Summer Sculpture Contest Opens to Wisconsin Artists
The Wilson Center is seeking two works to be temporarily installed at two locations in Mitchell Park—the highly visible Southeast Field location and North Woods location along a well-traveled hiking and biking trail—as part of the creation of Lynn Chappy ArtsPark. Artists are invited to submit applications for the Summer Sculpture Contest at wilson-center.com/artspark. Existing sculptures as well as sculpture proposals will be accepted. The deadline for applications is August 31, 2015, at 5:00 p.m. CST.
All artwork should demonstrate a strong relationship with nature and be appropriate in scale and theme with the location. For the Southeast Field location, the Wilson Center will be seeking a sculpture that is prominent and proportionate to its surroundings, engaging and inviting the public from a distance. A stipend will be offered to the selected artist for a three-year commitment to this location. The North Woods location will call for an inviting piece that harmonizes with the nearby woods and complements “Growth in the Arts,” a full-sized, etched glass tree created by Conrad Schmitt Studios that fills the windows of the Wilson Center’s Kuttemperoor Grand Hall. A stipend will be offered to the selected artist for a two-year commitment to this location.
Artists are encouraged to visit the Wilson Center to make connections with the community, history, and land. A virtual tour of the Wilson Center is available online at wilson-center.com/virtual-tour; aerial footage of the building exterior may be viewed online at wilson-center.com/exterior.
Summer Sculpture Contest submissions will be considered by a jury of artists and art professionals; up to five finalists for each location will be selected by this September. Each finalist will be provided an honorarium to provide a representation of the sculpture—which may take the form of photography, digital animation, video or a table-top maquette—to be presented to the Greater Milwaukee-area community in the winter of 2016 for public input.
To learn more about the Summer Sculpture Contest or Lynn Chappy ArtsPark, contact ArtsPark Project Manager Margie Heyworth at mheyworth@wilson-center.com or visit wilson-center.com/artspark. Lynn Chappy ArtsPark is sponsored by Lynn Chappy and the National Endowment for the Arts.
About Lynn Chappy ArtsPark
Lynn Chappy ArtsPark is a central component of the Wilson Center's multiphase, strategic initiative to extend the arts beyond the walls of the Center, uniting nature and art in inspiring ways for its visitors. ArtsPark is a free, interactive sculpture garden, located in the City of Brookfield's Mitchell Park-a 405-acre community space with wetlands, woodlands, and outdoor recreation facilities along the Fox River. Made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts' Our Town grant awarded to the Wilson Center in 2014, as well as support from the City of Brookfield and Lynn Chappy, ArtsPark will feature numerous non-traditional works of art with educational activities including docent-led tours, field trip opportunities, and artist talks. Caerulean Collaborative Design, headed by Gerould Wilhelm and Margot Mazur, was contracted to guide the process of creating the plan for the new park. This multi-faceted group of artists—a landscape architect, a botanist, a plants specialist, and a lighting specialist—were teamed with representatives from the community and the Wilson Center to create a master landscaping plan that will guide and direct ArtsPark planning and its multiple phases of development over the next 10+ years. To learn more, visit wilson-center.com/artspark.
About the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts
The Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary cultural arts center that presents performances by world-renowned artists and ensembles, offers arts education opportunities, and curates the Ploch Art Gallery, which features both national and Wisconsin-based fine artists. In August, the annual Wilson Center Guitar Competition & Festival celebrates the world’s leading classical, rock/blues, jazz, and fingerstyle guitarists. Wisconsin fine artists are showcased at the Hidden River Art Festival each September. The Wilson Center nurtures lifelong learning through innovative programs and classes for all interests, ages, and abilities in state-of-the-art studios and classrooms. Some of Southeast Wisconsin’s finest arts organizations offer professional instruction at the Wilson Center, including First Stage Theater Academy and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. The Wilson Center is just minutes west of Milwaukee, located in Brookfield’s Mitchell Park off of Capitol Drive, just west of Brookfield Road. For information about the Wilson Center, call 262-781-9470 or visit wilson-center.com.
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