by Dino Corvino on May 2nd, 2008
200 Local Artists Bring Street Culture Alive With SK8ART Exhibit and Skateboarding Event in Downtown Wausau
After sending out a call to action in February to the area high schools, Boys and Girls Club and alternative school artists, 200 teenagers signed up to participate in SK8ART. The buzz hit a new high as each student received a free skateboard deck as a blank canvas to create their art for the SK8ART opening exhibit on May 16th in Gallery 402, located at 402 Third Street in the mezzanine at Van Dalfsen’s, downtown Wausau. Over the past months, SK8ART has allowed local skateboarders and artists to express their creativity that has been emerging from the streets of their own community, joining their passion for art and skateboarding to showcase not only the art of the sport, but the art of the deck itself.
Teachers, parents and community members alike are supporting the local artists as their art deadline is May 2nd. Wausau East art teacher Joel Pataconi shares that SK8ART is the talk of the school, “It’s unbelievable how much excitement the skate deck project has generated. I’ve seldom seen my students this engaged and personally ‘plugged in.’ This event casts skateboarding in a positive light, reaches out to kids who are often overlooked and recognizes skate culture as a legitimate art form and sport.”
The 200 decks will be juried by a group of local artists, downtown shop owners and a Wausau police liaison. The 40-50 decks chosen by the jury will be displayed in Gallery 402. The opening night exhibit will coincide with Downtown Wausau’s gallery walk, Exhibitour, from 6pm-8pm. Gallery 402 also is sponsoring a temporary skateboard park on the 400 Block to kick off the evening’s opening exhibit. Dwellers and its owner Jason Garvey will be providing the temporary skateboard park for skateboarders to showcase their ‘art.’
Curator Tasha Tatro is expecting over 800 guests to support the local artists for the opening night exhibit. “SK8ART proves that the art of skateboarding reaches beyond the tricks of the trade. Gallery 402 is proud to create an opportunity for local artists and the community as a whole.” Efforts like this enable Wausau to continue to provide artistic venues that before now, only larger cities offered. SK8ART will be exhibited through July 18th, 2008.
Gallery 402 houses the largest private collection of Pop Surrealist Art in the Midwest. The modern genre is created by 21st Century artists making political, satirical and humorous statements through their art. Otherwise known as low-brow or underground art, the Pop Surrealist collection is all originals and the public is welcome to enjoy this phenomenal collection. The gallery also offers a library of reference material.
You are welcome to meet Curator Tasha Tatro and have your questions answered on Friday, May 2nd from 12noon until 6pm in Gallery 402. Please call Gallery 402 to let us know what time works best for you, 715.845.2300.
by Dino Corvino on March 27th, 2008
Clearly we think this is important. We are young and professional, and as a result knowing others who are young and professional makes sense to us. Citizen Wausau is about the community, and as a result we like to support the community activities, especially those activities that seek to enhance the community (and that overuse of the word was totally on purpose). I think that supporting an effort like this, on the part of an individual group is the sort of thing that makes Citizen Wausau a real resource. We hope to hear about more of this stuff.
To Wausau Young Professionals,
Are you looking for a way to connect with Wausau area young professionals ages 21 to 40? Do you miss the social events that the Chamber used to hold for area young professionals? Do you want to get in on the beginning a newly formed social organization and have a say in what you want to see happen for young professionals in the Wausau area?
In April, we are holding our 3rd event of 2008!!!!
Who: Young professionals from the Wausau area are welcome to come
When: Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Time: 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Where: Malarkey’s Pub Downtown on the Square (www.malarkeyspub.com)
Featuring:
The Brian West Show
Game Show Mania – Jeopardy for Morons
Karaoke
Street Magic
Appetizer’s
Drinks for purchase
NO MEMBERSHIP DUES OR EVENT ADMISSION
Our first two events were a success due to an average attendance of 75 young professionals looking for a social outlet to meet other like minded professionals in the area. The Bar was also a major contributor to the success of the events providing us with our own private area off the bar, two-for-one drink specials and great food available for purchase. Thank you… we’ll be back!!!!
The Wausau Young Professionals are a group of like-minded professionals whose primary goal is to provide a social outlet for young professionals in order to facilitate the retention of young professionals for the Wausau area. Our events are in no way related or sponsored by the The Chamber-Wausau Region.
If you know of anyone who is between the ages of 21 and 40 and would be interested in this event please let them know or bring them along!
by Dino Corvino on January 1st, 2008
As I sit here on this New Year’s morning, lost in the love of my keyboard, I am faced with questions, and answers, and predictions, and more questions. So I thought I would jump in the pool first, and be the first idiot to take on our virtual Polar Bear Plunge of 2008. A veritable cacophony of randomness brought on by long hours of no work, loss of mental stimulation, and overall sitting still for way too long. (more…)
by Dino Corvino on December 4th, 2007
My lack of enthusiasm for the Christmas music is pretty well documented. I am fan of this night though, not for the music really, but because some of the cats on stage are people I call friend, and watching them play together makes me laugh with a joy of watching someone you care for, do something they love.
Plus, watching Greiner scowl, that’s fun. (more…)
by Andy Laub on November 28th, 2007
If you have eyes, you’ve probably caught a glimpse of artist Gary Baseman’s work, perhaps in the form of Teacher’s Pet, the award-winning Disney series, or maybe during a heated game of Cranium. His work definitely has a style all its own, so I’m excited to see that he’ll be making an appearance at Gallery 402 (in the mezzanine of Van Dalfsen’s) in downtown Wausau. Details as follows: (more…)
by Citizen Wausau on November 26th, 2007
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the last few days about Community. For example, what does that mean – really, what is it specifically, what does it look like and why do I crave it? There has got to be reason this void forces me to drive on and create it wherever I can.
In 1996, my brother and I initiated what would eventually become RockWater. Teens were looking for something relevant to do in the city. It was straightforward — we saw the need for Internet, music and a place to hang out — but that was a distinct target market.
The Citizen Wausau experiment is much more fluid. Our target is dynamic and opinionated, even more so than teenagers.
So here is where I’m struggling: the Citizen Wausau project is elusive and free; it can spike with participation or dry up with silence, seemingly on a whim. No one has the ability to control it – and that freaks me out a bit.
At the same time, it’s exhilarating to watch this site take on its own personality. It’s an organic experience, one that can only be compared to child rearing. In this case, it really is going to “take a village” to raise this baby.
As parents we should discuss things about our baby. How are we going to raise it? What do we want it to do and how shall we go about getting it there? Those sorts of things:
- Should it be just another “news-y” sort of discussion?
- Who’s going to collaborate in contributing to its content?
- What is the sole purpose of CitizenWausau.com?
These are pretty important conversations that need to be wrestled with – we’re only six weeks in and content is only being driven by a handful of people. So maybe this is the time to discuss where we should go from here.
- How should we diversify content?
- Have micro-blogs on topics like Politics, Food, Reviews, Events?
- Who should should take ownership for these pages?
Let’s mull over this idea. Assuming only 20% of our signed up audience participates, that’s about 60-70 people. We could get a lot done with that many people helping, don’t you think?
The idea of taking this online offline seemed to suggest several ideas (and we still fully intend on doing that). Before the first of the year we’ll have a calendar in place to list new events and activities – just like we talked about before; game nights, concerts, poker, computer training, hacking and probably some more parties!
These too take time and effort to create, so we all have to work together. Many hands make for light work (as the saying goes), and Citizen Wausau has got to be a collaborative effort if it’s to form into an actual community site.
So, we should probably get more organized, which is why the calendar would be a useful tool.
Another useful tool we could start using immediately is Twitter. It’s a messaging tool for short form blogging. I’ve created a more thorough explanation on my blog, but I think if we can get people talking, both here and online – that would be a good step to growing this online community.
So let’s talk.
- What would you like to see?
- What part would you like to play?
- What other ways could you contribute?
by Marcus Nelson on October 28th, 2007
They did it again – another great family event at ArtsBlock! (more…)
by Kevin Rector on October 8th, 2007
You may be wondering, “who is this Kevin” and other such thoughts, so I guess I’ll tell you even if it does ruin the sort of mystery that life tends to thrive on. I’m a resident of Wausau (which I sometimes like to call waubitysaubity for no real reason). I have lived here for just about two years and absolutely love this town. I pastor a small church as well as doing a very tiny bit of contract computer programming. My contributions will primarily focus on issues of faith and social justice, but I might also talk about fishing or the weather or really anything else that I decide I just need to talk about.
One of the things that make life good, and enriches our soul is to do good things for other people. Just think about how much your heart goes “pitter-patter” with joy each time a loved one opens a gift from you. So in the interest of making life good I wanted to bring your attention to two fabulous opportunities to actually make a difference to the lives of actual living people here in Wausau. Your heart might even pitter a little patter. (more…)
by Kari Rasmussen on October 6th, 2007
I should first disclose that I am the Event Coordinator at Wausau Area Events. I have just finished my first year and am proud to be a part of the organization. Any thoughts I share will be from my point of view – my comments do not necessarily reflect those of the organization I work for. At times they will, and I will preface my post that way. This is one of those times:
An interesting discussion has taken place in the comments section of the post “Overlooked Losses” by Jim Carlson. (more…)
