January 24, 2025 – May 18, 2025
Exhibit Admission: Visit FREE with your Museum membership, starting as low as $15 for the year. One-day passes also available at $10.

The Trout Museum of Art is thrilled to announce the opening of A Creative Place: Art from Northeastern Wisconsin from 1940 to Present. This exhibition marks a pivotal moment and exciting chapter in the Museum’s history. Opening on January 24, 2025, this exhibition marks our final exhibition at 111 College Avenue, before we move to a new, state-of-the-art home in downtown Appleton. Guest curated by Annemarie Sawkins, A Creative Place celebrates the rich artistic heritage of northeastern Wisconsin and provides reflection on the region’s evolving creative spirit.

The exhibition will feature over 100 works, highlighting a diverse array of artists, themes, media, and techniques, and will reflect the evolution of the art scene. It will trace the development of the region’s artistic institutions and showcase historical artists such as Agnes Wainwright, Marie Bleck, Gerhard Miller, Tom Dietrich and Norbert Kox to contemporary creatives such as Tony Conrad, Suzanne Rose, Christine Style, Michelle Grabner, and Beth Lipman. This exhibition aims to capture the rich and varied artistic heritage of the Fox Cities, offering a comprehensive view of the area’s visual arts progression.

Opening Night

Join us on January 24 from 5 to 8 PM for the opening night of A Creative Place, free and open to the public. We invite guests to come dressed in their most “artful” attire—whether it’s vintage fashion, avant-garde pieces, or outfits inspired by the movements and eras featured in the exhibition.

One of the evening’s most exciting features will be the live creation of an artwork by Appleton-based instant film photographer Joy Laczny. Using Polaroid photographs taken throughout the evening, Laczny will create a dynamic installation that allows guests to become part of the artwork. As attendees explore the exhibition, their images will be captured and added to this installation and later the Museum’s permanent collection.

Guest Curator: Annemarie Sawkins

Annemarie Sawkins, PhD, is a Milwaukee-based independent curator, art historian, and co-author of A Creative Place: The History of Wisconsin Art (2021). She has curated over twenty exhibitions nationally, including A Creative Place, and her most recent: Profound Prints: Art by Exceptional Women at the Hilliard Art Museum in Lafayette, Louisiana (September 28, 2024 – January 18, 2025) and the comprehensive retrospective Rediscovering Ruth Grotenrath: All things belong to this earth (2023) for the Warehouse Art Museum, Milwaukee. From 1999 to 2012, she was associate curator at the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University. Prior to the Haggerty, she worked at the Milwaukee Art Museum, where she contributed to A Renaissance Treasury: The Flagg Collection of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture (1999). A frequent juror and portfolio reviewer, Annemarie Sawkins has a MA and PhD in Art/Architectural History from McGill University in Montreal, CA.

Image: Lauren Semivan, Old Roses, 2008