UW-La Crosse Department of Art

04/27/2026

Are you interested in making hand-made paper?

If so, please join us this Friday, May 1st for Notes to Notebooks, a pop-up papermaking workshop led by local artist and UWL alum Jessie Solberg .xjess . This event was created in collaboration between UWL Sustainability and the Art Department, with support from the Green Fund.

During the event, students will transform paper pulp made from used notebook paper into new, usable sheets of handmade paper while exploring sustainability, creative reuse, and the lifecycle of everyday materials.

The workshop will take place Friday, May 1, from 11:30 AM–3:00 PM in the Lowe Center for the Arts courtyard. Please enter the courtyard through LCFA Room 23.

Space is limited, and you must register to participate. The registration link is in our bio.

We hope to see you there!

03/27/2026

Here are some highlights from this week’s visit and workshop with Virginia-based artist Travis Head .head.art , part of ArtsFest Advance!, UW-La Crosse’s spring guest artist series leading up to the annual ArtsFest celebration. Throughout the week, Travis worked closely with UWL students across several classes. He led a Risograph workshop in the University Gallery with students from Drawing & Painting Media and Printmaking. Together, they created collage-based prints using text and image, which were then bound into a small collaborative anthology.

Travis also teamed up with advanced printmaking students, who helped produce two screen printed editions of his work and assisted with printing and binding a series of Risograph zines. It was a fun, collaborative week in the UWL Art Department, ending with the opening reception for Travis’s exhibition Busy Boys, Better Boys in the University Gallery.

If you missed the opening reception, you can still see the exhibition on view March 26–April 12, 2026, in the University Gallery, located on the first floor of the Lowe Center for the Arts.

02/13/2026

The UW-La Crosse School of Visual and Performing Arts is excited to announce that Virginia-based artist Travis Head .head.art will be this year’s ArtsFest Advance! guest artist. As part of this annual event, a solo exhibition of Head’s work, Travis Head: Busy Boys, Better Boys, will be on view in the University Gallery this spring, opening March 26, 2026.

Head’s work brings together drawing, writing, and personal narrative through layered reading lists, journals, comics, and self-assigned challenges that trace daily life while transforming memory into a shared contemporary story. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and includes residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, Ox-Bow, Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He is the recipient of a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship and serves as Associate Professor of Drawing at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Please join us for Travis Head's artist lecture on March 26 at 4 PM in room 116 of the Lowe Center for the Arts, followed by an opening reception at 5 PM in the University Gallery.

UWL students are also invited to participate in a hands-on Risograph workshop with the artist on March 23 & 25 from 9:00-Noon in the University Gallery.

• Opening reception: Thursday, March 26, 2026, 5-6:30 PM

• Exhibition dates: March 26 to April 12, 2026

• UWL University Gallery, Truman T. Lowe Center for the Arts, Room 100

This event is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!

10/24/2024

Tomorrow night!

10/15/2024

Check out a sneak peek of the Intermediate/Advanced Print Media shadow puppet project, Folktales, Cryptids, & Other Local Legends!

Join us at the Art Department Open House on October 24th to experience the live performances in person.

Description:
Myths, folktales, and legends play a crucial role in every culture, often centering around enigmatic creatures, haunted locations, or unexplained incidents. This semester, students in the Intermediate and Advanced Print Media classes worked together in teams to investigate local legends from their own communities. They then adapted these stories into shadow puppet performances, merging traditional art forms with imaginative storytelling. The project combines the bold, graphic visual style of printmaking—utilizing laser-cut paper silhouettes—with the cinematic language of projection and narration to produce an engaging experience.

Magic Lantern shows, a precursor to modern cinema, were popular in the 1800s. They featured painted or photographic images on glass slides, manipulated to create the illusion of movement, and were often accompanied by narration and music. These performances were part of a broader tradition of visual storytelling, including shadow puppetry from cultures like Indonesian Wayang Kulit and Turkish Karagöz theater. Today, artists such as Lotte Reiniger and the Chicago-based company Manual Cinema are carrying on this tradition, blending shadow puppetry with modern technology to rejuvenate ancient storytelling for present-day audiences.

10/15/2024

Join us for the UWL Art Department’s 2024 Open House!

🗓️ Thursday, Oct. 24 | ⏰ 5–7 p.m.
📍 Truman T. Lowe Center for the Arts

Tour our studios, meet students & faculty, see student art, and enjoy hands-on demos like button making, ceramics, shadow puppets, and more!

Catch a live shadow puppet show at 5:30 p.m. and a hot metal pour at 6 p.m. 🔥

The UWL Art Gallery will also be open with “The Experiential & The Artificial” exhibit!

Free & open to the public! 🏫
More info: Katie Olan, [email protected]

10/31/2023

https://www.news8000.com/entertainment/fuddy-meers-opens-thursday-at-uwls-lowe-center/article_69518c2e-7723-11ee-83e8-abc3e0f957c7.html?fbclid=IwAR0FhYXDM57QLCZkqhLgqqCTthCkTHykJ-vGNwU4KcM4wvF66MNW50q6O08

Join UWL Theatre as they bring "Fuddy Meers" to the stage, a poignant and brutal comedy that delves into themes like domestic violence and trauma. Discover the journey of an amnesiac woman surrounded by bizarre characters as she unravels her past life and uncovers shocking revelations. Buy tickets n...

10/24/2023

https://www.news8000.com/entertainment/events/uwl-open-house-will-showcase-student-art-at-lowe-center-thursday/article_c61eb162-7268-11ee-bf33-8baa9d794b67.html

Discover the talent and creativity of student artists at UW-La Crosse's Department of Art Open House. This free event offers a unique opportunity to view artwork, participate in technical demonstrations, meet faculty and students, and explore various studio areas within the Art Department. Don't mis...

10/21/2023

Tim and his wife, Sarah are graduates of our program (Art Education). Thrilled to see Tim’s work being spotlighted!