Wausau, Wisconsin: Exhibitions drawn from the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s collection complement the 2014 Birds in Art exhibition opening September 6 and feature recent acquisitions and species and habitat conservation themes. Birds in Art remains on view through November 16; the other exhibitions remain on view through February 2015 and beyond.
Curator of collections Jane Weinke praised the Museum’s recent acquisitions and thanked donors for their generous gifts: “Our collection has grown in unanticipated and exceptional ways during the past few years,” Weinke said. “Its depth and breadth allow for the organization of diverse and dynamic thematic exhibitions.”
Project Passenger Pigeon, a nationwide education initiative marking the centennial of the species’ extinction was the impetus for the Woodson Art Museum’s “Legacy Lost & Saved: Extinct and Endangered Birds of North America.” Comprising works from the collection and loans, “Legacy Lost & Saved,” on view through July 2015, focuses on extinct and endangered birds – passenger pigeon, great auk, Carolina parakeet, heath hen, Labrador duck, and ivory-billed woodpecker – and takes a proactive and hopeful look at lessons squandered and learned.
For the Birds: Rare and Extinct, on view through July 2015, also features artwork of endangered species including the white-naped crane, Gough moorhen, Abbott’s booby, Galapagos penguin, and Dalmatian pelican. The paintings in For the Birds are part of 350 works in a collection commissioned for a worldwide endangered-species stamp series used to promote awareness.
The Great Marsh: Horicon Waterfowl includes paintings by legendary Wisconsin artist and conservation advocate Owen J. Gromme, also known as the “father of Birds in Art ” because he served as curator of the Woodson Art Museum’s inaugural exhibition in 1976. Gromme began his lifelong commitment to the restoration of the Horicon Marsh – just west of Fond du Lac, where he grew up – in the 1920s. The Great Marsh, on view through July 2015, also includes depictions of waterfowl by Frank Benson, Don Henson, Jim Morgan, Sherrie York, and Andrea Rich.
Birdwatching: Selections from the Collection, on view through February 2015, rounds out the new exhibition offerings with historic works by Jessie Arms Botke, Rubens Peale, and Percival L. Rosseau.
The Art of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions, on view through February 2015, includes a selection of twentieth-century works by Jim Dine, Milton Avery, Charley Harper, David Bates, Joseph Stella, and Neil Welliver that have been added to the collection during the past two years.
Carved & Cast features small-scale and medium-sized sculptures recently acquired by the Woodson Art Museum, including maquettes by Gwynn Murrill and work by Willard Stone, Jason Stone, Simon Gudgeon, Hank Tyler, Hélène Arfi, and Tim Cherry.
For more information, visit www.lywam.org, e-mail the Museum at museum@lywam.org, or call 715-845-7010.
Woodson Art Museum
Hours:
Tues–Fri 9am–4pm
First Thurs each month 9am–7:30pm
Thurs 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, Christmas
Admission: Always Free Admission
Phone: 715.845.7010
After hours press inquiries: 715.298.2901
Email: museum@lywam.org
Location: Franklin and 12th Streets, Wausau, Wisconsin 54403-5007
(700 N. Twelfth Street)
Online: www.lywam.org
