John Michael Kohler Arts Center

The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is an independent, not-for-profit contemporary art museum and performing arts complex located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, United States. The center preserves and exhibits artist-built environments and contemporary art. In 2021, the center opened the Art Preserve, a satellite museum space dedicated to art environments. History The Arts Center was founded in 1967 by the Sheboygan Arts Foundation, Inc., which was renamed as the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Inc. The Sheboygan Arts Foundation, Inc. was created in 1959, and its first board included Mrs. Walter J. Kohler III. The house that originally comprised the Arts Center, built by John Michael Kohler, is the genesis of the Arts Center's name. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the John Michael Kohler House. The Arts Center also operates the Art Preserve, a museum focused on the presentation and preservation of artist-built environments, which opened in June 2021. In 1966, the Kohler Foundation donated the Kohler family homestead to the Sheboygan Arts Foundation, Inc. for use as an arts center. The center was established the following year and has been expanded twice to now comprise including eight galleries, classrooms, studio spaces, two performance spaces, a shop, and a café. The second expansion of the center took place under the leadership of Ruth DeYoung Kohler II, who also founded the Arts/Industry and Connecting Communities programs. 160,000 people visit each year, and an estimated 4 million since its inception. The center curates up to 30 exhibitions per year, and operates the country's first arts-based preschool. The center also has an adjunct shop called ARTspace at the Shops at Woodlake, which is an exhibition space and shop in the nearby village of Kohler. Programming at the center includes art exhibitions, dance performances, festivals, concerts, theatrical performances, classes, demonstrations, lectures, and tours. In 1997 a program called Connecting Communities began at the center, connecting artists-in-residence to underserved communities and the general public in collaborative projects. The program has created sculptures, dance works, and public art installations through community engagement.