March 25, 2015 at 4:28 p.m.
Rhinelander ArtStart to host 'rural roots' exhibit
Rhinelander ArtStart to host 'rural roots' exhibit
A reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, March 28, at ArtStart marking the opening of the exhibition.
Stolle, a prolific artist and art educator, taught art to children and adults in Price, Lincoln and Oneida counties and beyond from 1920 to 1960. According to an ArtStart press release, she began painting at age four, and in 1917 at age 20 she began her teaching career which was interrupted in 1920 when she married. At the time, married women were not allowed to teach.
In 1946 Stolle was asked to start an art group for high school students, and she agreed, requiring each student to create at least one painting for an exhibit outside the classroom. The following year she enrolled her students in the American Red Cross International School Art Program, and some of her students' works were selected for display around the world through this program. She was a member of the Wisconsin Regional Arts Association and, in 1950, helped found the Jack Pine Artists, the first art league of its kind in our region. She is a recipient of the John Steuart Curry Medal in recognition of "successful creative art classes for children and her participation in art clinics," and in 1966 she received one of the highest arts accolades in the nation when she was honored by the National Gallery of Art at the White House and received the Distinguished Service to Education in Art Award.
Her works have received numerous regional and state awards, and a 1950 work Pleasant Legend received a Certificate of Merit and was displayed at the Manhattan Riverside Museum in New York. Ruth Stolle passed away in 1985.
On exhibit are more than 30 works by Stolle, most from the collection of Bill Hoffman, her former student.
Curry, a painter with an international reputation, served as the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Artist in Residence in the 1930s, the first position of its kind in the nation. Upon taking up this post, he immediately began teaching painting classes in farm towns across the state. The exhibition honors "The Wisconsin Idea" with a collection of his students' work. The Wisconsin Idea extended the reach of the university throughout the state and inspired the original Rural Arts Program, the first of its kind in the United States.
In 1940 the Rural Arts Program became the Wisconsin Regional Art Program (WRAP) with the goal of encouraging Wisconsin artists "to make art for the sake of the creative experience and not to earn their living as artists." The program's first exhibit, in 1940, was held at the Memorial Union in Madison and included works by 30 non-professional artists. By 1947, more than 100 works were included in the WRAP exhibit. This year WRAP will mark its 75th year of providing exhibitions and workshops for non-professional artists throughout the state.
The public is invited to attend the opening reception at no charge. ArtStart Gallery is located at 68 S. Stevens St. in Rhinelander, and gallery hours are Thursday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday 1 to 7 p.m., and Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Information on this and other ArtStart offerings is available at www.ArtStartRhinelander.org.
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