Simpson Vollis Simpson (1919 – May 31, 2013) was an American "outsider" folk artist known for large kinetic sculptures called " whirligigs", which Simpson made from salvaged metal. He lived and worked in Lucama, North Carolina. Many of his larg ...

and

Ray Yoshida Raymond "Ray" Kakuo Yoshida (October 3, 1930 – January 10, 2009) was an American artist known for his paintings and collages, and for his contributions as a teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1959 to 2005. He was an import ...

History

Design

Collection

See also