John Michael Kohler Arts Center

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John Michael Kohler Arts Center Discover the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and the Art Preserve. Two unique, always-free destinations for art, creativity, and connection.
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Introducing the third cohort of 2027 Arts/Industry Residents! ✨ Ben Gould (Foundry) - New York, NY ✨ Gina Michaels (Fo...
10/23/2026

Introducing the third cohort of 2027 Arts/Industry Residents!

✨ Ben Gould (Foundry) - New York, NY
✨ Gina Michaels (Foundry) Philadelphia, PA
✨ Chenlu Hou (Pottery) – Providence, RI
✨ Jude Griebel (Pottery) - Alberta, Canada

The John Michael Kohler Arts Center and KOHLER Co. proudly continue their groundbreaking collaboration through the Arts/Industry program, offering 12 artists each year the extraordinary opportunity to work with industrial processes at the Kohler Co. factory.

From September 6 – December 10, these artists will work alongside Kohler Co.’s skilled artisans, creating innovative works in a dynamic, resource-rich environment. With 24/7 studio access, expert technical support, and unparalleled opportunities for experimentation, the residency inspires boundary-pushing creativity and bold new ideas.

We can’t wait to see the remarkable work these artists will create!

Introducing the second cohort of 2027 Arts/Industry Residents! ✨ Esther Elia (Foundry) - Albuquerque, NM ✨ Christina F...
10/23/2026

Introducing the second cohort of 2027 Arts/Industry Residents!

✨ Esther Elia (Foundry) - Albuquerque, NM
✨ Christina Forrer (Foundry) - Los Angeles, CA
✨ Jiha Moon (Pottery) – Tallahassee, FL
✨ Tyanna Buie (Pottery) - Providence, RI

The John Michael Kohler Arts Center and KOHLER Co. proudly continue their groundbreaking collaboration through the Arts/Industry program, offering 12 artists each year the extraordinary opportunity to work with industrial processes at the Kohler Co. factory.

From May 17 – August 20, 2027, these artists will work alongside Kohler Co.’s skilled artisans, creating innovative works in a dynamic, resource-rich environment. With 24/7 studio access, expert technical support, and unparalleled opportunities for experimentation, the residency inspires boundary-pushing creativity and bold new ideas.

We can’t wait to see the remarkable work these artists will create!

Introducing the first cohort of 2027 Arts/Industry Residents! ✨ Emily Endo (Foundry) - Yucca Valley, CA ✨ Raul De Lara...
10/23/2026

Introducing the first cohort of 2027 Arts/Industry Residents!

✨ Emily Endo (Foundry) - Yucca Valley, CA
✨ Raul De Lara (Foundry) - New York City, NY
✨ Amy Yoes (Pottery) - Narrowsburg, NY
✨ Erin Jane Nelson (Pottery) - Santa Fe, NM

The John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Co. proudly continue their groundbreaking collaboration through the Arts/Industry program, offering 12 artists each year the extraordinary opportunity to work with industrial processes at the Kohler Co. factory.

From January 25 – April 30, 2027, these artists will work alongside Kohler Co.’s skilled artisans, creating innovative works in a dynamic, resource-rich environment. With 24/7 studio access, expert technical support, and unparalleled opportunities for experimentation, the residency inspires boundary-pushing creativity and bold new ideas.

We can’t wait to see the remarkable work these artists will create!

Your next Wisconsin art adventure comes with a free T-shirt! 🍂You’re already 2/3 of the way there! Visit the John Michae...
10/22/2026

Your next Wisconsin art adventure comes with a free T-shirt! 🍂

You’re already 2/3 of the way there! Visit the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and the Art Preserve this fall, and you’ll only need ONE more stop to complete your Wisconsin Art Destinations museum checklist.

From contemporary art exhibitions to extraordinary artist-built environments, JMKAC and the Art Preserve are must-visits for your next arts and culture adventure in Wisconsin. ✨

Here’s how to earn your free T-shirt: Visit JMKAC and the Art Preserve, then explore one more participating Wisconsin Art Destinations museum by November 15 to receive your free T-shirt!

Who’s ready to explore Wisconsin’s creative side? Tag your art-loving adventure buddy and start planning your next museum day!

đź”— Find participating museums and plan your route at www.wisconsinartdestinations.com.

Make Thursday Night Your Night to Explore! ✨Keep the inspiration going after hours at JMKAC and the Art Preserve! Join u...
10/22/2026

Make Thursday Night Your Night to Explore! ✨

Keep the inspiration going after hours at JMKAC and the Art Preserve! Join us Thursday evenings for art, creativity, and unique experiences that invite you to see, make, and connect. With special programs happening throughout the evening, there’s always something new to discover!

Make a night of it with these special Thursday events:

✨ From Palette to Palate: An Evening of Artful Pairings @ Art Preserve | 5–6 p.m.
✨ Mindfulness & Sound Healing Experience with Carrie Green @ Arts Center | 6–7 p.m.
✨ Stitching Together with Curator Pachia Vang @ Arts Center | 6–7 p.m.

While you’re here, explore the galleries, enjoy $1 off drinks at the Fred Smith Bar at the Art Preserve from 4–8 p.m., and get hands-on with free art-making activities at both locations.

Stay a little longer, try something new, and make Thursday nights your own. Enter curiously until 8 p.m. Admission is always free!

Learn more at www.jmkac.org/events.

10/20/2026

Get to know artist Ilana Harris-Babou đź‘‹

Brooklyn-born artist Ilana Harris-Babou uses humor, pop culture, and the language of consumer culture to explore ideas of success, self-improvement, and economic freedom. Working across sculpture, installation, and video, she creates playful worlds that invite us to question the systems shaping our lives and imagine new possibilities for well-being.

For Ilana, the support of her mother and grandmother, both artists themselves, inspired her to keep creating. Although life circumstances kept them from pursuing art as a career, their creativity and encouragement helped shape Ilana’s own path. Through her practice, she honors the generations who inspired her while challenging us to think differently about the world around us.

✨ See her work in Good to See You: Ilana Harris-Babou and Yoshie Sakai, currently on view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.

Want to hear more from Ilana? Watch the full video on our YouTube channel—https://youtu.be/7SyHAEidR8I?si=RS20ZjfDtKSp3JFX.

Step inside Greater Than the Sum: Practices of Gathering, Reuse, and Assemblage ✨Join artists Carolina Caycedo and Arthu...
10/19/2026

Step inside Greater Than the Sum: Practices of Gathering, Reuse, and Assemblage ✨

Join artists Carolina Caycedo and Arthur Simms, along with Lenore G. Tawney Foundation Director Kathleen Nugent Mangan, for a special gallery walkthrough of the new exhibition.

Together, they’ll explore the artworks, materials, and ideas behind an exhibition rooted in gathering, reuse, collaboration, and transformation.

Featuring sculpture, fiber, found objects, and collected materials, Greater Than the Sum considers what can happen when individual things, stories, and experiences come together to create something more complex, connected, and meaningful.

The exhibition brings together work by Carolina Caycedo, Arthur Simms, Judith Scott, Kea Tawana, and Lenore Tawney, each offering their own approach to collecting, transforming, and connecting materials.

✨ The exhibition opens October 24, 2026–February 7, 2027 at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center
✨ Join us for the walkthrough and see Greater Than the Sum come together.

The walkthrough is free and open to the public.

From Palette to Palate: An Evening of Artful PairingsJoin us at the Art Preserve for our second Pour & Pair, featuring I...
10/15/2026

From Palette to Palate: An Evening of Artful Pairings

Join us at the Art Preserve for our second Pour & Pair, featuring Island Orchard C***ry of Ellison Bay, Door County.

Enjoy a thoughtfully selected lineup of Island Orchard c***rs paired with the work of Wisconsin artist Eugene Von Bruenchenhein (1910–1983), along with hors d’oeuvres designed to complement the featured libations and showcase Island Orchard’s own vinegars.

Throughout the evening, learn more about Von Bruenchenhein’s work and Island Orchard’s approach to c***r making while exploring the connections between art, flavor, and craft.

C***r will also be available for purchase during the event. 🍏

đź”— Register here: www.jmkac.org/events.

“Guadalupe Maravilla with Emery Blagdon: The star exploding in the body,” currently on view, unites the work of two arti...
10/13/2026

“Guadalupe Maravilla with Emery Blagdon: The star exploding in the body,” currently on view, unites the work of two artists who have devoted their practices to exploring art as a tool for healing.

Curator Laura Bickford reflects on Guadalupe Maravilla, Emery Blagdon, and the shaping of the exhibition:

Facilitating the meeting of Maravilla and Blagdon through their practices has been one of the great privileges of my career. One of the most difficult—and tender—aspects of this job is not knowing what some of the artists in our collection might have wanted for their work, or how they might have imagined their legacies carried forward. Maravilla’s work offered a way to listen to Blagdon across time.

Cradled within Maravilla’s Mariposa Relampago and sensitively played by his team of healers, the exhibition brings the “Healing Machine” to life, creating a sonic and emotional experience that resonates, leaving the work, and the participant, changed. It is a reminder of what artists make possible: the ability to give form to what cannot be named and to make the invisible felt. Across decades and practices, Maravilla and Blagdon remind us that art can carry an intention far beyond the life of its maker—and that connection can continue to reverberate even after the artist is gone.

Don’t miss your chance to see the exhibition before it closes November 29. Plan your visit at www.jmkac.org.

📸: (1) Guadalupe Maravilla installs Guadalupe Maravilla with Emery Blagdon: The star exploding in the body at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2026. (2) Guadalupe Maravilla, Mariposa Relámpago (detail), 2023–26; objects collected from a ritual retracing of the artist's original migration route. Courtesy of the artist and P·P·O·W. (3) Guadalupe Maravilla with Emery Blagdon: The star exploding in the body installation view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2026. (4) Guadalupe Maravilla installs Guadalupe Maravilla with Emery Blagdon: The star exploding in the body at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2026. (5-6) Guadalupe Maravilla with Emery Blagdon: The star exploding in the body installation view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2026.

10/10/2026

In "Synapses", Sheboygan artist Thomas Haneman’s fantastical “Floating Flowers” blur the boundaries between nature, imagination, and science.

Richly colored and wildly inventive, these blooms might be specimens from outer space, the depths of the ocean, or an unknown Eden. Many grow toward an unseen source of light, reaching beyond the edges of the canvas.

The inspiration is deeply personal. After emerging from a long period of depression, Haneman found renewed joy in his garden. His flowers became visual expressions of healing, happiness, and fresh sparks of life.

Drawing from Dutch still-life painting and botanical illustration, Haneman creates a world that feels both timeless and entirely new.

And there’s a special JMKAC connection: Haneman was first recognized by the Arts Center in 1973 through the exhibition Four Counties. Today, he lives and works in Sheboygan.

✨ Come experience "Thomas Haneman: Synapses" and spend some time with these joyful, otherworldly blooms.

Address

608 New York Avenue
Sheboygan, WI
53081

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 8pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm
Sunday 10am - 4pm

Telephone

(920) 458-6144

Website

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