Happenings

IN MEMORIAM

JMKAC

Ruth DeYoung Kohler II

The Wisconsin Academy community was saddened by the news of Ruth Kohler’s death on November 14, 2020. Ruth was a long-time supporter of the Academy and its arts programming. She was named a Wisconsin Academy Fellow in 1989 for her monumental contributions to Wisconsin art, and she served on the Academy Board (then the Council) from 2001 to 2012 and as the Academy’s Vice President of Arts from 2001 to 2009. This was a transformative period for the Academy’s art program, as it expanded from the curation of a small gallery space in the Steenbock Center lobby to the establishment of the James Watrous Gallery at Overture Center for the Arts.

Ruth saw the arts as a driver of positive social change, upholding the pillars of diversity, inclusiveness, and community involvement, and she was a tireless champion for under-recognized artists and art forms. She believed passionately that the arts—in all its iterations—reveal who we are as a people: past, present, and future. Through her work she promoted equitable and inclusive access to the arts in her local community, her home state of Wisconsin, and on national and international levels.

Ruth DeYoung Kohler II was born on October 24, 1941, to Herbert V. Kohler Sr. and Ruth DeYoung Kohler. She graduated from Ferry Hall School in Lake Forest, Illinois, in 1959. After earning a BA in Art and Art History at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and pursuing further studies at University of Wisconsin and the University of Hamburg, Ruth spent a year in Wisconsin teaching art in Beloit public schools. She then joined the faculty at the University of Alberta–Calgary, Canada, where she founded the printmaking program. That was followed by more than a year in Spain working as an artist and exploring the region’s vernacular and Paleolithic art.

Upon her return to the United States, she took a volunteer position at the newly opened John Michael Kohler Art Center in 1968. She quickly became assistant director, a position she held until 1972, when she became JMKAC’s director. Through her guidance, JMKAC grew from a local arts center to an institution that received international accolades for its skill at presenting contemporary and performing art, the work of vernacular artists, and the work of art-environment builders.

During her tenure as JMKAC’s director, Ruth focused attention on artist-built environments. Through landmark exhibitions held in partnership with the Kohler Foundation Inc., Ruth worked to change the way art environments are perceived and valued by the arts world and the public. Under her direction, the JMKAC collection grew to include over 25,000 works by more than thirty art-environment builders, including such important Wisconsin figures as Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Mary Nohl, and James Tellen.

Under Ruth’s leadership, artist-built environments were not the only area for which the John Michael Kohler Arts Center received world-wide attention. Ruth collaborated with Herbert V. Kohler Jr., her brother and current Kohler Company executive chairman, to develop one of the most remarkable alliances of art and industry in the United States. Established in 1974, the Arts/Industry residency program has brought hundreds of artists together with the skilled laborers of the Kohler Company pottery and foundry to develop their interest in materials and understanding of industrial processes. Participating artists are exposed to a wide body of technical knowledge that enables and encourages them to explore new ways of thinking and working. More than four decades after the first artists stepped onto the pottery factory floor, nearly five hundred Arts/Industry residents have benefited from her visionary idea that artists and industrial craftspeople can find commonality in the exchange of creative ideas and technical expertise.

In 2016, Ruth stepped away from the directorship of JMKAC to concentrate on making the Art Preserve a reality. Situated on 38 acres just west of downtown Sheboygan, the Art Preserve is to be the world’s first museum devoted to artist-built environments. The 56,000-square-foot building incorporates materials—such as wood, concrete, and glass— favored by many creators of art environments, and provides exhibition space and visible storage for the more than 25,000 works in JMKAC’s world-renowned collection. In her new role as director of special initiatives, she worked with JMKAC’s board of directors, staff, and a design firm from Denver, Colorado, called Trés Birds to develop plans for the new facility. Construction began in 2018, and in June 2021 the Art Preserve—Ruth’s vision of a center devoted entirely to artist-built environments—will welcome its first visitors.

At the time she left the directorship of JMKAC, Ruth was honored by the board of directors, who named her Director Emerita. This lifelong title is a testament to her tremendous

contribution to the fields of art environments and selftaught and folk art as well as contemporary art—and to her great success in guiding JMKAC to become the renowned institution it is today.

Her contributions to arts across Wisconsin and the U.S. are numerous and include serving as member and chair of the Wisconsin Arts Board, as well as serving on the National Endowment for the Arts as a Visual Artists Organization panel member and site evaluator. Ruth created the Preservation Committee of the Kohler Foundation Inc. and established the philosophy and protocols for identifying selftaught and environment builders in need of protection and conservation. Ruth also served on the Kohler Foundation Inc. board from 1969 to 2019 and as the Foundation’s President from 1999 to 2006. She was also a major shareholder in the privately held Kohler Company, headquartered in Kohler.

Among the many awards and honors Ruth received are: Honorary Fellow, American Craft Council, New York; Governor’s Award for the Arts, Wisconsin; Visionary Award, American Craft Museum, New York; Visionary Leadership Award, Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Illinois; Visionary Lifetime Achievement Award, Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Visionary Award, American Folk Art Museum, New York; and honorary doctorates from various institutions of higher learning.

Ruth will be remembered by her family and friends not only for her many contributions to the arts and the community but also for her engaging 1000-watt smile, her keen sense of humor, and her love of a well-crafted sentence. Ruth had a gift for connecting with young and old—not just through appreciating art, but through creating art as well, whether it was plastering a piñata for a birthday, decorating an Easter egg, or crafting the perfect Christmas card. Ruth was an illustrator in every sense of the word, imbuing the lives of those close to her with indescribable color and detail. She will be missed.

Thanks to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, the Kohler Trust for Preservation, and the Kohler Foundation Inc. for their generous contributions to this memorial tribute.

FELLOWS RECENTLY LOST

Shirley Abrahamson (1982), the first woman on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the longest-serving justice in state history. A sage and witty jurist, Abrahamson will be remembered as a trailblazer who broke down barriers for women in the legal field and as a dedicated public servant who worked tirelessly and compassionately to serve the people of Wisconsin.

Robert Byron Bird (1982), a respected professor for over 60 years in the Chemical Engineering Department at UW–Madison known for his research, books, and papers on non-Newtonian fluids. Bird, who spoke eight languages, lectured and taught internationally and received numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science in 1987, presented by President Ronald Reagan.

Sister Esther Heffernan (2002), a long-serving professor of Social Science at Edgewood College and widely respected leader in the areas of peace, social justice, and prison reform. Sister Esther will be remembered for her important research of, and published works on, the history of women and prisons, the development of the American penal system, and co-correctional policies in American prisons.

James R. Johnson (1985), a pioneer in materials science and engineering. Johnson had over 50 U.S. patents to his name and was widely published. He taught as adjunct professor at UW–Stout, and was a long-time member and eventual president of the American Ceramic Society. Johnson served as President of the Wisconsin Academy Board (then the Council) in 1988 and on the Wisconsin Academy Foundation from 1992 to 1998.

Clockwise from top left: Shirley Abrahamson, Robert Byron Bird, Sister Esther Heffernan, James R. Johnson

FELLOWS IN THE NEWS

Richard Wunsch

Kathy Kelsey Foley

On November 8, 2020, Kathy Kelsey Foley (2014), director of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, received the Association of Midwest Museum’s Distinguished Career Award. The AMM annually recognizes individuals with over ten years in the museum industry who have made significant contributions to the industry and are leaders in career achievement and best practices. According to AMM executive director Charity Counts, Foley stood out as a leader for “her dedication to organizational growth and staff development, as well as museum advocacy.” Citing such initiatives as the annual Birds in Art exhibition and cultural programming for those with memory loss through the SPARK! Alliance, Counts marveled at how Foley and her team “transformed a small museum in a small city into a community anchor.”

The National Academy of Construction elected Tom Boldt (2018) as a member of its class of 2020. Boldt, CEO of the Appleton-based Boldt Construction company, was formally inducted on Oct. 29 during the NAC annual meeting and recognized as a “longtime visionary and committed leader in sustainable building and continuous improvement who is dedicated to providing safety and value to the communities served.” Election criteria for NAC include leadership, exceptional service, a continued commitment to making a contribution, past recognition by peers for innovation, and being recognized as “best of the best.” Boldt, the fourth generation of his family to lead the 131-year-old company, is one of Wisconsin’s early supporters of green construction and is known for his commitment to sustainable building and continuous improvement in the design, engineering, and construction industries.

The eighth novel by Jerry Apps (2012), Settlers Valley, will be published by the University of Wisconsin Press in March 2021. In this eminently readable book, Apps delves into the heart of small-town America. Reckoning with timely problems and opinions that divide us, he shows us the power in restoring our relationships with nature and our communities. The novel is one of more than forty fiction and nonfiction books about life in the Upper Midwest that Apps, perhaps Wisconsin’s most prolific author, has written over the years.

WISCONSIN POETRY ANTHOLOGY

No other book captures the diversity and lyrical complexity of the Wisconsin poetry community like Through This Door: Wisconsin in Poems, a new anthology edited by Margaret Rozga and Angela C. Trudell Vasquez. The anthology features works by all nine Wisconsin Poets Laureate poems (including the recently crowned Dasha Kelly Hamilton), as well as selections from outstanding poets from the Wisconsin poetry community at large, some of whom serve or have served as local poets laureate: Nancy Rafal (Door County), Esteban Colon (Kenosha), Lisa Vihos (Sheboygan), and Lucy Tyrell (Bayfield). Other names in the collection might not be so familiar, and, for a few poets, it is the first time their work appears in publication, reflecting Rozga and Vasquez’s vision of a collection that represents the geographic and cultural diversity of the state.

The anthology, which takes is name from a line in a poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (“When beloved Sun rises, it is an entrance, a door to fresh knowledge”), began when Rozga proposed to fellow poet and Madison College design professor Wendy Vardaman a project on the subject of doors.

“We saw a Wisconsin poetry anthology as one of several ways to open a door to ‘fresh knowledge’ of the breadth and depth of Wisconsin,” says editor Rozga.

After a submission process that garnered far more than expected poems, the manuscript grew into a 100-page collection with four sections containing over fifty poems that consider doors—both literal and figurative—through memories of the past, struggles of the present, and hopes for the future.

Through This Door: Wisconsin in Poems can be purchased from Woodland Pattern Book Center and Boswell Books in Milwaukee or ordered online at artnightbooks.com. Sales of the anthology support the Wisconsin Poet Laureate.