STRATA, opened in 2006 as an experiment in an attempt to create a space for the sharing of art and music, poetry and literature, as well as food, wine and conversation. It is also a place of commerce; a source for art, unusual objects, exhibitions, concerts, and receptions for visiting artists and scholars.
Poet Laura Sims celebrated both the publication of her book Practice, Restraint and the opening of STRATA. We also had the opportunity to 'store' Planisphere, 2005 by Martha Glowacki. Martha installed this complicated work in one of the showroom windows. This
remarkable piece set the precedent of the windows becoming a destination point for viewers from across Madison.
STRATA presented its first musical event with a performance by the classical guitarist
Michael Chapdelaine. The gallery was designed with movable walls, which enabled us to
redesign the room to accommodate tables, chairs and musical equipment. A nightclub
quickly replaced the gallery, and as such, a great time was had by all.
We honored the ninety-second birthday of Byron Buckeridge with an exhibition of
concretions from his monumental and awe-inspiring collection. This exhibition was
preceded by the one Larry Stephens and Natasha Nicholson organized at Middleton
High School's Art Gallery in 2005. A smaller selection of concretions was also displayed in the showroom window for the next
two years where it brought joy and wonder to a great number of viewers from across Madison.
In 2007, Photographer and Assistant Professor of Photography, Tom Jones exhibited works from Photographs from the Contemporary Life of the Ho-Chunk Nation, a project that had taken him years to complete. The work is both powerful and touching as the photographs show how the modern Ho-Chunks try and merge their great traditions with the Disney mentality of our indigenous cultures.
In the Fall of 2007, we honored Fred Plotkin, The Alumnus in Residence at University of Wisconsin, Madison with a reception and dinner in STRATA and The Studiolo
Mr. Plotkin honored Madison with the following seven lectures:
'The Private Michelangelo: The Man behind the Art'
White Truffle Dinner: 'The Slow Food Movement'
(Held at Harvest Restaurant)
'Opera with the Experts'
'In the Footsteps of Michelangelo: Sculpting a Biography'
'Mediterranean Diet: Fact and Fiction'
'Columbian Exchange: How Christopher Columbus changed
food, wine, commerce and politics in Europe and the Americas'
'The Wonderful Food of Italy: Creating a Cookbook'
to be continued
A gallery view of works (on wall) by Larry Stephens including a selection from his personal collection of found objects, antiquities and oddities (on the sculpture stand.)
Larry's childhood sword, one of his first constructions. Other objects: Woolly Mammoth tooth; spoons made from cow bone by prisoners of the Civil War; collection of medals; a section of the first undersea cable; and clay cones from Kahokia Downs, IL - weights that kept the eyes of the dead closed.
Box of treasures with sculpture to the right.
Detail of works in progress.
Books by Axel VerVoordt, a designer, collector, artist Natasha admires greatly.
Lamp on console by Larry Stephens.
Sculpture right wall, Following 2002 by Natasha Nicholson.
