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Innovation & Preservation By Gay Griesbach For the Daily News While Museum of Wisconsin Art Executive Director Laurie Winters, her staff and patrons are preparing to welcome the community to its Grand Opening, she is also hoping to see more visitors regularly. "In the late 19th and early 20th century, museums were a vehicle for preserving culture in the United States. That's changed. They've shifted from preservation to finding ways of engaging with different constituents in the community," said Winters, who is the third executive director in the museum's 52-year history. In 1997, Winters became associate curator at the Milwaukee Art Museum and 15 years later, she resigned as director of exhibitions and publications to launch the Art Consortium Inc. She has long dealt with the aesthetic side of art, but completing her master's degree in business administration at Alverno College last year gave her another perspective — of museum as a business. While museums in New York or Los Angeles may serve as a tourist stop, she said that MOWA is more interested in an ongoing Museum shares vision relationship with the community. To achieve that, her goals — and challenges — are how to innovate while preserving the past and connecting with the community. If Winters is the future of the museum, former director Thomas Lidtke represents its foundation. Under his 30-year stint as executive director, what began with the donated works of artist Carl von Marr has grown to fill a unique spot in the state's art history. "The building is stunning, wonderful — but what it does is help us fulfill our mission. The building is not an end; it's a grand, new beginning," said Lidtke, who shepherded the project since the kickoff of its 2007 capital campaign. It was Lidtke who worked toward giving the museum its focus on the state's art and artists. "Art in Wisconsin was underrecognized and misunderstood. The more I began to study and work on this, the more convinced I was we needed to go in this direction," Lidtke said. In 1988, the museum worked quietly to acquire work from Wisconsin artists and a decade later, the first exhibition of regional art was unveiled. Lidtke said when the West Bend Art Museum changed its name to the Museum of Wisconsin Art in 2007, there were few institutions focused on regional art. "The art of Wisconsin has been hidden because there was no single place, no single source. There's always more; always something to learn, something to add, but now (MOWA) is considered an authority in Wisconsin art," said Lidtke. In the new MOWA, connections between the museum's past and present can be found not only in the collection, but in the color of the walls. The new Carl von Marr Gallery has been painted, as it was in the former gallery on Sixth Avenue, Whistler blue. Lidtke will step down from his full-time duties in July but plans to continue fundraising and curatDaily News Photo by John Ehlke ing exhibits at the museum as well Construction workers look over the Museum of Wisconsin Art as the sun sets on a teaching a graduate course on December evening. Wisconsin's art history. "I'm most interested in helping ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ to create, or seeing created, resources that help people understand Wisconsin art throughout There are more than 23,000 square feet of exterior wall, of which 5,100 square feet is windows in the new museum. all time frames," Lidtke said. 3018 West Washington, West Bend 262-334-2500 MnemeTherapy® is revolutionary new form of therapy that use everyday pleasures such as singing, movement, painting and storytelling in a unique combination to stimulate dramatic changes in the brain. Our mission is to improve the quality of life of individuals with Alzheimer's, Dementia, Autism, Aspergers, Downs Syndrome, Parkinson's, Stroke, Depression and other disorders of the brain. These affordable one on one sessions are 30 minutes in length, all materials are included and are brought to your location. Tracey Ellicson-Ratzburg Certified MnemeTherapist (262)388-1937 tracey@the-squirrelsnest.net http://artwithoutboundaries.org/TER.html 4 • Museum of Wisconsin Art • News Graphic & Daily News • March 2013

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