FOOTLIGHTS series has its Perks
FOOTLIGHTS series has its Perks
Ceramics project connects communities in multicultural
pot luck
Nationally acclaimed Wisconsin musicians to appear in
Sheboygan at JMKAC’s 30th annual Outdoor Arts Festival
Explore the art of gardening
at JMKAC’s June 17 Garden Exhibition Celebration
JMKAC awarded $50,000 grant from the Andy Warhol
Foundation for the Visual Arts
JMKAC Memberships Support Expanded Offerings
Creative Shipbuilders Wanted for JMKAC’s Fifteenth
Annual Great Cardboard Boat Regatta
Low water no problem—if your boat is made
of cardboard!
Olbrich’s Butterfly Bonanza and Home Garden Tour
The week of May 8, THEPERKSDANCEMUSICTHEATRE brings its unique and diverse talents to Sheboygan for the season’s final FOOTLIGHTS residency. The troupe’s visit culminates in a Family Informance on Wednesday, May 10, and a full-length performance on Friday, May 12.
At a time when few dance companies tour with their own musicians, or dancers and musicians are one in the same (a la Stomp), Perks’s three dancers and three musicians perform their roles distinctly from—yet tightly integrated with—each other. While all numbers are choreographed and led by founder and artistic director Rebecca Stenn, it is clear that the design process is a product of harmony and chemistry between dance and music, woven together with the spirit of theatre.
Based in New York City, Perks is nationally acclaimed for its inventive use of props, theatrical illusion, and visual effects, executed with an amazing degree of energy and athleticism. The troupe’s witty, lyrical, and emotional repertoire has enchanted audiences of all ages in sold-out shows coast to coast.
In the dim purple light of “Iguana,” Stenn reaches flat-locked hands overhead, slithering and stiffly walking in a convincingly reptilian style. In “Embrace,” amid the plaintive call of a violin, a couple clad in white twists and twines while slowly turning atop a swiveling disk, displaying fluidity without the movement of feet, creating a dreamy, almost surreal image of weightlessness, as if a hovering of angels. The troupe will also perform a potpourri of other pieces, both old and new.
Last year, as part of the grand opening of the Arts Center’s remodeling and expansion, Stenn performed as a solo act, dazzling the audience with her precision, athleticism, and speed. Classically trained at the Julliard School, she gained notoriety for her contemporary dance in the company of such notables as Pilobolus and Momix. Joseph Mazo of the Village Voice writes, “Stenn is a fine dancer, notably strong and precise. Humor and rhythmic energy give her work a life of its own.”
Held in the JMKAC Matrix, Wednesday’s show on May 10 at 7 p.m. is a “Family Informance.” This hour-long event provides a rare opportunity for families to learn more about artists and their art forms through a special mini-performance and discussion. Informance tickets are $7 for JMKAC members and students, $9 for the general public. The full performance on Friday, May 12, begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Matrix. Tickets are $14 for JMKAC members and students, $19 for the general public.
One of the most positive attributes of the FOOTLIGHTS series is that it supports residents of the area beyond just the performances. THEPERKSDANCEMUSICTHEATRE will be in residence at the Arts Center for four days, during which, in addition to the two performances, its members will conduct lecture-demonstrations, and outreach activities for thousands of school children and special needs audiences throughout the six-county region.
The FOOTLIGHTS 1999-2000 series has been made possible in part by crucial funding from the Mildred Herman bequest in the Helen K. Herman Fund for the Performing Arts, a component of the Sheboygan Arts Foundation Endowment Trust Fund.
To purchase tickets or for more information, stop by or call the Arts Center at (920) 458-6144.
Individuals and families from all facets of our community are invited to bring their ideas, imaginations, and enthusiasm to participate in a series of workshops that will culminate in a multicultural pot luck dinner. Participants will learn hand-built ceramics and create two finished works of art with Nebraska ceramic artist Eddie Dominguez, who will be in residence at the Arts Center from June 12 through July 22. The entire project is free, but voluntary donations are always welcome. Children, teens, adults, and seniors are welcome to attend. Children under eight years of age should be accompanied by an adult. No previous ceramics or art experience is necessary. Following the event, participants may keep one of their two pieces, while the other will go into the Arts Center’s dinnerware collection.
Participants are asked to register for one session of the clay-building workshops and one session os the glazing workshops. In the clay-building workshop, with sessions running June 16–29, participants will learn hand-building clay techniques and create two pieces of functional ceramic dinnerware reflecting JMKAC’s summer 2000 theme of “gardens.” Then, in the second workshop, with sessions running July 8–16, participants will learn to glaze their works in preparation for firing. Finally, on Saturday, July 22, all participants are invited to a fabulous pot luck dinner that will be served on the ceramic works created during the project and held outdoors on JMKAC’s Festival Green (weather permitting).
There are several sessions to each of the two free workshop (schedule below). Class size is limited to allow individualized attention. Advance registration is required, and early enrollment is strongly encouraged.
Clay-Building Workshops (register for one)
Sunday, June 18, 1–4 p.m.
Tuesday, June 20, 2–4 p.m.
Tuesday, June 20, 6–8 p.m.
Wednesday, June 21, 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
Thursday, June 22, 2–4 p.m.
Thursday, June 22, 6–8 p.m.
Sunday, June 25, 1–4 p.m.
Tuesday, June 27, 2–4 p.m.
Tuesday, June 27, 6–8 p.m.
Wednesday, June 28, 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
Thursday, June 29, 2–4 p.m.
Thursday, June 29, 6–8 p.m.
Glazing Workshops (register for one)
Saturday, July 8, 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
Saturday, July 8, 1–4 p.m.
Sunday, July 9, 1–4 p.m.
Tuesday, July 11, 2–4 p.m.
Tuesday, July 11, 6–8 p.m.
Wednesday, July 12, 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
Thursday, July 13, 2–4 p.m.
Thursday, July 13, 6–8 p.m.
Saturday, July 15, 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
Saturday, July 15, 1–4 p.m.
Sunday, July 16, 1–4 p.m.
Dinner Party (all participants)
Saturday, July 22, 6 p.m.
About the Artist/Instructor
Eddie Dominguez is noted for creating ceramic works of art that, at first glance, appear to be one, singular sculpture. However, closer inspection reveals that each component is an individual piece, which is removable and fully functional as ceramic dinnerware. A flower bud is a cup; a leaf is a plate. Working with clay hump molds, Eddie uses clay slabs to create work that is highly textural. Dominguez is a past participant in JMKAC’s Arts/Industry program, a 25-year-old collaboration between the Arts Center and Kohler Co. that places artists in residence in the Kohler Co. Foundry and Pottery.
About Connecting Communities
Connecting Communities is an ongoing program of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and its community partners, and is designed to engage a broad spectrum of adults and children in the arts and, in so doing, build community. The project has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, JMKAC donors, the Hispanic Advancement Council, the Hmong Mutual Assistance Association, St. Clement’s Parish, St. Andrew’s Parish, Project Youth, and Grupo Arco Iris.
Past Connecting Communities projects have included a residency by San Francisco choreographer Pearl Ubungen, who brought together children and adults from four local cultures: Hmong, Hispanic, German, and Dutch. Stories and traditions were shared among the groups, and the event culminated in a celebration of music, dance, performance art, photography, and textiles.
The most recent—and most visible—Connecting Communities project is Keepsake consisting of Patrick Dougherty’s huge outdoor sapling installation on the Arts Center grounds at the corner of 7th Street and New York Avenue. His work was paralleled by corresponding smaller, indoor works of naturally woven art, entitled Weave Us Together, created by area school children, college students, and residents with the assistance of Madison artists Amy Hauber and Kristin Theilking. These works of art are now on display in JMKAC’s Community Gallery.
Plans for future Connecting Communities projects are currently underway.
Returning
from an overwhelmingly popular performance at last year’s Outdoor Arts
Festival, jazz-fusion band Streetlife leads off this year’s event, performing
Saturday, July 15 from noon until 2 p.m. Sports fans throughout the U.S.
and Canada recognize Streetlife as the official house band of the Milwaukee
Bucks. The group has also earned critical acclaim, receiving nominations
and awards as “Best Contemporary Jazz Group” and “Best Adult Contemporary
Group” by Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI). Individual band members,
including leader/saxophonist Warren Wiegratz, drummer/percussionist Tony
Wagner, and vocalist Joe Jordan, have also received both national and regional
recognition. The band plays an indescribably fascinating blend of jazz,
funk, R&B, swing, pop/rock, and more.
Next
on the bill is Pat McCurdy, performing from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. McCurdy returns
to the Arts Center both from last year’s Outdoor Arts Festival and a Friday
Night Live performance last November. He cannot be neatly described as
“musician” or “comedian.” Rather, it his blend of the two, coupled with
his unique, highly interactive delivery, that earns him the well-deserved
description of “entertainer.” An institution at Milwaukee’s Summerfest,
his lively, folk-styled acoustic guitar and offbeat, barb-tinged lyrics
combine to create a performance the artist himself describes as “musical
comedy; an interactive whatever.” The Milwaukee Journal calls his act “a
combination of David Letterman and Seinfeld, American Bandstand, Jeopardy,
Truth or Consequences, 60 Minutes, Fantasy Island, Wheel of Fortune, a
10-year class reunion, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. . . .” Do not
be surprised if you end up becoming part of his show.
Then,
on Sunday, July 16, Daryl Stuermer will perform two different one-hour
sets, from 12:30 to 1:30 and from 2 to 3 p.m. Stuermer has gained tremendous
notoriety through his 22-year association with Genesis as touring guitarist
and with Phil Collins as lead guitarist and occasional writer. Long rooted
in contemporary jazz/fusion, Stuermer began in music with his own band,
Sweetbottom, in the early 1970s, and shortly after recorded and toured
with internationally known jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. His first two
solo CDs, Steppin’ Out (1987) and Live & Learn (1998),
consist of eclectic original material, while his most recent, Another
Side of Genesis (1999), features instrumental covers of Genesis material.
All performances will take place on the stage of the Library Sculpture Garden at The Arts Center, located at 608 New York Avenue in downtown Sheboygan. The grounds comprise an entire city block bounded by Sixth Street on the east, Seventh Street on the west, Wisconsin Avenue on the north and New York Avenue on the south. Festival hours are 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday, July 17 and 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sunday, July 18. The Arts Center galleries will remain open throughout the event.
The Outdoor Arts Festival is made possible by major sponsor Piggly Wiggly/Schultz Sav-O Stores, and contributions from Heritage Mutual Insurance Company, J.L. French Family Foundation, and the Woman’s Club of Sheboygan, in addition to numerous in-kind donations. For more information, call the Arts Center at (920) 458-6144.
As anyone who has ever attempted to grow a green bean or nurture a nasturtium knows, gardening is an art. Yet, as you experience the many activities offered during the Garden Exhibitions Celebration, you’re sure to see gardens as art in a whole new light.
As you stroll through the grounds and galleries of the Arts Center, you may feel like you’re at the world’s largest garden party. The air will be filled with selections from movie musicals. An ice cream social in which you can create your own sundae for free will provide a refreshing respite from the heat. Three workshops will run continuously from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., in which will both adults and youngsters can create handmade petal paper, a sweet potato carving, and magic garden pins.
Those interested in flower arranging, in particular, are sure to enjoy The Arts in Bloom, a flower-arranging competition from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., sponsored by the Town and Country Garden Club. Open to the public, anyone interested in entering should call Sandy Zagozen at 458-9320.
The Garden Exhibition Celebration is a perfect opportunity to experience unique interpretations of gardens and their imagery as you may have never considered them before, as represented by respected artists from around the country, and even the world. All exhibitions, as always, are free and open to the public, with two featuring gallery talks by JMKAC curators the day of the event.
MELISSA GWYN: VENUS RINGS (May 14-August 13) features paintings that teeter on the brink between the beautiful and the baroquely decadent. Their rich surfaces attest to Gwyn’s physical and visceral engagement with the process of painting. Gwyn’s organic shapes like flowers, fruit, and leaves connote parts and functions of the human body including cells, skin, the womb, swallowing, and breathing. Gwyn inserts her femininity and, more specifically, her aging femininity, into her works as she explores questions of temporality, beauty, sexuality, and aging. At 2 p.m. the day of the Celebration, a gallery talk will be held by Andrea Inselman, Curator of Exhibitions.
In MERCURY SPRINGTIME: DRAWINGS BY CHRIS HIPKISS, (May 14-August 5) British artist Chris Hipkiss creates graphite-and-ink drawings of highly detailed imaginative narratives. Ranging from post card sized to over 35' long, his subject matter ranges from apocalyptic landscapes to the hybridization of space and species.
GARDENS OF PLEASURE (June 11-September 17) explores images of gardens and gardening as a social, cultural, and aesthetic metaphor in contemporary art. This large thematic exhibition presents the work of more than 35 artists across a range of media including painting, sculpture, installation, and photography. It seeks to examine the garden through a hybrid approach in which it is conceived as a space where science, art, nature, and culture intersect. At 1 p.m. the day of the Celebration, a gallery talk will be held by Lisa Tamiris Becker, Curator of Exhibitions.
Completed in late April, PATRICK DOUGHERTY: WEAVE A TREE culminated in the monumental outdoor structure dominating the corner of 7th Street and New York Avenue in the new Library Sculpture Garden. Using only natural materials such as tree branches and twine, Dougherty is nationally renowned for his unique and impressive structures of woven art. Simultaneously with Dougherty’s project, school children from throughout the area created smaller, similarly woven sculptures indoors, which are now on display in the Community Gallery in an exhibition titled WEAVE US TOGETHER.
In the group exhibition, JEWELRY FROM THE GARDEN, artists have taken particular inspiration from their own intimate connections with gardens to create works of art that are wondrous and wearable, fascinating, and fashionable. Note that this particular exhibition is held in Kohler at Artspace, a galler of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
Beginning various dates following the June 17 Garden Exhibitions Celebration, four more garden-themed exhibitions will be opening. All nine garden exhibitions will be open in time for the Arts Center’s next big event, the Grand Opening of the Gardens, on August 12. The other four exhibitions are:
ANNABETH ROSEN: A LUSCIOUS SYMMETRY (opening June 25) features California artist Annabeth Rosen’s prolific body of sumptuous, modestly scaled earthenware works, incorporating luscious lead-glazed surfaces along with bold markings and patterns. Her deep reliefs incorporate a profusion of flower, foliage, and vegetable images overlayed with contrastingly glazed patterning.
To inaugurate the opening of JMKAC’s new glass gallery, SANDRA BYERS: A GENTLE NATURE (opening July 9) will display a collection of more than 30 intimate vessels, glazed subtly with matte surfaces in blushes of color and shapes of nuts, flowers, buds, and shells.
In a solo exhibition, MI-SOOK HUR: SECRET GARDENS (opening July
9) will feature her enigmatic cast-iron boxes that contain delightful secrets
relating to gardens.
JOHN ROLOFF: DISPLACEMENTS (opening August 12) is a solo exhibition
by Bay-Area conceptual artist, John Roloff. It will present a site-specific
configuration of Roloff's large-format, digitally manipulated photographs
of trees. Printed on billboard material in sequenced segments, Roloff's
photographs span many feet and immerse the viewer in a displaced natural
surrounding.
Many other events are part of JMKAC’s Garden Series, including classes, dinner lectures, excursions, and the Arts Center’s popular SUMMER THEATRE. The Garden Series culminates in the August 12 Grand Opening of the Gardens, featuring a garland cutting, the unveiling of the donor-created tiles in the Library Sculpture Garden, and a dazzling array of performances, exhibitions, workshops, demonstrations, and cuisine fresh from the garden. For more information on the Garden Series, or to request a brochure describing all the events in more detail, call the Arts Center at (920) 458-6144.
The grant was awarded in support of the JMKAC’s PERSPECTIVES 2000-2002 exhibition series. PERSPECTIVES has long been a primary component of the Art Center’s support of contemporary artists. It attempts to expand the venues available to outstanding artists who work in relation to various marginalized cultures, whether ethnically, geographically, politically, media, or gender based, and to others whose intellectual and aesthetic modes have received little exposure in the region or nationally.
Through these solo exhibitions, JMKAC encourages artists to move in new directions without the pressures placed on them in the commercial gallery system. Many are artists’ first solo exhibition, and even more are the first time their work has been explored on its own in a scholarly publication.
Over the years 2000-2002, 15 PERSPECTIVES exhibitions, funded in part by the Warhol grant, will be held at the Arts Center, spanning a range of media and aesthetic modes including video installation, painting, photography, mixed-media sculpture and installations, printing, drawing, and craft-related forms. They also explore a broad range of concepts and issues, including gender and cultural identity, treatment of our environment, narcissism, and sexuality.
Each exhibition was selected within the scope of one of three central themes.
Each exhibition will be accompanied by a scholarly publication distributed to artists organizations, arts centers, and museums throughout the country as well as to university art and art history departments, art schools, elementary and secondary schools in eastern Wisconsin, and a selection of libraries. Other materials include interpretive labels, a wall statement, free handouts at the entrance to each exhibition, and an interactive project for youth. Each exhibition will also involve a wide range of educational programming such as interactive guided tours, lectures, gallery talks, workshops, and the creation of related community-based works.
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts exists to support “...curatorial programs at museums, artists’ organizations, and other cultural institutions to assist in the innovative and scholarly presentation of contemporary visual arts.”
Renowned for its ability to nurture a national community of artists and a broad regional public, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center is devoted to contemporary artists—particularly those who are emerging and/or underserved—and to bringing artists and public together through programming that will affect both. It functions as a catalyst and explorer of new art, new ideas, and new critical directions. These roles are mandated in the Arts Center’s mission: ...to encourage and support innovative explorations in the arts and to foster an exchange between a national community of artists and a broad public that will help realize the power of art to inspire and transform our world.
For 33 years, Arts Center exhibitions have amazed and delighted audiences, giving them the opportunity to explore artists, art forms, and concepts that have received otherwise little exposure in the Midwest or nationally. Ruth DeYoung Kohler, Arts Center Director, reports that this year it expects to involve over 150,000 children and adults as participants in its programs.
As JMKAC expands its range of visual and performing arts offerings, it, in turn, needs an ever-increasing level of support from the communities it serves. A key source of this support are the Arts Center’s Basic and Contributing Memberships. They are an outstanding way for both individuals and families to help JMKAC continue to benefit the community, while, at the same time, enjoy many personal benefits, both enriching and economic. And, by joining now, you will get nearly two extra months of membership benefits free, as memberships are valid through April 30, 2000.
From the very first exhibition in 1967, which examined the use of paper in contemporary sculpture, furniture, and even clothing, to more recent investigations focusing on unconventional self-portraiture, the automobile in contemporary culture, beads in contemporary sculpture, hair in art, and conceptual textiles, JMKAC exhibitions have made unique art forms available to the community. The media presented are as diverse as the subject matter, including paintings, photographs, craft-related forms, installations, sculpture, and much more.
At most times there are at least eight changing exhibitions are on view simultaneously. Plus, Artspace, JMKAC’s adjunct shop in The Shops at Woodlake in Kohler Village, shows another five exhibitions annually. Admission to these exhibitions is always free.
In the coming year, JMKAC is offering its most ambitious array of visual and performing arts ever. In conjunction with the grand opening of JMKAC’s new gardens this summer, the “Gardens Series” will survey works of contemporary art influenced by the ancient human activity of creating gardens. The series includes a large group exhibition and several solo shows. An exhibition celebration on June 16 and 17 will mark the beginning of the series, and a special event to mark the grand opening of the Arts Center’s dazzling new sculpture gardens will take place in August. While all events are open to the public, members receive advance notice of all programming and reduced prices on all classes, performances, and purchases in JMKAC shops.
In a schedule that runs from fall through the spring, JMKAC presents the FOOTLIGHTS performing arts series, in which dance, theatre, music, and multimedia companies from around the world come for three- to five-day residencies. Each ensemble presents a public performance, plus an “Informance” session that features a shorter performance coupled with an interactive discussion with the audience. In addition, each residency comprises several interactive demonstration/performance presentations for hundreds of students, including tours of current exhibitions. Each ensemble also performs at least one outreach concert for those with disabilities, the elderly, rural communities, and others audiences unable to come to the Arts Center.
FOOTLIGHTS has featured Tibetan Sacred Music Sacred Dance, Urban Bush Women, Black Umfolosi, David Parsons Dance Company, Naa Kahidi, Muna Tseng Dance Projects, Pilobolus, Noche Flamenca, and the Klezmatics among many others.
Remaining 1999/2000 FOOTLIGHTS events include the Steve Turre Sextet with Strings and Shells in April, which blends the renowned jazz trombone work of Steve Turre with violin, viola, and cello, woven with the haunting and ethereal sound of his signature conch shells. In May, the Perks Dance Music Theatre brings to Wisconsin its eclectic philosophy and works of humor and beauty, visual imagery, and wild kinesthetics. Arts Center members can enjoy FOOTLIGHTS performances at up to 28% off regular ticket prices.
Also in the area of performing arts, JMKAC offers a venue focusing exclusively on outstanding performing artists living and working in Wisconsin and neighboring states. FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE offers a captivating mix of art forms that appeals to all ages. Now in its third season, this series runs from fall through spring each year, concentrating most heavily on contemporary music, but also introducing dance and theatre forms. The series has included performances by artists such as Pat McCurdy, Li Chiao-Ping Dance Company, Danceworks, and Ceole Cairde.
The balance of this season’s Friday Night Live events includes Far From Home, a Madison-based group featuring the jigs and reels of Celtic music and dance. In April you can experience Dave O’Meara: Moon and Cloud, a theatrical adaptation of James Joyce’s luminous short story, reset in Chicago. In May JMKAC hosts the Present Music Jazz Trio, an internationally acclaimed chamber ensemble known for its provocative explorations of new and contemporary music, examining the works of composers who have blurred the boundaries between jazz and the classics.
JMKAC’s longest-running program, SUMMER THEATRE, produces three plays during the months of June, July, and August. Directors and designers come from throughout the United States to work with fine local actors and crews. The selected plays usually relate to a theme around which much of the summer’s visual and performing arts programming is organized. The summer of 2000 will be devoted to the theme of “gardens,” and the season will be announced in late March.
From Toddler Art Time to Advanced Ceramics for Adults, JMKAC classes and workshops allow participants to learn new processes and explore new ways of expressing themselves. The Center offers more than ## classes each year, and is constantly adding new and intriguing subject areas.
A listing of current and upcoming JMKAC exhibitions, performances, classes, and other happenings is available by calling the Arts Center at 458-6144. Nearly all its activities are open to the public, but fees and prices for members are always at a sizeable discount. In fact, as Development Coordinator Tracy Cinealis points out, what members save by attending or participating in even a few of these events can easily recover the cost of membership.
In each of the following real examples, the cost of membership for participants was, effectively, zero when taking into account what they saved on that event:
Your membership directly supports these ongoing JMKAC offerings, and allows the Arts Center to create exciting, new, community-oriented programs. For example, “Connecting Communities” is a program, initiated about two years ago, that partners the Arts Center with organizations throughout the community in an exploration of our culture and society, and expressing the findings through the arts. To find out more about past and current Connecting Communities projects, please contact John McLean at 458-6144.
You are urged to support the Arts Center and your community by joining the more than 1,600 current JMKAC members, about 400 of which have joined since the space and substance of the Arts Center expanded last year. According to Cinealis, “Members are the heart and soul of Center services, and are the ones who keep it humming (and singing, and dancing, and painting, and sculpting, and… well, you get the idea).” Your financial support makes JMKAC a visible, growing asset to the community, and your personal involvement will enthrall you as you experience first hand the positive impact JMKAC has on hundreds of thousands of individuals.
While the Arts Center is experiencing exponential growth in facilities, programming, and need for new members, the price of membership has not increased over last year. Basic memberships start at just 25 dollars, extremely inexpensive compared with other arts organizations, making membership not only a great way to support your community, but also a great value.
You can benefit the Arts Center, the community, and yourself with a Basic or Contributing Membership.
As a Basic Member, you personally enjoy:
When you contribute at a level above the Basic Membership, you support the whole community by allowing JMKAC to continue to develop programming not covered by ticket prices, admission fees, or grants. Contributing Members enjoy all the benefits that Basic Members do for two adults and all children in the family 18 years and under, plus:
Membership Level Added Benefits (each level also includes the benefits from all prior levels)
For a more detailed listing of upcoming programs and events, call (920) 458-6144. JMKAC will send you a free current newsletter, which includes a membership application form. Any other questions regarding membership may be directed to any of this year’s membership committee: Barbara Knauf, Dagmar Bohlman, Tracy Cinealis, Rhoda Dales, Hugh Denison, Chris Graf, Paul Gruber, Ruth DeYoung Kohler, Lisa Lohmann, Bob Melzer, Shelly Moenning, Mary Reid, Joe Richardson III, Pat Richardson, Marsha Sehler, or Heidi Testwuide.
Individuals, corporate teams, organizations, scout troops, church groups, and clubs are urged to register now to allow plenty of time for the design and construction process. Boats can be any size or shape, must be constructed entirely of corrugated cardboard, and can carry up to ten people.
Creativity
counts
Past Regattas have included fabulous watercraft that were truly works of art, including boats designed as a Cracker Jack box, a gigantic lawn mower, a bright yellow bulldozer paddled with coal shovels, and a replica of The Titanic (iceberg included!).
In this race, creativity and team spirit count as much as—and probably more than—simple seaworthiness. While prizes are awarded to the top three finishers in each of four classes, the most coveted awards have nothing to do with speed on the water.
The PRIDE OF THE REGATTA is for the most creative design and best use of corrugated cardboard. The VOGUE AWARD goes to the most attractive, spectacular-looking boat. The TEAM SPIRIT AWARD has nothing to do with the boat, but goes to the most spirited, organized team. The BEST-DRESSED TEAM AWARD is self-explanatory, and places a high value on creativity. Also somewhat self-explanatory, the TITANIC AWARD is for the most spectacular sinking. Each year there are two additional awards, which vary from year to year as they tie to the Arts Center’s annual summer theme. This year’s theme is gardens, and the two awards are the SECRET GARDEN AWARD and ROCK GARDEN AWARD, for the best and most creative depictions, respectively, of a garden.
Boats may be entered in four classes: IA—boats propelled only by paddles or oars; IB—boats also propelled only by paddles or oars, but constructed as kayaks, sculls, shells, or related forms; II—craft propelled by any other forms of muscle-powered devices (paddle wheels, propellers, etc); and III—“Instant Boats©” designed and built by spectators-turned-participants using a secret kit available only at the Regatta.
Held every Fourth of July at noon at Rotary Riverview Park, the Regatta has been one of the most popular attractions of Sheboygan’s Independence Day festivities since its inception in 1985. Last year 35 boats braved the waters while more than 10,000 landlubbers looked on in amazement. Participants are also encouraged to show off their creations and costumes before the event in the city’s Fourth of July parade.
Complete rules and entry forms are available by stopping by or calling the Arts Center at (920) 458-6144. Also available at the Arts Center are 6' x 10' sheets of double-wall corrugated cardboard at five dollars per sheet.
This year’s major sponsor of JMKAC’s Great Cardboard Boat Regatta is Heritage Mutual Insurance Company, which is joined in sponsorship by Georgia-Pacific Corporation, Lakeside Pepsi Bottling Co., Lear Corporation, Nemschoff Chairs, Harbor Centre Business Improvement District, Torke Coffee, Flipse & Sons Co., Inc., Alliant Energy Foundation, Inc., Creative Crafts and Framing, Sheboygan Yacht Club, TIPS Foundation, and an anonymous donor.
Early entrants have already begun registering, designing, and building their cardboard watercraft for this outrageous annual event, held by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center every Fourth of July in the Sheboygan River at Rotary Riverview Park. While low water levels may affect other river events, the shallow depth and light weight of cardboard boats means that low water poses no problem whatsoever. In fact, the faint of heart may even find comfort in the fact that, should a sinking occur, the water is only a few feet deep.
Last year 35 individuals and teams entered the Regatta, and this year the Arts Center is pushing for even more to amaze and astound the 10,000+ annual spectators at the event. Boats built prior to the event may enter in one of three classes, and spectators-turned-participants can enter by building an “Instant Boat®” with a secret kit available only at the Regatta.
A total of 19 awards are presented following the event, ranging from speed on the course and creativity in design.
Complete rules and entry forms are available by stopping by or calling
the Arts Center at
(920) 458-6144. Also available at the Arts Center are 6' x 10' sheets
of double-wall corrugated cardboard at five dollars per sheet.
This year’s major sponsor of JMKAC’s Great Cardboard Boat Regatta is Heritage Mutual Insurance Company, which is joined in sponsorship by Georgia-Pacific Corporation, Lakeside Pepsi Bottling Co., Lear Corporation, Nemschoff Chairs, Harbor Centre Business Improvement District, Torke Coffee, Flipse & Sons Co., Inc., Alliant Energy Foundation, Inc., Creative Crafts and Framing, Sheboygan Yacht Club, TIPS Foundation, and an anonymous donor.
A major attraction of the Olbrich Botanical Gardens is experiencing the wonder of butterflies in flight at Butterfly Bonanza, an exhibition at Bolz Conservatory, part of Olbrich Botanical Gardens. In this controlled environment, hundreds of colorful butterflies flit silently about the Conservatory’s lush tropics, often peacefully lighting on still, patient visitors.
Participants will lunch at the gardens, then travel to Middleton on Madison’s west side for a tour of several private gardens, offering an intriguing opportunity to see how others have solved common gardening challenges. The gardens include a woodland site, a hillside terrace garden designed to attract wildlife, and a garden filled with specimen plants and incorporating an interesting water feature.
The bus will depart from JMKAC’s parking lot at 7:15 a.m., leave Madison at 4 p.m., and return to the Arts Center at approximately 6:30 p.m.
The fee for this excursion, including all admissions, transportation, and lunch, is $50 for JMKAC members; $62 public. Space is limited for this July 14 event, so you are encouraged to register early by calling (920) 458-6144.
