While I happily call Wausau, Wisconsin, home, among the wide-ranging benefits of my Woodson Art Museum work is the opportunity to travel. Additionally, with daughters who live away from home, the travel opportunities expand.
Earlier this summer, my husband, Ernie, and I visited our daughters in Denver. Activities included Topgolf — think high-tech driving range with chip-embedded golf balls; Coors Field for a Rockies versus the Diamondbacks night game, which set a record for the longest nine-inning major league game (ouch); and a trek to the Denver Flea.
The Denver Flea. An ingenious, mobile, entrepreneurial concept that brings together a wildly diverse range of vendors. From craft brewers to small-batch bakers and from clothing and decor sellers to soap-makers and a barbershop, it’s safe to say the Flea offered something for just about every interest.
Wandering in and out of vendor spaces, my daughters and I happened on Fish-Kiss, a bright and cheery booth featuring darling baby clothes, dish ware, and icon-filled Colorado maps. My girls spotted a bin holding Fish-Kiss artist-designer-owner Anne Klein’s other state maps and immediately sought out the Wisconsin tab.
You can imagine our surprise — and sheer delight — when the girls pulled out the Wisconsin map and found Wausau represented by an up-to-date drawing of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum.
Fortuitously, Anne Klein was working the booth. Before introducing myself, I asked how she selected community icons for her maps. She explained that she researches each city, looking for the singular, most identifiable or distinguishing institution or characteristic trait. How cool is that?!
I then introduced myself, thanked her profusely, and purchased a Wisconsin map print.
A framed Fish-Kiss Wisconsin map, with a Woodson Art Museum sketch commanding the near-center spot, now hangs on my office wall to the left of my computer. I smile every time I glance that way.
You never know where — and how — the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum will turn up.
Where have you encountered the Woodson Art Museum, its exhibitions, catalogues, influence, and reputation as you’ve traveled near and far?
