Galleries to remember on Memorial Day weekend

This week’s Art Date offers ideas near and far for your Memorial Day weekend, from American Roots music to kids’ activities, and exhibitions opening and closing.

This week’s concert at the Charles Allis Art Museum features Steve Cohen and Peter Roller.

THURSDAY, MAY 23 

Steve Cohen & Peter Roller 
Charles Allis After Hours American Roots Music Series
Charles Allis Art Museum
1801 N. Prospect Avenue
Doors open at 5:30, music at 6 p.m.

The Charles Allis is a great place to see art – but on Thursdays this May it also becomes a music venue. This Thursday’s performance features guitarist, vocalist, and harmonica player Steve Cohen teamed up with guitarist Peter Roller.

FRIDAY, MAY 24 

Born of Fire: Scenes of Industry from the Westmoreland Museum of American Art 
Grohmann Museum
1000 N. Broadway
9 a.m.-5 p.m.

The Grohmann Museum is a unique art venue as it focuses on images related to industry and engineering. This exhibition of 20 loaned works from the Westmoreland Museum presents imagery of agrarian and industrial life with a regionalist flavor.

Story Time in the Galleries 
Milwaukee Art Museum
700 N. Art Museum Drive
10:30 a.m.

The holiday weekend may mean getting together for family outings, and if there are kids involved, this may be a fun visit. The activities include a story related to a piece of art, and drawing activities inspired by the story and images.

“Trace” at Greymatter includes the work of Andy Mattern, Pavel Romaniko, and Leigh Merrill.

Greymatter Gallery
Marshall Building
207 E. Buffalo Street, Suite 222
12-4 p.m.

It’s the last day to see Trace, an exhibition that muses on the imprint of architecture and transformation of location through the work of Andy Mattern, Leigh Merrill, and Pavel Romaniko.

SUNDAY, MAY 25 

Shelia Held, The Shuffle of Things, 2012. Picture courtesy Lynden Sculpture Garden.

Sheila Held: Rappaccini’s Daughter 
Lynden Sculpture Garden 
2145 W. Brown Deer Road
12-5 p.m.

Sheila Held‘s art is created through the woven intersection of threads: some brightly colored and some dark, some shimmering in delicate nuances. Her approach, from afar, gives a nod to the modulated surfaces of painting but is in reality patiently-made tapestries. This merging of practices suggests the cross-cultural iconography of Held’s work and references the symbolic joining of themes, or as Held says to, “access the point where magic, science, religion, art and nature intersect.”

Heroes Surround Us: An Exhibition Without Borders 
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
608 New York Avenue, Sheboygan
10 a.m.-4 p.m.

If this is the weekend for a quick trip out of town, the JMKAC in Sheboygan may be on your Sunday itinerary. This new exhibition, Heroes Surround Us: An Exhibition Without Borders, features portraits of admired individuals, both famous and obscure, who are held in regard as heroes to their community. The portraits will later be placed in public spaces throughout Sheboygan.

While at the JMKAC, visitors can also check out Uncommon Ground, with five installation pieces drawing from nature and the human experience.