Photo by West Bend Daily News
The Museum of Wisconsin Art was founded in 1961 to collect the works of Milwaukee-born
artist Carl von Marr (1858-1936). It currently holds the best and most comprehensive
collection of his work anywhere. In 1998, after recognizing that no institution
was building a comprehensive survey collection of Wisconsin art, the Early Wisconsin
Art Collection was unveiled on the state’s sesquicentennial. This has grown to be
the most comprehensive collection of its kind anywhere.
MOWA is a collaborator in the Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Awards along
with Wisconsin Visual Artists and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
The goal of the WVALAA is to elevate the status of Wisconsin’s visual art by honoring
those whose contributions are substantial and in many cases often overlooked by
people outside of our region. MOWA received one of these prestigious awards in recognition
of 45 years of collecting and championing Wisconsin art. The same day MOWA was awarded,
the state legislature issued a proclamation acknowledging the fact that the Museum
of Wisconsin Art is, to all intents and purposes, the Museum of Wisconsin Art.
The MOWA continues to grow its collection and fulfill its mission to collect, conserve,
document and exhibit Wisconsin art through the ages and to educate the public about
its cultural value.