MNF Art
MNF believes art is a full partner in any education and so endeavors to create forward thinking art exhibits with an environmental twist. MNF believes art can educate through its unique position in our culture as an influencer and a witness. Working with professional artists, curators, galleries and museums; MNF mounts meaningful and fun art exhibits which have garnered praise and thousands of visitors. MNF sees art exhibits as visual languages communicating natural resource ideas, problems, solutions and inspirations showing the many sides of certain natural resource management dilemmas so that a balance between use and conservation can be found. MNF sees these art exhibits as a full part of their education efforts and as a stand alone project which like abstract art is of itself fully not representing or pushing any agenda, just being.
MNF Art Season 2023
2023 begins a multi-year run of There's Only One: Many Voices which seeks to show a balance between artists who are opposed to drilling in the National Petroluem Reserve and artists who support using the resources which have been set aside in that refuge.
Since the closing of the frontier and its corollary wilderness places in 1983 Americans have had to adapt their perception of wilderness. The Milewski Nature Fund (MNF) is humbled to work on another art exhibit about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) with our partner Galaudet Gallery called There’s Only One Part 2: Many Voices. The first part of There’s Only One brought together internationally recognized artists whose work with the beauty, mystery and inspiration of Alaska’s north was inspiring and shocking. Galaudet Gallery curators chose art that is “so astonishing it is influencing, inspiring and reshaping the thinking about this legendary land.” MNF Advisory Board Member Odis Richardson exclaimed.
There's Only One: Many Voices Part 2 juried into the exhibit through a rigorous and anonymous process. We also include some historical artworks connecting the practice of creating art from the area known now as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska with an historical drawings and photographs to remind us that Western Civilization was not the first to arrive in Alaska. Peoples have been recorded living there for over 50,000 years.
My decades working to bring wilderness protection for the 1002 Area of ANWR has taught me many things with some of the most important the need we all have to listen and understand each other. The individuals who want to recover oil in northern Alaska are not the enemy and as such we have decided to give them a voice in Many Voices so that we can all begin to repair our relationships with each other and the land while seeking together a balance between our use of natural resources and our conservation of them.
That balance between use and conservation is the core of MNF’s mission and finding that balance has been a lifelong pursuit. We look forward to working with Galaudet Gallery and our other partners in bringing There’s Only One Part 2: Many Voices to as many people, underrepresented and over represented, so that everyone is included and has a chance to find their voice regarding our natural world
For 2022 we host Building Dreams 3: Cutting Down Hierarchies
Building on the work of the previous two Building Dreams exhibits, GG adds the idea of Building Science to the mix. As part of GG’s long running art series Forming Function, which ushers in The Third Chicago School of Architectural Thought which follows the First and Second Chicago Schools in form and function while building a new school of thought on the building sciences of the 21st Century
The first Building Dreams simply exhibited the interior architecture of GG’s space in Eau Claire inside the Milewski Mansion. With its Arts and Crafts ideologies seen in high quality artisan work in wood, plaster and glass, GG’s space in Eau Claire is an artwork all on its own.
Building Dreams 2 focused on the couple, A.E. and Georgiana White, who built this building and who determined the Arts and Crafts flourishes as well as some personal touches. A.E. White’s many patents were exhibited along with some of the actual pieces loaned by area residents.
Building Dreams 3 now adds to this story by looking at the building sciences that exist within the Milewski Mansion, creating a sustainable and quality interior life. Building physics, architectural science and applied physics will be integrated into a look at how the Milewski Mansion is constructed and the efforts owner Michael Milewski is taking to rehabilitate this gem for a life beyond another 100 years.
Integrating Building Sciences into the storyline of our Building Dreams exhibit means learning more about the Milewski Mansion which houses the gallery in Eau Claire. Similar to the work Michael did on the gallery space in Chicago, the Milewski Two-Flat an 1880 brick beauty, Michael seeks to rehabilitate and enliven this property using his decades long acquired knowledge in his primary business of restoring historical properties. Coupled with Michael’s certifications and research into sustainable building also means that he seeks to find a balance between a building’s footprint and the comfort of its occupants.
MNF Art Season 2022
MNF Art Season 2021
After postponing all programs in 2020 due to the CoVid-19 pandemic, MNF decided to build out their planned art exhibits for 2021 so that they would be outside. The two art exhibits MNF held during 2021 are:
Beyond Wood—a land acknowledgement
Beyond Wood--a land acknowledgement that is an outdoor art installation seeking to dismantle the hierarchy which values trees more dead than alive. Assemblages made from extinct giant white pine barn wood provides another life for this wood to speak of the extinction of hierarchies and the future of equality.
Curator Michael Milewski from Galaudet Gallery worked with MNF staff and volunteers to enlarge the idea of land acknowledgements to include the flora and fauna that were also removed from areas in order for other living beings (like humans) to make these spaces their own. “If we only include past people who lived on sections of land and called it home then we are missing the reason why we are in a climate crisis.” Michael explains, “In order to find real solutions to the climate instability we are living today, we need to acknowledge the vast amounts of plants, animals and water that have been removed, damaged, killed or destroyed. I do not live in a make believe world that we can bring back the forests and waterways which assisted in balancing our climate and providing resources for life; instead, we hope to pull down the hierarchies which have made such destruction inevitable and find better ways to live on this world.”
The idea from Beyond Wood came to Michael after watching his barn get demolished by derecho winds, “We saw the demolition of the barn because of wind speeds that are now part of the everyday climate instability as a chance to work with this next stage of land acknowledgments. As i watched the barn get ripped apart I thought of the definition of the word "demolish" which is to “overthrow, overturn, bring to an end” which certainly needs to happen in society today.”
Beyond Wood—a Land Acknowledgement has been invited to be installed in four major cities as well as on the Milewski Farm and near Galaudet Gallery’s two locations, “We want to share this new way of looking at land acknowledgement with as many people as possible.”
One Sacred Moment
One Sacred Moment is an installation of poem slips. Tied to tree branches in specific areas. In Chicago we tied them around the area that Beyond Wood--A Land Acknowledgement was taking place. We have now been invited to tie these poem slips in several cities across the nation and we look forward to working with each community to install these wonderful words block printed on handmade paper imbedded with seeds. The poem slips hold the poem One Sacred Moment...with You. Click on the button below to read this wonderful poem:
One Sacred Moment...with you Poem
One Sacred Moment follows the tradition of hanging brightly colored strips of paper with poems written on them in trees during certain times of year generally in the fall and spring. Popularized by the Japanese in the 17th century and captured in certain artworks of that time and in remembrance of that time, Japan still holds a holiday in the summer which involves writing wishes on the paper and hanging the slips on bamboo. Other cultures have displayed poetry and other written words in nature for at least a millennia. Artist Vicki Milewski continues a practice she started as a teenager when she would handwrite her poems on handmade paper and hang them in trees around the town she grew up in. Today she brings messages of the importance of community and family to this practice involving others in the creation of the Poem Slip Trees. She has even cultivated bamboo in order to pay homage to the Japanese practice.
One Sacred Moment is on display right now, please contact Galaudet Gallery to find a location. One Sacred Moment is available for display please contact MNF to become a part of this remarkable display of poetry in motion with words speaking about community, family, conservationism and 21st Century sacred moments.
MNF' 2020 Art Season has been postponed until further notice due to the CoVid-19 Pandemic. Stay Safe!
.jpg)
.jpg)
One
Sacred
Moment...
with you
MNF Art Season 2020
MNF Art Season 2019
MNF's 2019 art exhibit is about our nation's Grasslands which toured to several locations and won praise wherever it went as MNF worked with curators to raise awareness of Grasslands in their beauty, conservation possibilities and the plant, animal and human communities which need the grasslands to survive. Through their work with Grasslands, MNF is now working on an art exhibits titled "Forestlands" and "Waterways".
Grasslands not only showed the beauty of America's grasslands but MNF also worked with different organizations who are working to reestablish grasslands, conserve grasslands and find commercial uses for grasslands. Seeking a balance between use of our natural resources and conservation of them is MNF's main mission and their art exhibit Grasslands did some seeking and some finding!
MNF Art Season 2018
MNF's 2018 Art Season was all about the heavens. MNF looked skyward with partner Galaudet Gallery who was working on a year long theme based on Edward Abbey's idea of the “Back of Beyond” which speaks to Abbey's hiking in wilderness places that he felt should be "beyond development" and then he found places that were so far off the beaten track that theie location made them (currently) impervious to development. These places Abbey called "the back of beyond" and often Abbey would write about his star gazing--hoping that there were places out there that would also be part of "the back of beyond"
MNF partner with Galaudet Gallery on their fall and winter shows in 2018 assisting to develop experiences that became the art exhibit Dancing with the Dawn. The curators melded ideas like rhythm and discovery to continue their exploration of Ed Abbey’s ideas about the wilderness inside and outside. Rhythm is found with artworks about dancing and dawn and the idea of discovery is found in NASA’s current Dawn Mission to explore Ceres and other space exploratory images. Galaudet Gallery's website has more information available:
The winter show MNF and Galaudet Gallery partnered on was called Stars in a New Constellation reaching as far out as one can go, this exhibit looked at stars from multiple views: Cultural, Astronomical, Meditational, and Seasonal--with a good dose of Holiday cheer.
MNF sees these two upward looking exhibits as a part of the mission to find a balance between the use of our natural resources and the conservation of them since it was that first photo of planet earth taken from the moon landing which launched a new consciousness about our planet and the living beings who share it. MNF's office in rural Wisconsin also offers some of the best sky gazing around as a member of NASA's Informal Educators Network, MNF loves to invite community members for informal educational events like star gazing and sometimes we are treated with a show of Northern Lights! Galaudet Gallery's webpage has more information available:
MNF's 2016--2017 Art Season
MNF's Art Season for 2016--2017 focused on a place far away from Wisconsin. MNF partnered with Galaudet Gallery in 2017 to bring There's Only One: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge which was inspired by the Refuge in Alaska and an experience MNF Director Vicki Milewski had when first seeing Georgia O’Keefe’s painting Only One at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.
The astonishing art displayed in this exhibit was from a unique group of creatives: sportsmen, conservationists, backpackers, artists and residents who share their artworks which are influential in reshaping our thinking about this legendary land.
The disparate group of contributors to this exhibit elevated how people see the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (the Refuge) and wilderness land in general. All the art showed a mutual love of nature and wild places but the foundation for that love comes from different perspectives and beliefs. Activist artists showed work alongside politically conservative hunters—both capturing the Refuge in its beauty and savage wildness while disagreeing about the management and future of the land.
Visitors were excited and motivated by these unique views which created art everyone agreed was stunning, interesting, beautiful and unique. Over 1000 people came to see this exhibit and 4 events helped educate people about the Refuge and work being done to manage it.
MNF is planning on a second exhibit for There's Only One Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Part 2 with a subtitle of Many Voices to be held at multiple locations from Summer 2024 to Spring 2025 . MNF and partner Galaudet Gallery will bring even more diverse voices to the exhibit and include spoken word, sound installation and music alongside the visual artworks. Visit Galaudet Gallery's site to learn more about this wonderous exhibit.
"Give it back to Nature"
MNF’s work with the “Give back to Nature” forest is more than an afforestation program since it also seeks new definitions of wilderness in the 21st Century and the possibility of rewilding a place by simply giving it back to nature which has created a landscape artwork by nature. each new season brings a new art exhibit to this forest, often an indoor juried and curated show corresponds to new growth or changes in the forest. Although nature's beauty has never been termed as an art exhibit before, MNF feels that if curated and positioned for specific viewing opportunities nature's beauty can be seen as an art exhibit. Surely the "Give back to Nature" forest MNF manages falls into this category. Some curatorial insights from landscape architects and artists have been to focus on one type of tree and the way the leaves look in the sun. Another insight was in an outdoor exhibit called "Families" which looked at the small nurseries growing around the 100 year old oak trees and sugar maples.
