“Artist-built environment” is a fancy term for a really cool place.

 

These places are building interiors or outside spaces such as backyards, farm fields, or gardens transformed by an artist. In most cases, art environments were created by self-taught artists. The result is not just “some thing”, “a piece of art”, that you look at — it is a place you step into, the art surrounds you – you breathe a little differently, see a little differently, experience a little differently in art environments.

 

Ernest Hüpeden’s Painted Forest in Valton is one of Wisconsin’s extraordinary examples of Artist-built environments. Between 1899 and 1901, Ernest Hüpeden covered the inside of the Modern Woodmen of America camp 6190 hall with painted murals – the murals were the backdrop for the MWA initiation ceremony. The walls, ceiling, window frames, became part of one immersive story.

 

And! That’s what make the Ernest Hupeden’s Painted Forest an Artist-built environment! It is not simply a collection of murals. It is a whole space shaped by imagination.

 

Artist-built environments show us that art does not only belong in museums. Sometimes it lives in old lodge halls, roadside buildings, gardens, barns, and small towns — waiting for us to step inside and see, breathe, experience in a new way.

 

Wisconsin has a remarkable history of Artist-built environments. Today, through the work and generosity of the Kohler Foundation, Artist-built environments are recognized as important cultural treasures — places where art, architecture, history, and personal vision come together.

 

Wisconsin’s Artist-built environments include mural-covered interiors, sculpture-filled yards, glass-and-concrete grottos, and handmade worlds built from memory, imagination, faith, humor, and place.