John Michael Kohler Arts Center
The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is a not-for-profit art museum operated by the Sheboygan Arts Foundation, Inc., located in downtown Sheboygan, Wisconsin, United States.[1] The original house at the facility is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the John Michael Kohler House.
John Michael Kohler Arts Center | |
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Main atrium of the JMKAC | |
General information | |
Location | 608 New York Avenue Sheboygan, Wisconsin |
Coordinates | 43°45′9″N 87°42′38″W |
Governing body | Sheboygan Arts Foundation, Inc. |
Website | |
www |
The Sheboygan Arts Foundation, Inc. was created in 1959 and its first board included Mrs. Walter J. Kohler III.[2]
In 1966, the Kohler Foundation donated the Kohler family homestead to the Sheboygan Arts Foundation, Inc. for the use of the arts center.[3] The center was established the following year and was expanded to 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) beginning in 2000.[1] It reaches 160,000 people each year and an estimated 4 million since its inception.[4] The center has ten galleries, a theater, performance and meeting spaces, studio-classrooms, an all ages/all abilities activity space known as The ARTery, an on-site retail shop called ARTspace, and a cafe named ARTcafe. The center also has an adjunct site called ARTspace at the Shops at Woodlake, which is an exhibition space and shop in the nearby village of Kohler.[1]
Programming at the center includes dance performances, art exhibits, festivals, music performances, and theatre; an arts based preschool, classes, demonstrations, lectures, and tours.[4] The John Michael Kohler Arts Center has an arts/industry program, the primary component of which is a residency program at Kohler Company.[5] Artists have the opportunity to spend two to six months creating works of art utilizing industrial materials and equipment. The center is known for its artist-created public toilets,[6] which cultural historian Barbara Penner uses as the introduction to her 2013 book Bathroom.
References
- John Michael Kohler Arts Center Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved July 25, 2007
- "Officers Of Foundation Named Here". The Sheboygan Press. 29 May 1959. p. 13.
- "A Welcome Gift". The Sheboygan Press. 6 Jul 1966. p. 39.
- John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Retrieved July 25, 2007
- Finkel, Jori. "Way Off the Beaten Path, Letting the Outsiders In". New York Times.
- The Urinals of John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Retrieved July 25, 2007.