December Events at the Lynden Sculpture Garden

The Lynden Sculpture Garden is located at 2145 West Brown Deer Road. Admission is free. All events listed below are free unless otherwise indicated. Memberships, which offer significant discounts on workshops and other events, are available.

HOURS

In December, the Lynden Sculpture Garden is open daily from 10 am-5 pm (closed Thursdays). We will be closed for the holidays from December 23, 2024, through January 1, 2025. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, admission is free. For complete information on events, visitor guidelines, and everything that goes on at Lynden, visit www.lyndensculpturegarden.org

A NOTE ON ICE SKATING

We will offer ice skating on one of the ponds at Lynden on Saturdays and Sundays when weather and ice conditions permit. Please visit us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LyndenSculptureGarden) for ice skating updates.

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EXHIBITIONS: GALLERY

CALL & RESPONSE: ASMAA WALTON AND THE BLACK ART LIBRARY

Through February 28, 2025

More information: https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/exhibitions/asmaa-walton-and-black-art-library

Call & Response: Asmaa Walton and the Black Art Library is a public humanities project that asks how we create, share, and preserve cultural memory for a more complete and accessible cultural record. A Detroit native and developer of the Black cultural archive, Asmaa Walton noticed a conspicuous gap in the mainstream narration of art history around Black art and artists when she was training as an art educator and then working in museums. In 2020 she launched the Library, a collection of publications, exhibition catalogues, theoretical texts, and research materials about Black art and visual culture. Its mission is straightforward: “Black Art Library is a collection of books and other art history ephemera on Black visual art intended to be an educational resource to share within the Black community and beyond. The Library’s mission is to introduce or expand the community’s knowledge of Black art from the past and the present through art books.”

Walton aligns her project with other libraries that are vital community spaces and she places herself in the lineage of librarians as agents of change. Black Art Library will be in residence in Lynden’s gallery for four months. The gallery, an emphatically domestic space that was once a living room, is an ideal setting for this temporary community gathering place that functions as an interactive, participatory archive. Visitors can examine books and materials at their leisure. When she is in Milwaukee, Walton will keep “library hours” during which she will be available to engage with visitors and recommend books: November 6, 1-4 pm; November 11, 1:30-4 pm; and November 12, 1:30-4 pm. The public is invited, at the opening or while the Library is in residence, to donate mission-appropriate items to this growing archive. This project is funded in part by a grant from Wisconsin Humanities, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

WORKSHOPS & EVENTS

STORIES AS WE MOVE: A HOME INTERVIEW SERIES

Wednesday, December 4, 2024 – 2-3 pm ***VIRTUAL***

FREE.

More information: https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/stories-we-move-2024

Stories as We Move launched in 2020 as part of Lynden’s HOME virtual platform. The series pairs individuals who have faced forced displacement in its many forms in a conversational setting. Refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants interview those that have resettled to the United States, including friends and family that are based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as well as those that remain overseas. These interviews are reflections of relationships and conversations that we continue to have long after resettlement; they explore issues that our refugee friends and family members continue to face as they remain in their country of origin or interim country.

CREATIVE TIME FOR FAMILIES: WET FELTING

Sunday, December 8, 2024 – 12:30-2:30 pm

Fee: $15/$10 member per family (all materials included). All ages are welcome; children younger than 12 should attend with an adult.

More information and to register: https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/creative-time-fall-2024

From September through December, we will be offering monthly, drop-in workshops for families. Stop by for engaging, hands-on activities that bring art and nature to life. Whether you make a quick visit or stay the entire two hours, count on spending some quality creative time with family and friends. Show our feathered friends some love this cold season by creating a unique, edible (to birds) ornament using found objects, seeds, and other bird-friendly treats.

DOG DAYS AT LYNDEN

Saturday, December 21, 2024 – 10 am-4 pm

FREE.

More information: https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/dog-days-2024

Bring your canine friends for a wintry walk. Dogs must be leashed and considerate of other visitors, canine and human.

FALL PROGRAMS FOR THE YOUNG AND VERY YOUNG

TUESDAYS IN THE GARDEN FOR PARENTS & VERY SMALL CHILDREN

Tuesdays, December 3, 17, 2024- 10:30 am-11:30 am

Sessions meet outdoors.

Fee: $16/$12 members for one adult and one child.

More information and to register: https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/tuesdays

Join art educators Claudia Orjuela and Denice Niebuhr for hands-on art making and all-senses-engaged exploration of the outdoor world at Lynden. Tuesdays in the Garden, designed for children aged 1-3, provides a nurturing environment where children’s curiosity and wonder are extended through play and exploration, and children and their caregivers learn and discover side-by-side. We’ll consider different themes, each designed to connect Lynden’s environment with children’s interests. We will encourage experimentation and the manipulation of art and natural materials to tell stories, solve problems, and develop relationships. Tuesdays in the Garden meets weekly and the themes for December are Signs of Winter and Gingerbread Fun.

HOME: MULTILINGUAL STORY TIME

Wednesday, December 11, 2024– 10:30-11 am ***VIRTUAL***

FREE

More information: https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/home-multilingual-story-time-2024

HOME Multilingual Story Time features children’s books written or illustrated by artists who have faced forced displacement as refugees, asylum seekers, or immigrants, and come from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. Designed for children aged 4-8, we believe that reading picture books is a way to share and discuss big ideas with young children. We end each virtual session with an art activity from Lynden art educator Claudia Orjuela

NOHL FELLOWSHIP EVENTS

Supporting artists is a at the core of Lynden’s mission. One of the ways that we support artists is by administering a range of grant programs for artists: the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowships for Individual Artists, the Suitcase Export Fund, and the Ruth Arts Mary L Nohl Alumni Awards.

UWM DEPARTMENT OF ART & DESIGN: ARTISTS NOW! GUEST LECTURE SERIES

NICHOLAS PERRY

Wednesday, December 4, 2024, at 7:30 pm ***VIRTUAL***

For information: https://uwm.edu/arts/event/artists-now-guest-lecture-series-nicholas-perry/

Nicholas Perry is a painter based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He received a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts in 2018. His figurative paintings draw on art-historical influences, personal photography, and other visual languages. Perry is a recipient of the 2024 Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowship for Individual Artists.

COMING UP IN JANUARY

The sculpture garden reopens on January 2, 2025.

The Black Art Library remains on view in the gallery in January—stop in to browse or read. In January we will announce the five recipients of the 2025 Mary L. Nohl Fellowships for Individual Artists. The month begins with a New Year Sound Bath & Future-Self Letter Writing Workshop with artist-in-residence Jenna Knapp and Sevan Arabajian-Ries. A new session of Art + Nature Lab, our after-school program for children aged 7-11, starts on January 16. For those aged 12 and up, Jeremy Stepien offers a one-day workshop, Holding Memories: Clay Reliquaries, on January 20. Tuesdays in the Garden takes a break in January, but Claudia Orjuela offers the next installment of Creative Time for Families on the 19th: you’ll be using polymer clay to make small, colorful charms for jewelry, keychains, and more. The HOME Refugee Book Discussion group will finish reading Barbara Sommer Feigin’s My American Dream on January 16. The first Dog Day of the year is on January 18.Most importantly, we close out the month with our 13th annual Winter Carnival on January 25. Get ready for a day of outdoor art-making, scavenger hunts, tours and tree-walks, and whatever other winter activities–ice skating, painting the pond, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing–the weather permits. Orchestrated by Lynden Teachers-in-Residency Katie Hobday and Hattie Grimm, our highly participatory, artist-driven carnival offers something for everybody.

ABOUT THE LYNDEN

The Lynden operates as a laboratory at the intersection of art, nature, and culture. Since opening to the public in 2010, we have worked with artists, educators, students, and our community to create, support, and share experiences that integrate our collection of more than 50 monumental sculptures and temporary installations, Lynden’s community of artists, and the natural ecology of our 40-acre site. The sculpture garden is open to art and nature lovers of all ages daily, 10 am-5 pm; closed Thursdays. Admission is free. Learn more about visitor guidelines here: https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/visit.

Annual memberships are also available.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.