Sheboygan will host Ice Age Trail Alliance's annual conference April 20-23, bringing enthusiasts from across the state: Your weekly dose
SHEBOYGAN - More than 425 Ice Age Trail enthusiasts from around the state — and beyond — will converge in Sheboygan April 20-23 for the Ice Age Trail Alliance’s annual conference.
“This is the premier event for Trail enthusiasts to come together and discuss their favorite topic: the Ice Age National Scenic Trail,” Luke Kloberdanz, executive director and CEO of the Ice Age Trail Alliance, said in a news release. “Whether you’re new to the Trail and want to learn more about it, or have hiked it for years, there’s something for everyone at the conference.”
Taking place at Blue Harbor Resort, the 2023 conference features multiple hiking opportunities, informative seminars, trainings and entertainment.
Highlights include the following:
Guided hikes: Attendees will be shuttled to area Ice Age Trail segments for daily hikes; in addition, there will be “field trip-style” excursions, like bird watching and a behind-the-scenes tour of a property that will soon host the Trail.
Keynote speaker Craig Richard: Rock climber, world traveler and musician will share his inspiring story of survival on the night of April 21.
20-plus informative sessions: Topics vary from the geology of the Trail, to how the Trail inspires artists, exercises to improve balance for hiking, what to expect at a Trail-building event, and more.
Future in the Outdoors Summit: Taking place the afternoon of April 21, this event within the conference brings together college students, recent grads or young professionals looking for a sense of community in the outdoors.
Special guests TikTok Stars @Thruhikers: Tim and Renee, known for their many adventures on National Scenic Trails, will share their through-hiking tips and tricks with conference attendees on April 22.
Live music: Sheboygan-area musicians will entertain conference attendees during the evening social hours. Tom Luke plays the night of April 21 while Chamber Winds Quintet from Lakeland University performs the night of April 22.
Awards banquet: The conference culminates the night of April 21 with an awards banquet and celebration. During this event, the accomplishments of the Trail’s volunteers are recognized — including a first: the Alliance will recognize three volunteers who have provided 50 years of service. The National Park Service will also bestow its honors. And Alliance award winners will be revealed.
The Ice Age National Scenic Trail is a 1,200-mile footpath contained entirely within Wisconsin. It traverses the state from St. Croix Falls in the west, to Sturgeon Bay in the east, going as far south as Janesville. One of 11 National Scenic Trails, the Ice Age Trail highlights the landscapes that were carved out by ancient glaciers, which happen to be some of the most beautiful areas in the state. Approximately 60% of Wisconsin residents live within 20 miles of the Ice Age Trail.
The Ice Age Trail Alliance is a non-profit, member- and volunteer-based organization that conserves, creates, maintains and promotes the Ice Age National Scenic Trail.
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▶ John Michael Kohler Arts Center announces four Lenore G. Tawney Fellows: Sheboygan’s John Michael Kohler Arts Center has announced four Lenore G. Tawney Fellows who will pursue projects using the Arts Center’s Tawney Collection as a basis or inspiration for their work in 2023 and 2025.
The inaugural fellows named are artist and researcher Janani Balasubramanian, artist Diana Guerrero-Maciá, curator Rebecca McNamara, and curator and scholar Erica Warren.
“The response to our call for applicants was so impressive, the jurors decided to expand the scope of our first selection of fellows to include four individuals spanning multiple years rather than limit it to one fellow for the first year of the Lenore G. Tawney Fellowship program,” JMKAC Chief Curator Jodi Throckmorton said in a news release.
The decision was embraced by the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, which granted the Arts Center $1 million in 2022 to establish an endowment funding the fellowship program.
About the fellows and jurors
Balasubramanian is an artist and researcher creating accessible, inviting, and beautiful portals to natural and computational worlds through sustained collaboration with scientists. Their practice includes installation, outdoor public art, emerging media, immersive performance, 2D image, poetry and prose. Balasubramanian has received support for their work from the MacArthur Foundation, Tow Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, New York Community Trust, Jerome Foundation, UCross Foundation, Djerassi Art Center, and MAP Fund, among others. In 2023-2024, Balasubramanian will be the Denning Visiting Artist at Stanford University, jointly hosted by the Physics and Electrical Engineering departments.
Guerrero-Maciá’s art practice includes painting, textiles, collage, print and sculptural objects. Her abstract works engage with myth, iconography, symbols and color. She is a 2021 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellow and a MacDowell Fellow. Her works are held in multiple public and private collections. She has exhibited at the John Michael Kohler Art Center; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Artpace, San Antonio; Elmhurst Museum; and the Crocker Art Museum, among others. Guerrero-Maciá is an alumna of Skowhegan, Cranbrook Academy of Art, and Villanova University. She held residencies at Penland School of Craft and Haystack Mountain School of Craft. She is professor of art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
McNamara is associate curator at The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, where she creates exhibitions and publications; collaborates with faculty, visiting scholars, artists and students to facilitate innovative projects and classroom lessons; and researches, catalogs and digitizes the museum's collection. Her scholarship focuses on 19th-century through contemporary American art, craft and material culture, with exhibitions including Crazy Quilts: Stitching Memories (Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2017), Radical Fiber: Threads Connecting Art and Science (Tang, 2022; catalog forthcoming 2023), and Paula Wilson: Toward the Sky's Back Door (Tang, forthcoming 2023); her books include “Widows Unveiled: Fashionable Mourning in Late Victorian New York” (Cooper Hewitt/Parsons, 2016).
Warren is a decorative arts and design curator and scholar. She serves as editor of Craft Quarterly, the James Renwick Alliance for Craft’s magazine. Dr. Warren has curated many installations, including the critically acclaimed exhibitions Bisa Butler: Portraits and Weaving beyond the Bauhaus, both at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her recent publications include the essay “Beyond Weaving: Transdisciplinarity and the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop,” published in Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture (2021). As a complement to her curatorial and research practices, Dr. Warren teaches at the University of Chicago.
Jurors for the selection of fellows were curator and writer Glenn Adamson and artist Indira Allegra. Adamson is a curator and writer who works at the intersection of craft, design history, and contemporary art. Allegra is an artist and founder of Indira Allegra Studio, a performative craft design studio using weaving as a ritual and conceptual framework to craft living structures off the loom and in the world.
About the fellowships and Lenore G. Tawney
Lenore G. Tawney Fellowships are open to scholars, writers, curators and artists of all nationalities, at all educational levels, and from all disciplines.
Lenore Tawney’s (1907–2007) innovative interpretations of traditional fiber practices were central to shifting the perception of weaving from a utilitarian craft to fiber art as we know it today. Tawney’s unorthodox sculptural works took weaving beyond the expected flat, rectangular format, moving fiber art off the wall and into three-dimensional space. Tawney’s interdisciplinary oeuvre also spanned drawing, collage and assemblage.
In 2019, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center worked closely with the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation to acquire key components from the artist’s last studio environment with assistance from Kohler Foundation, Inc. The 486-piece collection includes artwork, collages, assemblages, furniture and supplies. An installation of Tawney’s studio environment is on view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s Art Preserve in Sheboygan, which provides the public and researchers year-round access to an unparalleled collection of art environments that includes works by more than 30 artists.
For more about the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and the Art Preserve, visit jmkac.org. Admission and parking at both locations are free.
▶ Chamber to host Institute of Women’s Leadership viewing party: At 4 p.m. April 20, Sheboygan County Chamber will host a virtual viewing party marking the second anniversary of the launch of the Institute for Women’s Leadership at UW-Green Bay.
Agenda for the evening includes registration and networking at 4 p.m., program start at 5 p.m. and keynote speaker at 6 p.m.
Registration is required and can be done through the Chamber’s website, sheboygan.org, or by calling 920-457-9491.
▶ Sheboygan native announces release of novel ‘Look for Something Good’: Former Sheboygan resident Robert Drews has announced the release by Vertu Publishing of his novel “Look for Something Good.”
According to a news release, the book tells the stories of two men who hit the reset button. When J.J. Werth is laid off by his company, he finds himself at a crossroad. Likewise does his friend Father Thomas, a former Marine and unlikely priest wrestling with a ghost of the past. Separately, J.J. and Father Thomas set out for the unknown to seek their place in the world and wind up finding very much more.
“Look for Something Good” is available at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and bookshop.org.
Drews was born and raised in Sheboygan and graduated from South High School in 1967. He and his wife, Lisa, live in northern Nevada. Vertu Publishing is based in Chapin, South Carolina.
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This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan hosts Ice Age Trail annual conference at Blue Harbor Resort
