Feature image: Midsummer Festival of the Arts, July 17, 2025.
Submitted
Sheboygan, WI — The John Michael Kohler Arts Center invites you to experience the 56th Midsummer Festival of the Arts, taking place July 18–19, 2026, on the streets surrounding the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Sheboygan’s City Green. This highly anticipated free event brings thousands of attendees together with more than 100 juried artists. Artists present original works across ceramics, painting, photography, metal, fiber, watercolor, wood, jewelry, and more.
The weekend also features live music as part of the Levitt AMP Sheboygan Music Series, along with performances, exhibitions, hands-on artmaking, demonstrations, food, and family-friendly activities. Sixteen food trucks and beverage tents located on the festival grounds will offer a variety of food and drink options for attendees.
The Emerging Artist area located inside the Arts Center provides collegiate and rising artists opportunities to explore professional pathways in the arts. This year, five emerging regional artists were selected to participate in the festival: Matthew Braunginn, Amanda Langer, Jade Pergl, Brianna Stehling Santacruz, and Cassandra Xiong. The Arts Center extends its gratitude to artist consultant Frank Juárez of Artdose Magazine for selecting this year’s artists and returning mentor R-Lo for supporting their experience. Festival attendees are also invited to attend artist talks featuring the emerging artists on Friday, July 17, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Paradigm Coffee & Music.
The Arts Center is also pleased to welcome the return of RCS Empowers, Inc., a Sheboygan-based organization serving adults with disabilities, and Project Onward, a Chicago-based organization that promotes art as a powerful tool for understanding and valuing the contributions and potential of people with disabilities. Festivalgoers can also visit Impressions Fine Art Gallery, a Sheboygan-based nonprofit gallery dedicated to showcasing Wisconsin artists through exhibitions, workshops, and community arts programming. All three Community Partners will be located just outside the Arts Center, across from the front entrance.
Additionally, festivalgoers can enjoy a variety of strolling performances, including stilt walking by Jess Clark; flow arts demonstrations by Jamie Reichardt and Logan Bonner featuring trick yo-yo, staff, fans, hoops, and poi; and hula hoop performances by Sarah Masarik from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Aerial performances by Warped Dance Company will take place from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Visitors of all ages are invited to participate in free art-making activities throughout the weekend. In the Festival Green Activities Tent, guests can create Stone Mosaic Tiles inspired by the rocks featured in Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis: Rock Fade, using a variety of stones, pebbles, and sand to design a unique composition. Attendees can also make Wrapped Rock Assemblages, transforming rocks into one-of-a-kind sculptures embellished with natural materials such as sticks, pods, feathers, and stones.
Inside the Arts Center’s Social STUDIO, returning Artist in the Studio Geornica Daniels will lead a collaborative papier-mâché boulder-building community project inspired by Rock Fade. Participants are invited to work together using recycled materials and papier-mâché to create a collective artwork while reflecting on the value of creativity, collaboration, and community.
Across the event, the festival invites audiences to gather, create, and connect through music, visual art, and shared experiences that reflect local and global artistic traditions.
Midsummer Arts Escape Giveaway
The John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Blue Harbor Resort are teaming up to celebrate summer in Sheboygan with the Midsummer Arts Escape Giveaway.
Enter for a chance to win a one-year Explorer-level membership to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and a getaway package from Blue Harbor Resort.
To enter, visit jmkac.org/summerarts or stop by the Blue Harbor Resort tent during JMKAC’s Midsummer Festival of the Arts on July 18 & 19.
This giveaway celebrates the arts, summer in Sheboygan, and one of the region’s signature lakefront events.
Midsummer Festival of the Arts Levitt AMP Sheboygan Music Series Lineup:
- July 18 – Frogwater & Lil’ Rev, Folk, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
- July 18 – Larry & Joe, Llanera/Appalachian Folk, 2 – 3:30 p.m.
- July 19 – The Cactus Blossoms, Alt Country/Indie Folk, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
- July 19 – Copper Box, Zydeco/Country/Polka/Rock/Blues, 2 – 3:30 p.m.
The Levitt AMP Sheboygan Music Series is supported in part by the Levitt Family Foundation, which partners with change makers and nonprofits to strengthen the social fabric of communities in America through free, live music in outdoor public spaces. In 2026, the Levitt Family Foundation is supporting over 900 free concerts in 90+ towns and cities across the country, bringing joy to over a million people. www.levitt.org
About the John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Founded in 1967, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) is a nonprofit creative hub that supports the work of contemporary artists through original exhibitions, commissions, residencies, publications, and community programming across visual and performing arts. The only institution in the world that collects artist- built and artist home-based environments, JMKAC is a leading center for the research, preservation, and presentation of artists with wide-ranging practices and backgrounds from academically trained to self-taught and folk traditions, championing long-term relationships with artists and elevating work that has often been overlooked or under-recognized. JMKAC is a vital cultural resource that responds to the needs of its local and regional communities, preserving artistic heritage by uplifting contemporary voices and empowering future generations.
Hours
- Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
- Thursday: 10:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
- Saturday, Sunday: 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Locations
John Michael Kohler Arts Center: 608 New York Avenue, Sheboygan, WI
Contact
Emily Shedal, Communications Specialist, JMKAC
EShedal@jmkac.org