Platteville Artist Featured on Wisconsin Folks

Madison, WI – Platteville resident Lois Mueller joins other regionally renowned traditional artists on Wisconsin Folks, an educational website produced by the Wisconsin Arts Board. 

Lois Mueller is an award-winning rosemaler who first learned the art in 1977. Rosemaling is traditional Norwegian decorative painting characterized by scrolls, flowers and muted colors. Typical rosemaled items include woodenware and trunks; Mueller also has decorated jewelry, glass, ceilings, window crowns, violins and an ornament that has hung on the White House Christmas tree. Mueller earned a prestigious Gold Medal in rosemaling from Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa in 1998. A recognized expert, she has published six instructional books and has taught rosemaling courses throughout the US and Canada. She will travel to Taiwan in May 2006 to teach there. By being included in the Wisconsin Folks website, the Wisconsin Arts Board is recognizing Mueller as an outstanding traditional artist in her genre.

Mueller is featured in six pages on the Wisconsin Folks website.  Three detail her background, the artistic process she uses in rosemaling, and the cultural traditions that support her art.  These are written primarily for elementary-aged children. The other three pages include resource suggestions for both teachers and students, as well as activities and discussion questions, hiring information, and the state curriculum standards that would be satisfied if the pages were used as a classroom lesson. Mueller’s pages begin at http://artsboard.wisconsin.gov/static/folkdir/mueller1.htm.

Wisconsin Folks is an award-winning interactive on-line educational resource that features outstanding traditional and ethnic artists from throughout Wisconsin. In 2003, Wisconsin Folks was recognized with two awards: the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s International Educator Award for Excellence in Cultural Programming and the American Folklore Society’s Folklore and Education Section’s Dorothy Howard Award for Folklore and Education Honorable Mention.

Wisconsin Folks features “Artists from your Neighborhood, Arts from Around the World.” The website is intended for use by students, educators, and the general public, as it is both a hiring directory and an educational resource. Wisconsin Folks lists 73 artists and performing groups from 31 Wisconsin counties, and communities in three bordering states. Artists on Wisconsin Folks practice the art of their heritage, exemplifying shared aesthetic traditions from communities in Wisconsin.  They are masters of their respective crafts. Visit Wisconsin Folks at www.wisconsinfolks.org.

Wisconsin Folks was created through funding support from the National Endowment for the Arts. It is an ongoing project of the Wisconsin Arts Board, which is the state agency responsible for the support and development of the arts throughout Wisconsin. Since 1973, the Arts Board has supported artists and arts organizations with funds from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.
 

Contact: Anne Pryor, 608-266-8106
Date Posted: 2/2/06