Join us for an evening of art and conversation at the Carol & Robert Bush Art Center!
Now on view: The Days Go By Like Wildnessby Colin Matthes in the Baer Gallery, Tell Me What Democracy Looks Like by Aaron Hughes in the Godschalx Gallery, and The Cut by Eliseo Ortiz in the Media Space Gallery.
Meet artists Aaron Hughes and Colin Matthes at the exhibition reception on Tuesday, February 24 | 5–7 PM.
Carol & Robert Bush Art Center St. Norbert College 403 3rd St, De Pere, WI 54115
Exhibition curated by Kyler Lasee & Tyli Scheetz, Presented in collaboration with Fall of Freedom, St. Norbert College, Bush Art Center, Godschalx Gallery, Exhibition on View from November 3 – December 5, 2025
It All Matters Now: A Creative Resistance is a student-curated exhibition exploring freedom of expression through works from St. Norbert College’s permanent collection. The exhibition examines how artists use creative expression as a means of resistance, reflection, and dialogue in moments of social and political urgency. Join us for a reception and interactive activity on November 21 at noon.
Artists in the exhibition: Kelly Armer, Brandon Bauer & Colin Matthes, Tom Diedrich, Harold E Hansen, Marion Howard, Nicolas Lampert & Paul Kjelland, Josh MacPhee, Tom Martin, Walter Nottingham, Peter Popalski, Pete Railand, Erik Ruin, Shaun Slifer
Also on view a two day exhibition of Social Media Delivers People (After Serra & Schoolman), my contemporary reinterpretation of Richard Serra’s 1970s video critiquing the power of media, in the Media Space Gallery, November 21–22.
Baer Gallery: October 3 – October 27, 2022 Exhibition Reception – October 20
This exhibition brings together works by Aram Han Sifuentes that focus on democracy, citizenship, and political participation. The works in this exhibition manifest the notion of democracy as a contested space in which one can gain a political voice through citizenship, protest, or giving voice to those excluded politically. Sifuentes’s work investigates identity politics, immigration, citizenship and belonging, dissent and protest, and racial politics in the United States today.
A Call To Halt by Brandon Bauer
Permanent Collection Gallery: September 26 – October 27, 2022
A Call To Halt is an installation and critical timeline of the Euromissiles Crisis, and the nuclear abolition movement in the United States from 1977-1987. The installation includes a reenactment of the 1982 Nuclear Freeze Referenda, in which Wisconsin was the first in the nation to put international nuclear disarmament policy to a popular vote.
Angry Sandwich People or in Praise of Dialectics by Chto Delat?
Media Space Gallery: August 29 – October 27, 2022
In this piece, the Russian art collective Chto Delat? (What is to be done?) imagines protest as a form of theatrical happening in urban space by bringing to life Bertolt Brecht’s poem “In Praise of Dialectics”. The action was carried out in close collaboration with two local activist groups, Worker’s Democracy and The Pyotr Alexeev Resistance Movement at Stachek Square, an important historic site where in 1905 striking workers marched on the Winter Palace.
Art & Society Lectures and Events
September 6 – Aram Han Sifuentes Virtual lecture (Zoom) @ Noon
Aram Han Sifuentes is a fiber and social practice artist who works to claim spaces for immigrant and disenfranchised communities. Her work often revolves around skill sharing, specifically sewing techniques, to create multiethnic and intergenerational sewing circles, which become a place for empowerment, subversion, and protest. This lecture is associated with her exhibition in the Bush Art Center Galleries.
September 13 – Dmitry Vilensky Virtual lecture (Zoom) @ Noon
Dmitry Vilensky is an artist, writer, and founding member of the Russian art collective Chto Delat? (What is to be done?), a platform initiated in 2003 by a collective of artists, critics, philosophers, and writers with the goal of merging political theory, art, and activism.
September 22 – U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC) Virtual lecture (Zoom) @ Noon
Founded in 2013 The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC) is a “people-powered department” (not a federal agency) committed to supporting individuals and organizations in mobilizing creativity in the service of justice.
September 28 – Center for Artistic Activism lecture (BAC 130) 1:10 – 2:10 pm
The Center for Artistic Activism has helped to build, sustain, and develop the field of artistic activism since its inception in 2009 through innovative research and by providing free resources and training to artists and organizations around the world.
October 20 – Get Out The Vote Banner Making Workshopwith Moki Tantoco @ Noon in the Mulva Library First Floor Flex Space
This banner-making workshop is in association with the Aram Han Sifuentes Exhibition in the Bush Art Center Galleries. Moki Tantoco has collaborated with Aram Han Sifuentes and will lead this banner making workshop. Moki is an arts administrator, educator, and artist based in Illinois who encourages exploring socially engaged art practices through writing, performance, and installation.
November 15 – Oliver Ressler Zoom Virtual lecture (Zoom) @ Noon
Oliver Ressler is an artist who lives and works in Vienna, Austria. He produces theme-specific exhibitions, projects in the public space, and videos on issues such as democracy, capitalism, and social alternatives to our existing political realities. His work blurs the boundaries between art and activism.
Special Thanks to The Norman Miller Center for Peace, Justice, & Public Understanding, The Sturzl Center for Community Service and Learning, The Honors Program, The Office of Student Inclusion and Belonging, The Mulva Library, the Bush Art Center Galleries, and the Art Department for support of this programming.
As a part of the ART 285: Art in a Democratic Society course at St. Norbert College, Associate Professor Brandon Bauer is hosting a lecture series that was supported by the Faculty Mini-Grant Program through the Norman Miller Center for Peace, Justice, and Public Understanding.
The schedule is as follows:
Tuesday, September 13th – Aram Han Sifuentes
Aram Han Sifuentes is a fiber and social practice artist who works to claim spaces for immigrant and disenfranchised communities. Her work often revolves around skill sharing, specifically sewing techniques, to create multiethnic and intergenerational sewing circles, which become a place for empowerment, subversion and protest.
Tuesday, October 5th – U.S. Department of Arts and Culture
Founded in 2013 The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC) is a “people-powered department” (not a federal agency) committed to supporting individuals and organizations in mobilizing creativity in the service of justice. While social issues may be grounded in politics and economics, the USDAC believes that to change the world we need to change the story. Images, language, and attitudes affect our ability to understand and act on the challenges we face as a society.
Valeria is a designer and educator working at the intersection of education, design, and community engagement. She specializes in demystifying policy, authentic engagement strategies, collaboration, experiential education, and working with immigrant communities. Valeria has collaborated on visual “explainers”, curricula, community engagement strategies, and public artworks with grassroots organizations, government agencies, and cultural institutions.
Matthijs de Bruijne’s practice is a result of direct political involvement. In recent years it has taken the form of collaboration with trade unions and other labor organizations. In 2010 he was invited by the Dutch Union of Cleaners to work as an artist helping this worker’s led organization to visualize their messages in a clear manner and by creating a recognizable identity for this union in the Netherlands. Since 2020 he has been creating the archive of this union which will be gifted to the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.
Tuesday, September 8th – Center for Creative Citizenship – The Maryland Institute College of Art’s Center for Creative Citizenship integrates civic learning and action, as well as democratic engagement, by engaging art and design students in projects relating to civic engagement, voter education, and get out the vote efforts, as well as supporting the development of partnerships, programs, and initiatives that advance the interests of Baltimore’s communities and neighborhoods.
Tuesday, September 29th – Amanda Lovelee – Amanda Lovelee is a visual artist based in Minnesota. Lovelee has focused on civic engagement through a variety of projects. She worked as a “City Artist” through the Public Art St. Paul program developing projects that made city planning more accessible to city residents.
Tuesday, November 10th – Girl Child Art Foundation – The Girl Child Art Foundation is an organization based in Lagos Nigeria that focuses on advocacy, empowerment, and civic engagement of girls through the arts.
Tuesday, November 17th – Laurie Jo Reynolds – Laurie Jo Reynolds is an artist, policy advocate, and researcher who developed the concept of “Legislative Art”, an art practice that seeks to intervene in government systems with the goal of concrete political change.
