Welcome to the 2017-2019 premiere of ACREofART!

Sculpture Valley’s vision for ACREofART is to host 24 sponsored sculptures annually throughout Appleton’s Downtown and Riverfront Districts. Sculpture Valley successfully secured 9 sculptural works for our premiere July 2017-July 2019 season. We intend to target 15 for next year's 2018-2020 exhibition competition to reach our goal.

ACREofART is the first annual juried outdoor sculpture exhibit of its kind in the Fox Valley showcasing sculpture while enhancing Appleton’s public spaces. It is funded with sponsorships by area businesses and individual donors. Sponsors will be given priority of purchase for hosted works before they are released for public sale at the end of the season and we do hope some of our sponsors will come to appreciate their work and take that next big step - purchase and permanently place these great works of art in our community!

Sculpture Valley will expand the impact of ACREofART by purchasing one work per season and work with the City of Appleton to permanently place it in the public realm. Our goal is to install sculpture from our annual competitions within numerous city parks, urban green spaces, and select sites along the expanded trails system of the Fox Valley. We already have our eyes on our favorite piece from this season!

With ACREofART we have joined the envious list of visionary cities across the nation which recognize how important and significant it is to add to the beauty and embrace of their community with public sculpture. Every one of those communities turns to its arts advocates and we certainly are no exception. We start with our tireless board members - Rob Neilson who had this crazy notion of knocking out a full blown sculpture exhibition in a few short months, Jennifer Stephany who said, "Well sure, we can do this!" and Alex Schultz who pulled it all together, pushing through numerous hurdles and unforeseen challenges. ACREofART would not exist but for these three who knew it was a long way to get here from there, but took the leap anyway. 

Sculpture Valley called on the long time arts advocate, the Boldt Company, for placing the big stuff and providing pedestals where and when we needed them. The Boldt Company was the first to commit to an ACREofART sponsorship and provided the initial momentum to move forward. Dave Willems and Mile of Music followed shortly after, pulling Tundraland in with them.

Sculpture Valley put out the Call for Entry at the end of May to artists around the nation. Three weeks later we faced the challenging task of whittling down 35 entrants to our final 9. On that daunting task, Rob and Alex were assisted by the keen eyes of fellow jury members John Adams of the Draw and Lawrence University ceramicist Meghan Sullivan. 

Over the next month we landed sponsorship commitments from Kyle Knoke of Allen James design, Deb Johnson from the Copperleaf Hotel who partnered with Nicolet National Bank, Lawrence University, Principle Financial and Octoberfest.

But there's more to this than just getting sponsors to pay for these works, you've got to find a home for them as well. Evens Title, Attorney Jeff Kippa, George Koenig from Tandem Wine and Spirits and the City of Appleton all answered our last minute calls for hosting sculpture on their properties. Thanks to Mayor Hanna for sitting down with us when it looked like we were in jeopardy of getting "Here" placed within the Plaza.

A nod to Donna Gehl from Image Studios for sending her pros, Bob Cashman and Bill Kapinski around town to capture top-notch photos for our Cultivating the Acre show at the Draw and dressing up the look of our OtoCast walking tour. Speaking of which, a quick audible to Eric Feinstein for pulling our awesome virtual tour together in such short order, it looks and sounds spectacular.

And a special thanks to Micheal Gerwe, who delivered our outstanding logo in short order. Thanks as always to Josh Dukelow for taping two shows with us and our artists, with more in the works. We want to thank our other tireless helpers during a chaotic week of challenging instals, Ayden and Hadley Schultz, Dylan Neilson and studio assistants Morgan Shapiro and Jake Ryan.

Lastly, thanks to all the 2017-2019 artists from coming form the four corners of the county to install their works. Andrew Arvanetes from DeKalb Illinois, William Fillmore from Albany New York, Ruth Aizuss Migdal from Chicago, Mile Godell from Stevens Point, Will Vannerson from Kansas City, Victoria Patti from Arvada, Colorado, Sam Spiczka from Sauk Rapids Minnesota and finally Jeremy Nutgall from from Madison. It was a pleasure getting to know you and your works and we look forwards to seeing more of you in the future!