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M a r c h 2 0 1 4 • N e w s G r a p h i c & D a i l y N e w s • Exploring the Arts • 5 By Ken Merrill Conley News Service It's been a year since more than 5,000 visitors attended the opening weekend of the Museum of Wisconsin Art's dra- matic $9.3 million facility at 205 Veterans Ave., West Bend. And what a year it's been. "I don't want to say it hasn't been without its challenges, but it's all head- ed in the right direction," said Executive Director and CEO Laurie Winters. "It's really positive." Winters has the numbers to back up her optimistic take on the museum's year and its future. "When I joined the museum in November 2012, we had 670 members. Today we have almost 8,000," Winters said. "In 2013 we had almost 25,000 visi- tors — that's up over 500 percent from 2012. "When you look at what we're doing in terms of connecting with the com- munity, all the numbers are there to support that." Brittani Mattke, director of market- ing/public relations, echoed Winter's sentiments. "Things are, by all accounts going great," Mattke said. "I think you can definitely say that our recent hires are a sign of 'robust health.'" Mattke was referencing the addition of Miranda Levy, an artist, fashion designer and contestant on the Lifetime television network's "Project Runway" as director of cultural relations, and Bambi Grajek-Specter, former director of visitor services at the Milwaukee Art Museum, as member services director. The new building has been a terrific boost to the museum's goal to be the foremost institution for Wisconsin art and artists. Designed by Jim Shields, design principal at HGA, a Milwaukee architectural firm, the museum was named "Building of the Week" for the "50 States in 50 Weeks" series on AmericanArchitects.com and was given the 2013 Vision Award for Achievement by the Wisconsin Commercial Real Estate Women. The 31,000-square-foot building has 12,000 square feet of gallery space, about 7,000 square feet of rental space, a gift shop, two studios and an outdoor sculpture garden. It's boosted the local economy, too. "We estimate from the day trippers and the people who spend a night in West Bend that we're contributing almost a million dollars to the econom- ic impact in West Bend," Winters said. "That's huge. "In terms of our demographics, we got very lucky," Winters said. "As we rebranded the institution to become the state museum for Wisconsin art, we'd hoped we'd be able to reach further afield than we have, so 80 percent of our visitors today come from outside the city of West Bend. About 65 percent of our visitors come from outside Washington County." The museum will mark its first year in the new building with a "Member Celebration Day" on April 12. The daylong event, beginning at 8:30 a.m., will feature a morning yoga class, exhibition tours, a presentation on the museum's showpiece, "The Flagellants," by Graeme Reid, direction of collections, and a performance by a "chamber rock" group fronted by Victor DeLorenzo, founding member of the Violent Femmes. The museum was established as the West Bend Gallery of Fine Arts in the former West Bend Mutual Insurance building in 1961. It has more than 2,000 works in its collections, with more than 3,500 viewable online at www.wisconsin art.org. Connecting with the Community Conley News Service photo by John Ehlke 1-year of Museum of Wisconsin Art

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