Preparations for this year’s Birds in Art exhibition are well underway. We continue to receive a steady flow of artwork with over half of the 126 paintings, drawings and sculpture safely unpacked, stored in a Woodson Art Museum vault, and ready for installation in our galleries.
Coming from an international cast of artists, artworks are shipped from all over the world. Shipping works overseas can be challenging, given the various rules and regulations that countries impose to secure their borders – from potential bug infestations to concerns for national security. Domestically, packages big and small are shipped from all corners of the country.
For one reason or another, a few artists choose to deliver their artwork themselves. Kimberly Beck and her husband, Dan, dropped off Kim’s tall, narrow oil painting of birds on a backyard feeder. Delivering the painting wrapped in bubble wrap and brown paper eliminated the need to build a custom crate.
Sculptor Don Rambadt drove up from his Milwaukee studio with his larger-than-life fabricated stainless-steel owl sculpture. It arrived in two parts, and Don used a museum packing blanket in one of our vaults as a cushion while he fastened the sculpture to its base.
Sue Gombus delivered her pastel on Saturday from her home in northern Indiana. She chose to deliver her pastel hoping to avoid any potential damage during shipping. While she was here, Sue recorded an audio tour track about her close up view of a flock of snow and Ross’s geese.
Kristine Parins traveled from her summer home in Lakewood, Wisconsin, to deliver her large watercolor of white ibis among flamingos. She returned a few days later to spend time viewing “Purely Prints,” our trio of summer exhibitions.
With just a couple of weeks left before the deadline for delivering all Birds in Art artwork, we’ll see a flurry of activity in and around the Museum’s loading dock. I suspect we’ll also see a few more artists making a personal “special delivery.”
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