Past Exhibitions

December 3, 2022 – February 26, 2023
From headdresses and helmets to turbans and crowns, explore the vital role of ceremonial headwear throughout diverse cultural customs, beliefs, and rituals. Transcending utilitarian purposes, each head covering is a work of art, showcasing skill and creativity in conveying meaning. In a profusion of shapes and styles, materials, and embellishments, these hats and headdresses communicate beauty, the diversity of the world’s cultures, and ideas shared throughout humanity.

December 3, 2022 – February 26, 2023
Organized by the Woodson Art Museum, Stormy Kromer: Evolution of a Classic puts a local spin on global headwear. From invention and evolution throughout a century, the stylish and durably designed Stormy Kromer hats are interwoven into Wisconsin culture. The lore is part of the lure. A pull-down ear band stitched to a baseball cap kept a train worker’s head warm and dry amid winter winds. From authentic originals to ever-evolving designs, the Stormy Kromer caps – along with fascinating archival material – celebrate the art of hat and headwear design.

September 10 – November 27, 2022
Majestic yet fragile, birds connect us with the natural world. Heralding each sunrise and gathering at dusk, these harbingers of seasonal and environmental change endlessly fascinate and inspire. All-new work by the world’s most talented artists provide a splendid array of perspectives and insights. After artwork is selected in May, information and images are shared when finalized as the exhibition is prepared for the fall opening. The Birds in Art exhibition opening is part of Wausau’s Artrageous Weekend.

September 10 – October 23
Visualize avian voices via sculptures inspired by the recorded calls of extinct or endangered birds. Resembling a forest of vertical forms, the sculptures by California- and New York-based artist Elizabeth Turk are enhanced by interactive elements: scannable recordings of the lost or endangered birds’ voices.
Turk is the featured speaker on opening day of Tipping Point and Birds in Art 2022, Saturday morning, September 10, 9:30-10:30 am.

August 28, 2022 through January 29, 2023
The idea of the Midwest as a geographic region with fluid borders in the mid-twentieth century when artists navigated, negotiated, and incorporated international and regional influences, is at the heart of this exhibition drawn from the Museum’s collection.

June 11 – August 28, 2022
Farm to Table considers the farm as a site of production, both artistic and agricultural. It features artworks from the Woodson Art Museum collection that showcase the barnyard as a site of orderly nature, fenced in first by the farmer and second by the artist’s frame.

June 11 – August 28, 2022
Celebrating the diversity and history of cultivated plants grown for clothing, healing, and food, this exhibition features plants discovered on international travels, picked up at farmers’ markets, and plucked from the artists’ own gardens. The artworks created by American Society of Botanical Artists were selected for The New York Botanical Garden’s Fourth Triennial, devoted to biological diversity in cultivated utilitarian plants.

June 11 – August 28, 2022
Ginny Ruffner: Reforestation of the Imagination, a mixed-media art installation, features hand-blown glass sculptures initially conveying a barren landscape of tree stumps until a complex and colorful alternative environment is revealed through an augmented-reality lens.