Mayor’s Column September 7, 2024
Rohn Bishop, Mayor of Waupun
Hello Waupun!
You’re invited to join in for a really cool ribbon cutting on October 5, for both the new Food Truck Alley but also the City of Sculpture, Sculpture Tour!
In the fall of 2023, the Waupun Common Council was asked to consider participation in a program that would increase public art displays across the City. Jeni Maly, the owner of ImagineThat! Art Studio, and an art teacher with our Waupun Area School District, had recently returned to the community and had a keen interest in helping renew interest in public art by building on the legacy of industrialist Clarence Shaler. Maly started a non-profit called “Create Waupun” whose sole mission is to obtain sculptures and murals for the betterment of Waupun. Maly and her nonprofit board created “IceFest”, a winter festival dedicated to celebrating the arts, and in 2024 with the help of a Joint Marketing Effort (JEM) grant from the WI Department of Tourism. The group was recently awarded a second JEM grant to assist with the return of “IceFest”, which is scheduled for February 15 and 16, 2025.
For their next venture, Maly’s non-profit is focused on expanding sculpture exhibits in Waupun through an affiliation with the City of Eau Claire’s tourism group that brings rotating art exhibits to Waupun. Five new sculptures, each with a historical connection to Waupun, arrived this summer. This is possible because of successful collaboration between government, local business and nonprofit leaders. The Common Council agreed and committed $5,000 from room tax funds to pay the consulting fee associated with the Eau Claire affiliation and to build the bases for the five sculptures.
Using room tax money means that there is no impact to the local tax levy to deliver this program. Money the city receives through room tax is restricted by WI Statute to activities that are likely to generate additional hotel stays in a community. The fee to install a single sculpture through the program is $3,000, which covers installation and use of the sculptures for a one-year period. Maly and her team were successful in bringing five (5) new sculptures to Waupun. Each sculpture was selected because of its unique tie to Waupun History.
* Narrow Escape (Near Horicon Bank) sponsored by Horicon Bank
* The Farmer (Near Farmer’s Elevator) sponsored by Destination Lake Winnebago Region, Waupun Community Fund, and Fond du Lac Area Foundation
* We Can Do It (Located near National Rivet) sponsored by Waupun Historical Society
* The World’s Her Canvas sponsored by Create Waupun and Imagine That! (400 Block of E Main)
* Monarchy (in Food Truck Alley – 400 Block of E Main) sponsored by Waupun Fine Arts
Visitors participating in the Waupun Sculpture Tour are encouraged to download the Otocast app to a cellular phone. Once downloaded, select the Waupun Sculpture Tour, where the user can listen to a narration from the artist or someone familiar with the artist’s work to learn about each sculpture and its meaning. The Otocast application is funded by a grant from Waupun Education Foundation.
As I said, you’re invited to attend a ribbon-cutting event on October 5, from 10 am to 2 pm, to celebrate the new art installations and the grand opening of the food truck alley, funded in part by a Vibrant Spaces grant from Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. From food trucks to live artist demonstrations, the day will celebrate the arts and all that is new in Waupun. A full itinerary for this family-fun day can be found by visiting the Discover Downtown website at www.discoverdowntownwaupun.com/general-9.
Finally, the sculptures are for sale and there is an effort to buy and keep “Rosie the Riveter” because of Waupun’s impact during World War 2. If you’d like to help “save” Rosie for Waupun, let me know!
Thank you,
Mayor Rohn
