To the Editor:

It is true what they say, that the drive to the Hidden Studios is itself a visual experience. Consider the warm colored hillsides, on a sunny day with the cool air of early October. Add the twisting back-roads of the glacial Ice Age Trail, where the landscape is rolling, wooded, dotted with lakes and wetlands, streams and rivers. Many of the tour artists live here, back off the road, out of sight.

Tour artists have long been showcasing their work in high-profile venues throughout the country, in galleries or art fairs in Door County, Ann Arbor, Chicago and St. Louis. Most were represented by a major gallery, recognized by peers for their signature work, award winners in their specialty. The irony was, most were unknown by community members living around them.

In 2004, a loosely formed artist group opened their studios to the public for a three-day weekend, early October, thus the Hidden Studios Art Tour was started. The geographic locations of artists’ studios formed a pleasantly drivable circle on the map, spanning the Chain of Lakes and Emmons Creek in the south to Sunset Lake in the north.

This Oct. 6 through 8, 2017, we feel the tour is coming of “age” as we mark the 14th year. Over The tour has evolved with artists and studios retiring or moving away but we have maintained a strong focus on our mission statement. More importantly, we continue to showcase a unique group of dedicated artists and an ever-changing group of accomplished guest artists in each studio.

We are committed to providing a public art event of high quality and artistic diversity.

We are committed to providing “working studios” to show where and how art is made. Each Studio is unique due to the art media being used. Then there are demonstrations, explanations of process, and the opportunity for a personal one-on–one dialogue with the artist and the work.

We are seeking to define the Ice Age Trail Area of Central Wisconsin as an art destination. People mark their calendars for the first weekend in October. We have built the tour, and people are coming ca. 1,000 strong. The art curious, art lovers, and art patrons come from down the road, up north, the Fox River Valley, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis-St. Paul and northern areas of Chicago.

Finally, we promote the tour as a means to sell our art so that we may live and prosper as artists. With your eye on a piece of work, talking with the artist about the inspiration, the tools, materials, and process make that piece so much richer. This is what makes the Hidden Studios tour so unique.

Enjoy the art destination of Central Wisconsin – come join us, Oct. 6, 7 and 8, 2017, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information, please visit www.hiddensstudiosarttour.com.

John Davenport

Town of Lanark