Museum Studio Spaces III

When we headed to Wisconsin for the Sugar Maple Festival this July we knew we were going to end the weekend with a visit to the Milwaukee Art Museum but we didn’t know how our day in Madison would go. We drove to the area around the capital and found a place to eat lunch and were wondering what to do next when we saw a kiosk with posters for two exhibits at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) the first for Ray Yoshida (one of those Chicago Imagists I keep hearing about) and one for Jeffrey Gibson (who I hadn’t heard of but I loved the piece on the poster). The museum was free and in walking distance so we headed over – a great decision since it is a wonderful museum.

They didn’t have an art studio but they did have a MMoCAkids art guide and a MMoCAteens art guide with exploration activities and other information. They also had an interactive area in each gallery.

It was fun to walk into the Ray Yoshida exhibit and see the Lynda Barry book on drawing that Liz had recently lent to me. The “sketch book” includes 6 Drawing Challenges inspired by Ray Yoshida, Lynda Barry, aand Ivan Brunetti.

Jeffrey Gibson is of Choctow and Cherokee heritage and many of his pieces use beads and other traditional materials so they set up a touching station.

As well as a book and design area.

The Milwaukee Art Museum does have an art studio. The museum was having a James Nares exhibit and a lot of the pieces focused on movement so that was the inspiration for the art projects – marble paintings and drawing on a moving cylinder.

A series of still life animal environments were set up on other tables.

And there were some exploring tables and a book area.

We’ll definitely be visiting both museums again!