by Kevin Zimmermann
SHEBOYGAN, WI (WHBL) – Those waiting to see what’s inside the John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s new, $40 million Art Preserve just west of Esslingen Park on Lower Falls Road will have to wait a bit longer, due to delays caused by COVID-19. Yesterday the Arts Center announced the grand opening, initially set for next month, will now be held June 26th next year. The postponement will allow completion of interior construction and installation of the artworks.
The 56,000-square-foot, three-level building is the world’s first museum devoted to artist-built environments and is, itself, a work of art that’s mostly concrete, but shaded in soaring timbers suggestive of a forest. Eventually the building will provide exhibition space and visible storage for more than 25,000 works in the Arts Center’s collection that also includes complete and partial environments by over 30 artists.
A “soft opening” will be held on January 2nd next year that will let people watch the completion of the interior and learn about the unique building and its collections.
