Major exhibition to open at the Trout Museum before big Move

Featured image: Trout Museum of Art. Courtesy of TMA.

submitted

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contacts

Ashley Acker, Marketing Manager

aacker@troutmuseum.org, 920-274-9976

Annemarie Sawkins, Guest Curator

Annemariesawkins@yahoo.com, 612-850-5155

Appleton, Wisconsin – The Trout Museum of Art (TMA) is planning an “Art Party” exhibition opening for A Creative Place: Art Northeastern Wisconsin from 1940 to Present, which opens January 24, 2025, and runs through May 18, 2025.

The exhibition, curated by Annemarie Sawkins, will be the last exhibition in the Trout Museum’s current space at 111 College Avenue before its new building is completed. The Trout has occupied the original Brettschneider’s Furniture Co Building (later Reigel Building) since 2002. At that time, the Museum was called the Appleton Art Center (AAC). A major donation by the late Dr. Monroe Trout and Sandra Lemke Trout in 2010 led to the renaming of the center in their honor.

This history and more will be showcased in the exhibition which takes its name, point of departure, and inspiration from the recent publication A Creative Place: The History of Wisconsin Art. By focusing on northeastern Wisconsin, this exhibition and its catalogue takes a closer look at the creatives in the region and the art they have produced since 1940. This show—the first major historical retrospective of the area—celebrates over 85 years of art and history. Visitors will experience the changes in styles, techniques, and themes in this broad-reaching exhibition.

This critical art survey will feature more than 120 works—starting with early art pioneers Jessie Kalmbach Chase (1879–1970), Agnes Florence Wainwright (1905–1990)—the first full-time art curator at the Neville Public Museum, Green Bay—and Madeline Tripp Tourtelot (1915–2002), the filmmaker and philanthropist, who founded the Ephraim Art School in 1943 and Peninsula School of Art in 1965. It traverses subsequent decades culminating in brand new works of art commissioned as artist interventions for the exhibition. The artists who have accepted this challenge are Don Krumpos & Erin LaBonte, Leif Larson, Andrew Linskens, and Elyse-Krista Mische.

A new work will also be created at the opening—January 24, 2025—when instant film photographer Joy Laczny of Appleton, an “Artist to Watch 2024,” produces an installation piece from a series of Polaroids documenting the occasion. As guests at the opening will become part of Laczny’s work of art, dress recommendations for this “last hurrah” before the Trout’s move include “artful” creations, art-inspired styles, and vintage and contemporary fashion. Be ready to be photographed and memorialized in the Museum’s collection. 

This exhibition will also be accompanied by a 116 page full-color publication with an essay by its curator.

The exhibition runs through May 18, 2025.

Featured Artists

Exhibition Partners: Appleton Public Library, Appleton Historical Society; Artdose magazine; The Bank of Kaukauna; J. Geiger Communications; Guardian Fine Art Services; The Miller Art Museum, Photo Opp; Larry Sanders Photography; Wisconsin Visual Arts.

About the Curator

Annemarie Sawkins, PhD, is a Milwaukee-based independent curator, art historian, and co-author of A Creative Place: The History of Wisconsin Art (2021). She has curated over twenty exhibitions nationally, including her most recent:  Profound Prints: Art by Exceptional Women at the Hilliard Art Museum in Lafayette, Louisiana (September 28, 2024 – January 18, 2025). Other recent projects include the comprehensive retrospective Rediscovering Ruth Grotenrath: All things belong to this earth (2023) for the Warehouse Art Museum, Milwaukee. Past exhibitions include Art Japan: 2021–1921 (2021); On the Nature of Wisconsin (2020); FOLD: artists’ accordion books (2018); nevertheless, she persisted: Prints by Contemporary Women Artists, Hidden Treasures: An Art Nouveau Collection in Wisconsin (2015 & 2018); More on Less: The History of Burlesque in America (2015); Afghan War Rugs: The Modern Art of Central Asia (2013–present); and Modern Rookwood (2013). Sawkins assisted with the publication of Layton’s Legacy: A Historic American Art Collection, 1888–2013 and More Love: Art, Politics and Sharing since the 1990s for the Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. From 1999 to 2012, she was associate curator at the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University. Prior to the Haggerty, she worked at the Milwaukee Art Museum, 1997–1999, where she contributed to A Renaissance Treasury: The Flagg Collection of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture (1999). A frequent juror and portfolio reviewer, Annemarie Sawkins has a MA and PhD in Art/Architectural History from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.