The Forest Exploration Center, 1800 Forest Exploration Dr., on the County Grounds is one of the best kept secrets in Milwaukee.
Despite being located right near the busy Swan Boulevard, the mile-long wooded trail is peaceful and serene, and though I’m not sure I’ve ever been completely alone there, it’s never been anything like crowded during my visits.
It’s a great place for quiet contemplation, bird watching or just taking a nice little walk in nature.
The community-curated trail just installed its first art exhibition.
“All That Trees Provide: The Value of Trees and Forests in Our Everyday Lives” features the work two local artists on 14 unobtrusive panels along the middle trail segment.
There are seven works each from photographer Holden Van Dyke and painter John Suess.
The public is invited to attend a “Meet the Artists” event on Saturday, Oct. 4, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Registration encouraged.
“The Community-Curated Trail Spur provides a unique opportunity for community members to share their forest art, stories, research, photography and experiences through curated exhibitions along an accessible nature trail under a canopy of trees,” says FEC Director of Communications Emily Glaser. “The purpose of the curated trail is to celebrate Wisconsin’s rich forest heritage and our human connection to the land through the visual arts, literature, and the sciences.
“We will showcase, through a diversity in style, imagery, materials, and techniques, the creativity and talent of those who draw their inspiration from Wisconsin’s forests and this region’s rich natural and cultural heritage.”
Suess – whose work is displayed via prints of his canvases (weather, you know) – is a Milwaukee-based artist who lives less than two miles from the FEC. His vibrant, expressionistic landscape paintings of woodlands and forests are perfectly suited to the trail setting.
Van Dyke is a 15-year-old photographer from Pleasant Prairie and his works here all focus on birds, which, again, perfectly suits the location of the exhibition.
You'll notice in the photographs here that it's impossible to capture the art without the nature surrounding them being reflected in the protective glass. It's a beautiful marriage of living and depicted nature.
Glaser says that there will be more exhibits rotating through the FEC over time, with artists recruited via open submission calls and selected by a volunteer committee of FEC board.
Other projects, including children’s literature-focused programming, are also in the works. Watch the website for details.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.