Baileys Harbor Artist Sends Dylan Installation to MOWA

Submitted photo.

In October of 2015, the installation “Shakespeare’s in the Alley: A Tribute to Bob Dylan” hung in its entirety in the barn of Woodwalk Gallery in Egg Harbor. The collection consists of 44 fabric song-panels, 5 feet wide and ranging in length from 8 to 27 feet. Each panel represents song lyrics from Bob Dylan’s long and ongoing career as a songwriter, musician and performer. The project was started in 2011 by local Baileys Harbor artist, Skye, and was completed in 2015. The full installation is a forest of words; an experience not soon forgotten.

In early 2016, Skye sent a portfolio of photos and back-up materials to Bob Dylan’s management in New York City, asking for permission to travel the installation. Permission was granted at the end of March. Soon after, she sent out proposals to three Midwest museums in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) responded with interest over the summer and will hang the installation (at least in part) in their atrium. The installation will be up from Jan. 28 to March 5. The opening party/reception is Jan. 28, 2-5 pm.

“This was all set up and confirmed before the news came that Bob Dylan had won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature,” said Skye. “It is amazing that these two things coincided. Although I wholeheartedly believe he deserves it, I was stunned along with everyone else, including Dylan himself. I feel it makes the work I’ve done even more relevant, as people have a chance to experience the words to some of his songs in a very unusual way. “I’m thrilled that the installation will show first in a Wisconsin museum. My dream is that it will one day travel the world, with or without me, but it feels right that it happened first here in Door County and soon at MOWA in West Bend.”

Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) is located at 205 Veterans Avenue in West Bend. For more information visit wisconsinart.org.