Jill Sebastian
A Celebration of Wisconsin Writing
A Celebration of Wisconsin Writing is a collaboration between artist Jill Sebastian and Woodland Pattern Book Center. Originally installed as part of the construction of the Baird Center south building (formerly the Midwest Express Center) and updated during its 2023 modernization, the work is an architectural application of Wisconsin writings.
“In collaborating with Woodland Pattern, we wanted to create an anthology that expressed who we are in Wisconsin for travelers who came through the state,” Sebastian says. “That is why there is such a large breadth of writings within the installation.”
A seven-member search committee was assembled by Woodland Pattern’s, Anne Kingsbury to select the writings. Through the committee, many Wisconsin authors with diverse backgrounds and unique life experiences were chosen. Along with famous authors such as Aldo Leopold and John Muir, less well-known and emerging authors are represented in the piece.
Sebastian hopes that visitors take some time to explore the writings while at Baird Center.
“It is 29 diverse voices from over 500 years of recorded writing. The range of ideas comes from the diversity of people who make up Wisconsin’s population. Cumulatively it is a conversation of the ages. I like the idea that as people walk through the building they are embraced in that conversation and hope they leave knowing something they hadn’t before.”
About Jill Sebastian
Jill Sebastian grew up in steel towns of the Midwest rust belt which has grounded her as a sculptor/installation artist in process, material and structural aesthetic. Her first awareness of the impact of art was seeing a lone woman at a steel mill paint a mural to celebrate the conclusion of long, bitter labor strikes.
Sebastian’s sculpture, drawings and installations have been exhibited in museums and galleries in New York, Los Angeles, across the United States and internationally. Her public art includes: a musical fence in New Orleans; an architecturally integrated literary project for the Baird Convention Center (with Woodland Pattern Book Center); Philosophers Stones for State Street, Madison, and a sculptural pocket park for Wick Fields, Milwaukee. Awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship 1985, City of Milwaukee Artist of the Year 1997, Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award 2016.
Recently, she has had solo shows in Milwaukee: Preoccupations at St. Kate’s Art Hotel and Early Work, Recent Work, at Var Gallery after completing an artist residency at Montello in Nevada.
Sebastian holds a BFA and an MFA in Sculpture and Drawing from University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and post-graduate degrees in Film Theory and History from University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. She is a Professor Emeritus at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD).
Founded in Milwaukee in 1979 by poets and artists, Woodland Pattern is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the discovery, cultivation, and presentation of poetry, independent literature, and the arts. Our goals are to promote a lifetime practice of reading and writing; to serve as a forum and resource center for poets and other artists in our region; to increase the audience for poetry through programs that encourage exchange across the visual, performing, and literary arts; and to act as a bridge between local and national communities of poets and other artists.
A gallery, book center, and community space, Woodland Pattern offers more than 400 programmatic activities and events each year—including poetry readings, workshops, artist talks, film screenings, concerts, exhibitions, reading and writing groups, and year-round creative writing programming for children and youth. A founding member of the Poetry Coalition—a national alliance of more than 25 poetry organizations—Woodland Pattern works with partners in Milwaukee and across the country to promote the value poets bring to our culture and the important contribution poetry makes in the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds.
