FROM: CJ O’Reilly, Development/Marketing Assistant, 262.334.9638 ext. 228
RE: Jones Island Exhibition at MWA
West Bend, WI—For Immediate Release–The Museum of Wisconsin Art proudly announces the opening of Isle of Inspiration: Rediscovering Milwaukee’s Jones Island. This new exhibition illustrates the rich and largely forgotten history of Milwaukee’s Jones Island and runs from September 2 through November 1. On Sunday, September 13, the Museum will host an opening reception from 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. A coffee reception and gallery talk presented by Assistant Director Graeme Reid is scheduled for Friday morning September 11 at 10:30 a.m. Both events are free with admission to the Museum.
The exhibition will include contemporary and historical photographs of Jones Island, as well as numerous paintings, etchings and other works inspired by this unique enclave just south of Milwaukee’s Downtown. A symposium celebrating the new exhibit will be held on September 12th. Registration for the symposium is required.
Now an exclusively industrial area, Jones Island was once home to roughly 1600 Polish Kaszubians, who made their living from the lake, and whose existence was for the most part isolated from “mainland” Milwaukee. What began as a southward-pointing peninsula, Jones Island derived its name from a short-lived period in its history. In 1857, work was completed on a channel dug through its north end, turning the peninsula into an island ideal for Yankee shipbuilders such as Captain James Monroe Jones. Despite the fact that Captain Jones left his operation behind one year later when a nor’easter flooded the area and sediment from Milwaukee’s Kinnickinnic River transformed the island back into a peninsula roughly a decade later, the name Jones Island has remained. It is now occupied by Milwaukee’s Metropolitan Sewerage District, and is home to the Jones Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, a facility so revolutionary in design that it was eventually accorded the status of a National Historic Engineering Site by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Jones Island was a magnet for artists seeking a change of pace or a “walk on the wild side.” Their paintings and prints not only chart the changing appearance of the island but also changes in artistic styles and trends. The early etchings of Paul Hammersmith and Frank Enders are beautiful in their calm, liner description. Robert von Neumann’s lithographs capture the muscled brawn of the island’s fisherman plying their trade. Howard Thomas painted the island over a period of twenty years with his images becoming more abstract, reflecting nationwide trends in art. Other artists such as Max Fernekes, Emily Groom, Harold Thorsten Lindberg, George New, Alfred Pelikan, Franz Rohrbeck, James Schwalbach and Helmut Summ depicted the island as it neared its end as a settlement. Jim Brozek’s photographs capture the modern era of the island: no longer a place of residence, yet still a place of work.
The Museum of Wisconsin Art is located in downtown West Bend at 300 South 6th Avenue. Public hours are Wednesday – Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and Sunday 1:00 – 4:30 p.m. For more information, call 262-334-9638 or visit our website at http://www.wisconsinart.org.
