MAY 10, 2025 - AUG 24, 2025
Aqueous: Painted in Water
This exhibition, featuring watercolor artwork from the Woodson’s collection, celebrates the delicate beauty and expressive depth of this captivating medium.
ART EXHIBITIONS IN WAUSAU
Current Exhibitions
The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum regularly refreshes our galleries with temporary exhibitions and selections from our permanent collection. Visitors can look forward to new opportunities to enrich their appreciation for art throughout the year.
On View Today
JUN 7, 2025 - AUG 24, 2025
Sacred Nature
Sacred Nature, the thought-provoking exhibition by wildlife photographers and conservationists Jonathan and Angela Scott, explores the profound connection between humans and the natural world, highlighting the urgent need for environmental preservation through stunning imagery and compelling storytelling.
JUN 7, 2025 - AUG 24, 2025
Double Exposure: Community Portaits
Experience the full range of the photographic process in this immersive exhibition featuring Hmong American artist Pao Houa Her. Her’s portraits capture the diverse expressions of community, identity, and diaspora. Visitors will have opportunities to interact with portrait photography as the exhibition evolves in the galleries over the course of a few months.
Find Your Inspiration
From toddlers to retirees—and every stage of life in between—the Woodson offers an enriching experience for all visitors.
Be a Part of Our Canvas
Every visit to the Woodson offers new opportunities to learn and grow.
The Latest From Our Blog
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June 11, 2025
Websites and Exhibitions and Gardens, Oh My!
You’re probably thinking, “what do websites, exhibitions, and gardens have in common?” The short answer is nothing. But, for the Museum, these are all things that have seen recent changes!
June 4, 2025
Familiar Territory
We are excited to announce an open call for proposals to our artist residency program, which is accepting applications now through July 15.
May 28, 2025
Expect the Unexpected
Earlier this month, we traveled with Museum members and friends to Minneapolis where we took a behind-the-scenes look at artworks being restored, explored renovated mansions, and had a surprise visit from a Birds in Art artist.
Our Collection
Many of our temporary exhibitions are drawn from the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s permanent collection. Our collection features a vast array of artwork featuring and celebrating the natural world.
OUR COLLECTION
Many of our temporary exhibitions are drawn from the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s permanent collection. Our collection features a vast array of artwork featuring and celebrating the natural world.
Founding family-donated decorative arts comprised the initial holdings of the Woodson Art Museum, and an exhibition focused on avian art, Birds of the Lakes, Fields, and Forests, celebrated the fledgling Museum’s debut. This inaugural exhibition matured and developed into Birds in Art, an internationally acclaimed, juried exhibition.
The exhibition led to the focus of the Woodson’s collection, which now sets the standard for art of the avian world and complementary natural-world and animal themes. In addition to significant historic and contemporary artworks acquired throughout the Museum’s history, outdoor sculpture holdings also have grown, dominating the landscape of the Museum’s campus.
Today, our collection includes more than 14,000 works of art. It spans paintings, drawings, field sketches, graphics, photographs, and sculptures—all celebrating the essence and spirit of birds from across the globe.
The Woodson’s collection also includes decorative arts. We have more than 125 Victorian glass baskets, early twentieth-century utilitarian and decorative glassware and porcelains, nearly 100 Royal Worcester porcelain bird figurines designed by Dorothy Doughty, and a survey collection of historic and contemporary glass vessel forms and sculptural objects.
While our entire permanent collection is not available for public view, we rotate out which pieces are on display through our ever-changing temporary art exhibitions in Wausau. Currently, our team is working on a searchable online archive of our collection. At present, we have added more than 700 pieces of artwork from the Museum’s collection to the archive, with new pieces to come. You can search by artist, medium, bird species, and more!
Campus Installations
In addition to our temporary exhibitions, the Woodson Museum’s campus has a number of permanent installations for our visitors to enjoy with every visit.
Rooftop Sculpture Garden
Debuting in tandem with Birds in Art 2021, the Kathy Kelsey Foley Rooftop Sculpture Garden features sculptures along with a pergola and seating options. Its design encourages visitors to sit and enjoy art, nature, and seasonally changing vistas, all in one place.
Sculpture Garden
The Margaret Woodson Fisher Sculpture Garden features a variety of large and small-scale sculptures set against a backdrop of native flora. Every season brings new experiences and delights for visitors to enjoy, and we use the sculpture garden as a flexible venue for a range of outdoor programs.
Additional sculptures are on the grounds around the sculpture garden. Artistic styles vary from sculpture to sculpture, like Deborah Butterfield’s Kua to Burt Brent’s The Heavyweight. Kent Ullberg’s striking bronze whooping cranes stand as iconic sentinels at the garden’s entrance.
Art Park
Located on the Museum’s lower level, Art Park is our interactive family gallery that offers hands-on learning for all ages. Featuring puzzles, books, art supplies, guided programs, and more, Art Park helps even our youngest visitors exercise their curiosity, increase their knowledge, and explore the visual arts.
Schedule a Tour
Interested in organizing a group to view our art exhibitions in Wausau? We offer self-guided and docent-led tours, educational resources, art kits, and activity guides designed to help you and your group learn about our exhibitions and engage with our artwork on a deeper level.
Each tour will focus on the current exhibitions, and we can tailor school tours to support specific classroom curricula. We can also incorporate a hands-on art-making component relating to the exhibition’s themes.
Museum Shop
We have a variety of postcards, notecards, and posters available for purchase, featuring artwork from our current exhibitions. If you’d like to explore previous iterations of our Birds in Art exhibitions in Wausau, we also sell fully illustrated catalogues from years past.
