Sturgeon Bay Holiday Art Crawl Celebrates 10 Years

“Old Mates II” watercolor by Kerry Vavra.

The Sturgeon Bay Holiday Art Crawl celebrates its 10th year this weekend with its biggest crawl yet.

What began in 2007 as a simple art affair by a foursome of dedicated Sturgeon Bay artists – Lynn Gilchrist, Pat Olson, Rick Risch and Liz Maltman – has grown in a decade to encompass 23 artists at 15 city and rural locations.

“Door County Pastoral” acrylic by Pat Olson.

It was the brainchild of local painter Lynn Gilchrist, who saw a holiday art crawl as an opportunity for artists to spur their creative output in the off-season while introducing visitors and locals alike to Sturgeon Bay’s art scene.

“It’s always been part of our mission to give people a chance to see artists in their working environment,” Gilchrist said. “It’s always interesting to people and of course if they want to buy something, they’re perfectly welcome to. We never charge any admission. We just love to have people come through whether they’re buying or not so it’s a way of just raising awareness of Sturgeon Bay as a very functioning arts scene.”

As expected, a variety of functional and decorative artwork will be represented, including paintings, drawings, printmaking, glass, metal sculptures, pottery, jewelry, weavings, photography, mixed media and woodwork.

The most popular attraction for the annual event is the one-of-a-kind door prize. This year, nationally recognized woodworker and art crawl participant Michael Doerr created an original bread and cheese board. Inspired and designed in collaboration with symbolist painter Sandra Martinez, the 32” x 15” piece was constructed using five types of wood: maple, cherry, sassafras, yellowheart and purpleheart.

Bread and cheese board (15” x 32”) with hanging board by Michael Doerr.

The sculptural and functional piece, which includes its own hanging board, will be given to a winner from among the entries filled out at the art crawl locations.

A preview reception for the Sturgeon Bay Holiday Art Crawl will take place from 5 – 7pm on Friday, Nov. 18 at Popelka Trenchard Glass, 64 S. 2nd Ave. in Sturgeon Bay. The public is invited to meet the artists, enjoy refreshments and view samples of artists’ work.

“It’s a positive thing for the community,” said participating painter Liz Maltman. “We have people coming in every year and they’re just so happy they can come to it. It’s not really about selling stuff so much as seeing the people that come every year and seeing how much they like it. To me that’s one of the big pluses of it.”

The Sturgeon Bay Holiday Art Crawl takes place Nov. 19-20 from 10am – 4pm. For a printable map of locations or more information, visit SturgeonBayStudios.com or find them on Facebook.