Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin

World Class Exhibitions, Community Dedication

At the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, we’re dedicated to giving our visitors barrier-free opportunities to encounter and engage with the visual arts.

As part of our mission as a full-service Museum, we’re dedicated to not just collecting and conserving art but also creating thoughtful exhibitions for our community’s enjoyment and education. To that end, we offer a beautiful campus to highlight the artwork and foster artistic engagement across spaces.

When you visit the Woodson, you can enjoy outdoor sculptures with a stroll through our gardens and on our rooftop. Give your children or students hands-on learning opportunities through creative play in our indoor Art Park. Work with visiting artists or use open studio time in our Glass Box Studio to create your own artworks.

At the Woodson, admission is free, and our dedication to accessibility is front and center. Learn more about our facility on our campus page.

Our History

The vision for the Woodson Art Museum began with plans by Leigh Yawkey Woodson’s three daughters to create a museum in memory of their mother. Incorporated as a nonprofit educational organization in 1973, the Museum opened in September 1976.

The American Alliance of Museums awarded accreditation in 1979 and re-accreditation in 1987, 2002, and 2018. As north central Wisconsin’s only full-service art Museum, the Woodson serves a largely rural, fifteen-county geographic area. Its diverse, changing exhibitions and related education programs have garnered regional, national, and international recognition.

The inaugural 1976 exhibition, Birds of the Lakes, Fields, and Forests, evolved into the competitive international annual juried Birds in Art. The institution of Museum and Library Services recognized the high quality of the Woodson Art Museum’s community engagement by awarding the Woodson the 2017 National Medal for Museum Service, the nation’s highest honor given to museums for service to their communities. The Woodson was one of five museums and one of only two art museums in the country to receive the 2017 honor.

Planning Your Visit

Looking for a family activity that’s free, fun, and educational? Visit the Woodson to help your children experience the visual arts in fresh and interactive ways. Through our interactive Art Park gallery, we provide regular art and nature-based activities, story times, puzzles, and more. We also offer programs for children of all ages, from babies and toddlers to teenagers.

We also support education in our area through tours and class visits. We’ve developed educator resources to complement the themes of each exhibition and supplement teaching objectives. Facilitate discussions with your students beyond the classroom by scheduling a school visit to the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau.

Many of our programs and workshops coincide with artist residencies hosted at the Woodson. Our resident artists often lead a workshop, presentation, demonstration, or other programs during their stay, providing our visitors with personal opportunities to learn about art.

Support Our Mission

Becoming a member of the Woodson allows you to support our mission while receiving a variety of benefits, including our newsletter, access to special events, exhibition previews, public recognition, and more. We offer multiple tiers of memberships so that you can customize your level of support, and the benefits received.

We also welcome donations, both financial and of artwork. The generosity of our donors allows us to put on our internationally renowned exhibitions, create dynamic programs for all ages, and maintain our beautiful campus. Your gift makes it possible for us to continue our mission and enrich our community for successive generations.

Interested in donating your time and services to the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau? Sign up to be a volunteer! We rely on our volunteers to assist us in a variety of roles and make every visitor’s experience is exceptional.