Alumni artists call ‘ARTgarage’ home

The ARTgarage started with a simple idea by a couple of UW-Green Bay art majors to use part of an empty cannery building as studio space and a gallery for local artists. It has evolved into much more.

The beautiful and expanded space (4,000 square feet) is located on Cedar Street, just off Main Street in Green Bay. It now serves as a creative home for up to 12 artists and as a venue for exhibits, musicians, receptions, forums, tours, classes, workshops and art trips (including one to Canada in fall of 2009). Its mission has expanded as well: to encouraging an appreciation for, and participation in, the visual, performing and literary arts.

There is a long list of UW-Green Bay graduates who have found an artistic home at the building in the Olde Main Street redevelopment district. Among them are Sandi Van Sistine ’78 communication and the arts; Jo Watson ’05 art; Emjay Scanlan ’73 humanism and cultural change; Tina Bechtel ’02 art; Natalie Vann ’02; Kim Pigeon Metzner ’92 communication and the arts; and Deb Zich Parins ’94 art and communication and the arts.

Pictured in the gallery, from left, are Metzner, Van Sistine, Watson and Parins.

The ARTgarage was the subject of a lengthy feature story in a September 2009 issue of the Green Bay Press-Gazette – read story.