Summer 2006 Newsletter
www.whitewaterarts.org
“Art teaches nothing but the significance of life.” Henry Miller
Significant Art Alliance News:
CHAIRS of Whitewater – Our 2006 Public Arts Project are on display. Brochures are available throughout the city. The brochure will tell you the artist, the name of the chair, and if some individual or organization sponsored it. Check out some Main St. store fronts as well, there are seven chairs on display with their information cards. This year we are also pleased to have a “BIG CHAIR”, a piece of sculpture which is located on the green space between Novak’s parking lot and the small fountain at the east end of Main Street. Big thanks go out to Geoff Hale at Home Lumber for donating the materials, to Jerry Stauffaucher for construction, Lyle & Dawn Hunter for painting, and the city crew for installation.
The Whitewater Register will be doing a weekly feature entitled – “Who is sitting in the Big Chair?” Be sure and check out who is sitting in the “Big Chair” each week and why they think the arts are important.
If you would like your picture taken in the “Big Chair” for your own private use go to the web site and fill out the form there or contact Dawn Hunter at 262-473-2730. This is a piece of public art that you to can be a part of.
Alliance Artists Take Their Show Down the Road: A special invitation has been extended by the Hoard Museum in Fort Atkinson to the Whitewater Arts Alliance for their artists’ membership to have a show in their museum. Twenty-three artists have responded and will be on display from August 17- September 3, 2006 with an Opening Reception on Wednesday, August 16 from 7-8:30 pm. Lauren Hayes will be playing her harp during the opening. We are very pleased to add this performance piece to the show. PLEASE mark this date and show your support for the Alliance, our artists, and our community by attending this event. It is significant that our neighboring community acknowledges our art efforts and we would like to be able to demonstrate our community’s support for the arts with our attendance at this event.
SAVE THIS DATE: Saturday, September 30, 2006 - Cravath Lake Front Center from 5-7 pm for the Chair Auction and the unveiling of next years art object.
VIM =VERY IMPORTANT MEETING
On Tuesday, July 11, 2006, at 7 pm at the Cravath Lake Front Center we will hold our regular monthly meeting. This will be a VERY IMPORTANT informational meeting about events and projects that the Alliance has been approached about participating in by the city, businesses, and individuals in the community. We NEED and WANT your ideas and energy. The questionnaire about a culture arts center for Whitewater will be an important part of this discussion. PLEASE fill out and return the questionnaire, send it, or bring it to the meeting. You are an important part of the decision making process for the Alliance. We want to know what you think.
Double Dip Deli Events:
(For details on all these events check out our web site: www.whitewaterarts.org
June: 3 Gals Again – Watercolors by: Karolyn Alexander, Terry Hering, and Dorothy Spurgat
July: RED, WHITE, and BLUE ART
August: Holiday Art – A piece from this show will be chosen for the Alliance’s first annual holiday card.
September: Envelope Art – Select a unique or interesting stamp and use it as part of the overall design on the front of the envelope. Hand lettered addressed to:
Whitewater Arts Alliance
P. O. Box 311,
Whitewater, WI 53190
There should be NO visible name or return address on the envelope. Envelopes must be framed in an 8x10 frame and have a wire hanging system.
Prizes will be awarded in three categories – Child (age 1-6), Junior (age 7-12), and Teen (ages 13-18)
October: All things Halloween! 2-D & 3-D pieces MASKS, MONSTERS, and MORE!
November: Midwest Regional Juried Watercolor Competition
December: ARTISTS’ SALE! All art pieces $100 or less. This is a GREAT holiday gift getting opportunity.
Other Happenings:
Dawn Hunter is the featured artist in the First Citizens Gallery for June and July. Stop in and see her display of “Pop Art” and contemporary watercolors.
Aurora’s Muse is offering a number of beading classes during the evening from July 6th through August 30. Call her at 262-473-7034 to get a complete description
GOLF OUTING - UW-Whitewater is sponsoring a golf outing to raise funds for arts and communications on July 12th for more information contact Megan Matthews at matthewm@uww.edu
Botham Vineyards & Winery Tour sponsored by UW-W Alumni Event July 22, from 11 am – 4 pm Reservations can be made by calling 608-924-2625 or e-mailing sfbotham @mhtc.net
SPECIAL THANK YOUS:
A number of people have written and called officers and board members with additional ideas for the Alliance to consider. We sincerely appreciate this type of participation and encourage people to share what they have observed of other art events as they have traveled or read about. We are a going and growing organization and will continue to be so with your participation.
ARTIST’S SPOTLIGHT
Earl Ambrose Warner
Earl Ambrose Warner was born on May 18, 1883 on a farm two miles from Whitewater, Wisconsin. He was the youngest son of a family of four brothers and two sisters. When he was twenty his family decided to give up the idea that he would become a farmer, and so he chose art. He wanted to draw and paint the farm, not plow and dig it. He had a great fondness for trees, flowers, and hillsides, which is very evident in his many fine drawings and sketches.
He studied at Bradley Polytechnic Institute in Aurora, Chicago Art Institute, Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, Chicago University, the Woodstock Art Colony in the Catskills and various others schools in the east. He taught design in the Vocational High School at Memphis, then was an assistant professor at the George Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee, teaching drawing and design the last four years of his life.
Even though he was colorblind, his art work shows an intense love of beauty; the symmetry, sincerity and harmony of his art testify to the influence nature in his art. Everything he did in the classroom and his outside activities was to open the eyes of the viewer to the beauty in every day life. His pencil drawings show the delicate charm of the simple pencil as a medium of artistic expression.
Warner had sketched in more than thirty states, winning first prize in fine arts at the Southern Fair in Atlanta, Georgia in October of 1917. A collection of his “Tree studies” was published while he taught at the college, while other drawings were ready for reproduction at the time of his death. His drawings were displayed at Bradley Polytechnic Institute, at Cornell University, and in southern and western normal colleges.
Earl Warner served the college until May 1918, when ill health caused him to seek treatment in a sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan. Mr. Warner had tuberculosis and died on July 19, 1918, at the age of 35.
Earl Warner, along with Flora Potter and Ida Cravath founded Whitewater’s Roundtable Club with the primary purpose to study and preserve the arts. The club disbanded in 1992. Alice Warner, Earl’s niece, gave a number of Earl’s sketches to the club, which they in turn matted and framed. They were presented to the library and are presently on display in the conference meeting room.
Betty Schoonover who resides at Fairhaven is Earl Warner’s great niece.
We are fortunate to have examples of a local artist from the early 1900’s who left a legacy of his drawings. By donating these works to the Irving Young Memorial Library many will be able to enjoy and appreciate them and the part they play in our community’s artistic history. Stop in and take a look.
(Marilyn Fuerstenberg will be doing a series of articles for the newsletter on artists in Whitewater’s history. If you have any information you think she could use be sure to get in touch with her.)
(262-473-5269 or email: mfuerst@idcnet.com