The Department of Art and Design in the College of Arts and Communication at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater selected Melanie Tallmadge Sainz (Ho-Chunk) as the 2024 Schuh Visiting Artist. Sainz is an artist, curator, and cultural arts educator, as well as the founder and executive director of the Little Eagle Arts Foundation (LEAF) in Wisconsin Dells, where she was raised. In her art practice, she works with various natural materials of the Great Lakes area, which she forages and processes herself. Sainz has exhibited her work at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art in Indianapolis, IN.
The exhibition at the Crossman Gallery, titled “Boundaries vs. Connections,” will explore the colonialist notion of land and maps that control and define people’s relationship with land through hard lines and divisions, in contrast to the Indigenous relationship to the land and its inhabitants characterized by connections and stewardship. Featuring a variety of arranged temporary installations juxtaposed with diverse cultural objects that reflect an objection to planned obsolescence, the exhibition will also include new work created by Sainz along with pieces made by UW-Whitewater Art and Design students in a studio workshop led by Sainz and Professor Teresa Faris. The exhibition will be on view in the Crossman Gallery from February 22 – March 21.
The Greenhill Center of the Arts atrium and the Crossman Gallery are located at 950 W. Main St., Whitewater, WI 53190. The Crossman Gallery is always free and all are welcome. Gallery hours during scheduled exhibitions are Monday – Thursday 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. There is a fee for parking on the campus between Sunday at 11 p.m. and 5 p.m. Friday. Information is available here.
