The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum received a grant from the Green Bay Packers Foundation to support a future tactile exhibition, inviting all visitors to experience a new way to “see” by touching a selection of artwork from the Museum’s collection. Woodson Art Museum director Kathy Kelsey Foley and assistant director Matt Foss received a $3,000 grant check during a December 5 luncheon at the Lambeau Field Atrium in Green Bay.
“We are thrilled, honored, and humbled to be among the recipients of a 2018 Green Bay Packers Foundation grant,” said Woodson Art Museum director Kathy Kelsey Foley. “The Woodson Art Museum is grateful to receive a 2018 award, and we look forward to welcoming visitors of all interests – football and art – to experience our tactile exhibition, debuting in early 2019.”
The exhibition is designed to comprise tactile – entirely touchable – artworks from the Woodson Art Museum’s collection and will encourage all visitors to experience the sculptures through touch. Also, this tactile exhibition will be enhanced by accessible interpretive materials, including braille labels and a listening device for use by visitors with blindness or visual impairments. Museum educators and curators are working with consultant and sculptor Ann Cunningham, who teaches at the Colorado Center for the Blind, to develop the exhibition.
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum director Kathy Kelsey Foley and assistant director Matt Foss receive a Green Bay Packers Foundation grant check for a future tactile exhibition.
Art Beyond Sight, a Woodson Art Museum program implemented in 2006 and offered quarterly, provides multisensory ways for individuals with blindness or low vision to experience the visual arts. Museum staff continually strive to provide audiences with quality, barrier-free art experiences through these and other programs that enliven and amplify the themes of temporary changing exhibitions and Museum collection exhibitions. The tactile exhibition will enable all visitors – sighted and visually impaired – to engage with artworks during each Woodson Art Museum visit.
The Green Bay Packers Foundation on December 5 awarded $800,000 to 230 Wisconsin civic and charitable groups during its annual distribution of grants. The recipients were guests at a Lambeau Field Atrium luncheon, which “honored the outstanding efforts and services performed by each of the organizations,” according to a Green Bay Packers Foundation press release.
“We’re proud to recognize these outstanding recipient organizations, who are all doing incredible work in our communities,” Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy said at the event. “As a community-owned team, we are inspired by the efforts of these organizations and the positive impact they have on those that they serve.”
The 230 grants included 30 to Brown County organizations which received a total of $107,500 and 200 to other groups statewide, totaling $692,500. This year’s grant cycle focuses on organizations that will direct grant funds toward projects focused on arts and culture, athletics and education. For more information about the grants, visit packers.com/community/packers-foundation.
The Green Bay Packers Foundation has been giving back generously to Wisconsin communities, distributing more than $10.6 million for charitable purposes, since it was established in 1986 by Judge Robert J. Parins, then president of the Packers Corporation, “as a vehicle to assure continued contributions to charity.” The Green Bay Packers Foundation and its annual grants are part of Green Bay Packers Give Back, the Packers’ all-encompassing community outreach initiative that comprises appearances made by players, alumni, coaches and staff, football outreach camps, cash and in-kind donations, Make-A-Wish visits, and community events. #PackersGiveBack
The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, with its mission “to enhance lives through art,” continually strives for excellence in providing audiences with quality art experiences via the Museum’s collection, changing exhibitions, and related educational programming for all, while maintaining its commitment to always-free admission. As north central Wisconsin’s only full-service art museum, the Woodson serves a largely rural, 15-county geographic area. Its diverse changing exhibitions and related education programs have garnered regional, national, and international recognition. The Museum’s inaugural 1976 exhibition evolved into the international juried “Birds in Art” presented each fall that features all-new, avian-themed artwork by more than 100 worldwide artists. The Institute of Museum and Library Services recognized the high quality of the Woodson Art Museum’s community engagement by awarding the Woodson the 2017 National Medal for Museum Service, the nation’s highest honor given to museums for service to their communities. The Woodson was one of five museums, and one of only two art museums in the country, to receive the 2017 honor.
For more information about the Woodson Art Museum, check the events calendar at www.lywam.org, e-mail the Museum at info@lywam.org, call 715-845-7010, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Woodson Art Museum Hours
Tues–Fri 9am–4pm
First Thurs of each month 9am–7:30pm
Thursdays during Birds in Art 9am–7:30pm
Sat–Sun Noon–5pm
Closed Mon & holidays, including New Year’s Day, Easter, July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas
Admission: Always Free Admission
Phone: 715.845.7010
Email: info@lywam.org
Location: 700 N. 12th Street (Franklin & 12th Streets), Wausau, Wisconsin 54403-5007
Online: www.lywam.org
