Home > Do It Now > Spring > Connoisseurs of concrete

Connoisseurs of concrete

Kohler Art Center throws a party for Wisconsin's fabulous folk-art environments.

There's something unusual about Wisconsin — but no one knows what.

In the middle of the last century, ordinary people began populating the roadsides with figures of concrete and glass. A former lumberjack created 203 of them next to his northwoods tavern, including Paul Bunyan, Sacajawea and the whole Budweiser Clydesdale team.

Along the Mississippi, a farmer who couldn't even put up a clothesline suddenly began to build lifelike dinosaurs and a beautifully arched concrete fence, with conical red posts tipped in gold. In the south, a cheese-maker with a sly sense of humor adorned his yard with fairy-tale figures and his house with glass "jewels.''

Why? No one knew, though some called it "dementia concretia.''

These folk-art sculptures began to crumble, but they were rescued by the Kohler Foundation and now are maintained as art environments. This summer, with an “American Masterpieces” grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board and the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan is offering special programming at six of them.

The first celebration is May 16 in Hollandale, home of Nick Engelbert's Grandview, with a 1 p.m. parade and a 5:30 p.m. brat fry at the jeweled house, east of Mineral Point.

On May 17, Ernest Hüpeden's Painted Forest inside the Modern Woodmen of America lodge in Valton will be on display during a 1-3 p.m. party. Valton is northwest of Baraboo.

Outside the north-central town of Phillips, there will be a brat fry at Fred Smith's Wisconsin Concrete Park June 7 from 1 to 3 p.m.

Along the Mississippi River near Fountain City, Herman Rusch created the Prairie Moon Sculpture Garden and Museum. There will be a celebration there June 15 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

One of the newest sites is James Tellen's Woodland Sculpture Garden near Sheboygan. The celebration there will be June 22 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. Guests can take a free shuttle from the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan.

The best opportunity for people who really love Wisconsin's folk legacy comes July 12 in the Door County village of Baileys Harbor. Albert Zahn’s Birds Park and house, which he filled with hand-carved cedar birds, angels, woodsmen, sailors, ships, and woodland creatures, is not open to the public.

But a presentation will be given 4-7 p.m. at Peninsula Art School in nearby Fish Creek, and tickets will be auctioned for five tours of up to four people each. And and Marilyn and Orren Bradley will host a tour of their collection of Zahn works in Egg Harbor.

For details, call 920-458-6144. For more on Wisconsin's art environments, see Magnificent obsessions.

Last updated on May 9, 2008