While the Wausau area is being marketed as the Best Place to Play in the Snow by the Central Wisconsin Convention and Visitors Bureau this winter, the Woodson Art Museum – as always – is the best place to escape the cold and enjoy the view.
Last week, representatives from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism visited the Museum among other area attractions in preparation for the January 2012 Winter Press Tour. Media representatives from various national and regional magazines and media outlets will visit travel destinations for two days each in Marathon and Vilas counties, January 23-27. The hope, of course, is that the stories these journalists write will prompt tourists to plan trips to our area – to ski, sled, skate, curl, shop, eat in restaurants, stay at hotels, and visit the Woodson Art Museum!
Last winter, one such family came from Madison to ski at Granite Peak. While the mother and one child hit the slopes, the father and son visited the Museum and enjoyed Art Park, the Museum’s interactive family gallery. The dad created a video, “Nicholas at the Woodson Art Museum,” and posted it on YouTube and said the family plans to repeat their Wausau getaway again this winter.
Keep the Art Museum in mind as you host friends and family throughout this holiday season and beyond. Inventive and imaginative wooden boxes are the focus of two new exhibitions that open Saturday – Boxes and Their Makers: Contemporary Woodworkers and Think Inside the Box. An array of programs for all ages – woodworking and lathe demonstrations, hands-on activities to make treasure boxes and family keepsake boxes, and Art History 101 programs – will bring these boxes to life throughout the nine-week exhibition.In addition, stunningly impressive artworks by John James Audubon, three generations of Wyeth painters, and Andy Warhol among others are featured in A Collective Journey, along with Small by Design, two exhibitions drawn from the Museum’s collection and which remain on view through February 2012.
In early February, Team USA snow sculptors return to work their winter magic and coax a dinosaur to emerge from a block of snow, in a nod to Dinotopia: The Fantastical Art of James Gurney, on view in February and March.
As winter commences, remember . . . the Woodson Art Museum is the best place to come in out of the cold, spark creativity, and stoke the embers of your imagination.
