Upcoming Events and Exhibitions
Beat the Heat: Cyanotypes
New in 2026! Step into our air-conditioned studio for a morning of creativity, family, and fun! Enjoy a refreshing glass of lemonade while you create cyanotypes using found materials and the power of the sun. Guidance and all materials are provided.
Drop in any time, 9am-Noon. FREE and ALL ages are welcome. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Plein Air Festival
The Door County Plein Air Festival is an invitational event — our invitations committee selects between 30 to 36 painters from across the United States to participate each year. We look for a wide variety of artists whose styles represent the breadth and scope of contemporary plein air painting.
Plein air — the act of painting outdoors. It’s long been a tradition in Door County, beginning with the early artist colonies established on the peninsula in the early 1920s by professors from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. They heard of Door County’s natural beauty and knew it would be the perfect place for a summer art school.
Little evidence of those initial art communities still remain. What has endured is the desire to experience painting and drawing, capturing the landscape and the incredible coastal vistas. That’s why each July, PenArt brings together over 30 of the finest painters in the country — each with their own painting styles and unique perspectives — to honor the tradition of outdoor painting through the week-long Door County Plein Air Festival created by Peninsula School of Art.
Driving through the peninsula, you’ll see these painters peppered along the Door County landscape with their easels, paints, and canvas — capturing how the summer light frames and enhances the fields, coastlines, and the little-known, untouched corners of the peninsula.
However, the Door County Plein Air Festival is far from a one-sided art experience. Watch as the artists paint at our peninsula’s iconic locations. Take in a lecture with prestigious artists and art collectors. Get a front row seat to the fast-paced magic that is the Quick Paint competition, where our invited artists complete a painting from start to finish in record time on the streets and shoreline of Fish Creek. Kids can join in the excitement as well with their own Quick Paint—just stop in at PenArt for a grab-and-go art kit.
Critique Group
Critiques are an indispensable component of every artist’s education, growth, and individual path. Our monthly Critique Group focuses on constructive feedback to help you reflect on the purpose and progress of your journey as an artist. Moderated by Artistic Director Elysia Michaelsen, the group invites artists of all levels and backgrounds to come together for a conversation. Email her at elysia@penart.org to reserve your spot today!
Critique Group is free and open to all.
Click here to join our meeting on Zoom.
Time and Space: A Survey of Artists-in-Residence II
Designed for artists of all career stages, PenArt’s residency program an immersive studio experience awarded to six individuals each year. The program prioritizes time and space for residents to engage fully in their creative practice, experiment, and pursue new projects and ideas. Curated by Shan Bryan-Hanson, this exhibition features the work of artists who participated in the program from spring 2024 through spring 2026.
Featured artists include Donté K Hayes, Abigail Hedley, Linda Jurkiewicz, Lauren Krukowski, Emma Lacy, Tim Lytvinenko, Emily McBride, Thomas McIntyre, Elyse-Krista Mische, Emma Ryan, Anna Schenker, Catherine Sollman, Sarah Stellman, and Emily Walley.
Exhibition Support is Generously Provided by the Amstutz-Hershner “Ah-Ha” Fund.
Beat the Heat: Altered Photographs
New in 2026! Step into our air-conditioned studio for a morning of creativity, family, and fun! Enjoy a refreshing glass of lemonade while you print and alter personal photographs using collage, sewing, and drawing materials. Guidance and all materials are provided.
Drop in any time, 9am-Noon. FREE and ALL ages are welcome. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Time and Space Exhibition - Opening Reception
Join us for an opening reception of Time and Space: A Survey of Artists-in-Residence II curated by Shan Bryan-Hanson in the Guenzel Gallery! The curator and select artists will be in attendance. A brief public talk will begin at 4pm.
Exhibition Support is Generously Provided by the Amstutz-Hershner “Ah-Ha” Fund.
Forest Bathing Walk with Artist-in-Residence Annie Hejny
Peninsula State Park Artist-in-Residence Annie Hejny will guide participants on a slow moving walk with invitations to connect with the natural world through our senses. Please wear weather-appropriate clothing and footwear. We will walk rain or shine, except in extreme conditions. Ages 12 and up. No pets please. Spaces are limited, please call PenArt at 920.868.3455 to reserve yours. Meet at the Picnic Area at Eagle Terrace before walking the Sentinel Trail together.
Papermaking with Lake Michigan
Annie Hejny will teach participants the basics of papermaking at the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Participants will be able to make sheets of handmade recycled paper to take home. All materials provided. All ages welcome. Drop-in 3-5pm.
Dreaming of Our Future
Peninsula State Park Artist-in-Residence Annie Hejny will host a creative station as part of The Climate Dream Network where participants are invited to remember the climate future that we can still create. This is a drop-in event to reflect on and share your dreams through words, pictures, and collage. All materials are provided. All ages welcome.
Critique Group
Critiques are an indispensable component of every artist’s education, growth, and individual path. Our green monthly Critique Group focuses on constructive feedback to help you reflect on the purpose and progress of your journey as an artist. Moderated by Artistic Director Elysia Michaelsen, the group invites artists of all levels and backgrounds to come together for a conversation. Email her at elysia@penart.org to reserve your spot today!
Critique Group is free and open to all.
Click here to join our meeting on Zoom.
Critique Group
Critiques are an indispensable component of every artist’s education, growth, and individual path. Our green monthly Critique Group focuses on constructive feedback to help you reflect on the purpose and progress of your journey as an artist. Moderated by Artistic Director Elysia Michaelsen, the group invites artists of all levels and backgrounds to come together for a conversation. Email her at elysia@penart.org to reserve your spot today!
Critique Group is free and open to all.
Click here to join our meeting on Zoom.
Slow Art with Kristi Roenning
A study conducted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art found that the average amount of time visitors spend looking at a work of art is between 10 and 27 seconds. Led by artist and educator Kristi Roenning, Slow Art invites you to view art in a new and meaningful way. Move beyond what you like or dislike, what you get or don’t get by spending ten minutes looking at a single work of your choosing within the current exhibition, Time and Space: A Survey of Artists-in-Residence II. Kristi provides prompts and simple guidelines to help you slow down, practice being present, and heighten your senses. Gather again as a group to discuss your newfound questions, curiosities, and comments. Leave this experience with a new perspective and appreciation of the world around you.
This event is free and open to all.
Critique Group
Critiques are an indispensable component of every artist’s education, growth, and individual path. Our green monthly Critique Group focuses on constructive feedback to help you reflect on the purpose and progress of your journey as an artist. Moderated by Artistic Director Elysia Michaelsen, the group invites artists of all levels and backgrounds to come together for a conversation. Email her at elysia@penart.org to reserve your spot today!
Critique Group is free and open to all.
Click here to join our meeting on Zoom.
Critique Group
Critiques are an indispensable component of every artist’s education, growth, and individual path. Our green monthly Critique Group focuses on constructive feedback to help you reflect on the purpose and progress of your journey as an artist. Moderated by Artistic Director Elysia Michaelsen, the group invites artists of all levels and backgrounds to come together for a conversation. Email her at elysia@penart.org to reserve your spot today!
Critique Group is free and open to all.
Click here to join our meeting on Zoom.
Critique Group
Critiques are an indispensable component of every artist’s education, growth, and individual path. Our monthly Critique Group focuses on constructive feedback to help you reflect on the purpose and progress of your journey as an artist. Moderated by Artistic Director Elysia Michaelsen, the group invites artists of all levels and backgrounds to come together for a conversation. Email her at elysia@penart.org to reserve your spot today!
Critique Group is free and open to all.
Click here to join our meeting on Zoom.
Beat the Heat: Self-Portrait Cups
New in 2026! Step into our air-conditioned studio for a morning of creativity, family, and fun! Enjoy a refreshing glass of lemonade while you create a self-portrait mug using self-hardening clay and texture tools. Guidance and all materials are provided.
Drop in any time, 9am-Noon. FREE and ALL ages are welcome. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Art Amped: Flirting with Abstracter
Art Amped: Flirting with Abstraction ft music by Tony Bessen
Enjoy live music from Tony Bessen within PenArt's current exhibition Flirting with Abstracter curated by Shane McAdams. A signature beverage and other refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public.
Ingwersen Open House - Summer Celebration
Join PenArt at Ingwersen Studio & Gallery for our kick off to summer celebration! Enjoy a refreshment while walking the grounds and celebrating the Ingwersen legacy. Remarks will start at 1pm, followed by a tour.
Slow Art with Kristi Roenning
A study conducted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art found that the average amount of time visitors spend looking at a work of art is between 10 and 27 seconds. Led by artist and educator Kristi Roenning, Slow Art invites you to view art in a new and meaningful way. Move beyond what you like or dislike, what you get or don’t get by spending ten minutes looking at a single work of your choosing within the current exhibition, Flirting with Abstracter. Kristi provides prompts and simple guidelines to help you slow down, practice being present, and heighten your senses. Gather again as a group to discuss your newfound questions, curiosities, and comments. Leave this experience with a new perspective and appreciation of the world around you.
This event is free and open to all.
Flirting with Abstracter
Flirting with Abstracter
Curated by Shane McAdams
Flirting with Abstracter brings together six artists — Demitra Copoulos, Julia Bradfish, Chad Hallblade, Kyle Seis, Joe Steiner, and Lillian Supanich — whose work occupies the charged territory between observation and invention. Each begins with a recognizable relationship to the objective world: the residue of landscape, the memory of the figure, the architecture of an interior, or the accumulated impressions of lived experience. Yet these points of departure are continually augmented, revised, and reimagined, transforming the familiar into something increasingly elusive and non-objective.
Vestiges of the visual universe remain visible throughout these paintings, but they rarely settle into stable representation. Instead, forms dissolve into rhythms of color, shape, texture, and space. Compositional decisions become acts of translation, carrying the viewer from recognition toward ambiguity and back again. The resulting works flirt with abstraction without ever fully relinquishing their ties to the world that inspired them.
In this space between naming and sensing, the paintings invite a different mode of looking—one less concerned with identifying what is depicted than with experiencing how meaning is constructed. Color suggests atmosphere, gesture implies narrative, and formal relationships generate their own internal logic. At their most compelling, these works do not abandon objectivity so much as reinvent it, offering new pictures assembled from memory, intuition, and perception. Flirting with Abstracter celebrates the productive instability of that threshold, where the seen world gives way to the imagined and abstraction becomes another way of understanding reality.
Exhibition Support is
Generously Provided by
the Amstutz-Hershner
“Ah-Ha” Fund.
Door County Contemporary Art Fair
Door County Contemporary art fair is returning to PenArt in Fish Creek on June 4-7, 2026. Guests are invited to experience the opportunity to access international galleries and artists known worldwide in an event that highlights the area as a vibrant nexus of creativity, connection, and commerce. VIP passes provide event-goers early entry with premier access to exclusive works and noteworthy gastronomic festivities.
Indulge in unforgettable local food, fare, and charm amidst the idyllic Door County atmosphere. Whether you’re looking to enhance your collection or purchase your first piece, this is Wisconsin’s must-see summertime art event.
To learn more and purchase tickets, please visit https://www.doorcountycontemporary.com/
Critique Group
Critiques are an indispensable component of every artist’s education, growth, and individual path. Our monthly Critique Group focuses on constructive feedback to help you reflect on the purpose and progress of your journey as an artist. Moderated by Artistic Director Elysia Michaelsen, the group invites artists of all levels and backgrounds to come together for a conversation. Email her at elysia@penart.org to reserve your spot today!
Critique Group is free and open to all.
Click here to join our meeting on Zoom.
Spotlight Exhibition Series - Closing Reception
Join us for a closing reception with the artists Curtis Anthony Bozif and Siri Stensberg! This event is free and open to all. Light refreshments served.
Exhibition Support is Generously Provided by the Amstutz-Hershner “Ah-Ha” Fund.
Artist-in-Residence Open Studio
Take a rare look behind the scenes of PenArt’s Artist-in-Residence Program! Meet artists Emma McKay Ryan and Anna Schenker, explore their processes, ask questions, and even purchase available works. These events are free and open to all.
Family Art Day: GEMS: Graphic Experimental Monoprints
Explore graphic design, high contrast, and printmaking inspired by graphic artist and printmaker Madison Sternig. Families are invited to create one-of-a-kind monoprints using simple transfer techniques over graphic designs. Explore the magic of printmaking - where every artwork is truly unique.
Drop in any time, 9am-noon. FREE for families with children ages 3 to 12. All materials are provided.
Please consider bringing non-perishable food and personal care items with you to Family Art Day to benefit Lakeshore CAP’s Door County Food Pantry.
Art Amped: Spotlight Exhibition Series
Enjoy live music from Zephyr Ciesar within PenArt's current exhibitions Day’s End by Curtis Anthony Bozif and Constellations from Unspoken Sentences by Siri Stensberg. A signature beverage and other refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public.
Critique Group
Critiques are an indispensable component of every artist’s education, growth, and individual path. Our green monthly Critique Group focuses on constructive feedback to help you reflect on the purpose and progress of your journey as an artist. Moderated by Artistic Director Elysia Michaelsen, the group invites artists of all levels and backgrounds to come together for a conversation. Email her at elysia@penart.org to reserve your spot today!
Critique Group is free and open to all.
Click here to join our meeting on Zoom.
Figure Drawing
Join us on the third Saturday of each month to draw or paint from a live model in a welcoming, inclusive environment open to all skill levels. We offer both nude and portrait sessions throughout the season, featuring a range of quick and sustained poses to inspire your work.
Important Details:
These are uninstructed sessions
Easels, drawing horses, and drawing boards are available
Artists must bring their own materials
Family Art Day: Founder’s Marks
Get messy, make marks, and follow your curiosity! In this playful and experimental project, young artists and their families explore the joy of process - using non-traditional brushes, stamps, sticks, and found tools to make expressive marks on paper, just like artist and PenArt founder Madeline Tourtelot.
Madeline believed in art as exploration, and in this Family Art Day, families dive into materials, textures, and motions - learning how to let their marks tell a story. No two artworks will look the same, and that’s the fun of it! It’s all about how you make, not just what you make.
Come celebrate the creative spirit of the artist who started it all - through motion, mess, and meaningful marks.
Drop in any time, 9am-noon. FREE for families with children ages 3 to 12. All materials are provided.
Please consider bringing non-perishable food and personal care items with you to Family Art Day to benefit Lakeshore CAP’s Door County Food Pantry.
Slow Art with Kristi Roenning
A study conducted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art found that the average amount of time visitors spend looking at a work of art is between 10 and 27 seconds. Led by artist and educator Kristi Roenning, Slow Art invites you to view art in a new and meaningful way. Move beyond what you like or dislike, what you get or don’t get by spending ten minutes looking at a single work of your choosing within the current exhibition, Spotlight Series: Curtis Anthony Bozif and Siri Stensberg. Kristi provides prompts and simple guidelines to help you slow down, practice being present, and heighten your senses. Gather again as a group to discuss your newfound questions, curiosities, and comments. Leave this experience with a new perspective and appreciation of the world around you.
This event is free and open to all.
Critique Group
Critiques are an indispensable component of every artist’s education, growth, and individual path. Our green monthly Critique Group focuses on constructive feedback to help you reflect on the purpose and progress of your journey as an artist. Moderated by Artistic Director Elysia Michaelsen, the group invites artists of all levels and backgrounds to come together for a conversation. Email her at elysia@penart.org to reserve your spot today!
Critique Group is free and open to all.
Click here to join our meeting on Zoom.
Family Art Day: Memory Windows
Who or what deserves to be remembered? In this reflective Family Art Day, explore the idea of preserving memories through art. Inspired by glass artist Stephanie Trenchard, whose work shines a light on people and objects, use layered materials like paper, transparency sheets, collage, and drawing to make a personal tribute to someone or something. Whether it’s a grandparent, a lost toy, or a powerful idea, this project helps families turn memories into something visible, lasting, and full of meaning.
Drop in anytime, 9am-Noon. FREE for families with children ages 3 to 12.
Please consider bringing non-perishable food and personal care items with you to Family Art Day to benefit Lakeshore CAP’s Door County Food Pantry.
Figure Drawing
Join us on the third Saturday of each month to draw or paint from a live model in a welcoming, inclusive environment open to all skill levels. We offer both nude and portrait sessions throughout the season, featuring a range of quick and sustained poses to inspire your work.
Important Details:
These are uninstructed sessions
Easels, drawing horses, and drawing boards are available
Artists must bring their own materials
Spotlight Exhibition Series Curated by Shane McAdams
Designed to provide career development and experience for emerging visual artists, the Spotlight Exhibition Series shares concept-driven, concurrent solo exhibitions by multiple artists: each showing a complete body of work. In 2026, Curtis Anthony Bozif and Siri Stensberg exhibit alongside one another; creating a dialogue between their interdisciplinary practices.
Critique Group
Critiques are an indispensable component of every artist’s education, growth, and individual path. Our green monthly Critique Group focuses on constructive feedback to help you reflect on the purpose and progress of your journey as an artist. Moderated by Artistic Director Elysia Michaelsen, the group invites artists of all levels and backgrounds to come together for a conversation. Email her at elysia@penart.org to reserve your spot today!
Critique Group is free and open to all.
Click here to join our meeting on Zoom.
Figure Drawing
Join us on the third Saturday of each month to draw or paint from a live model in a welcoming, inclusive environment open to all skill levels. We offer both nude and portrait sessions throughout the season, featuring a range of quick and sustained poses to inspire your work.
Important Details:
These are uninstructed sessions
Easels, drawing horses, and drawing boards are available
Artists must bring their own materials
Family Art Day: Threaded Stories
Family Art Day!
Slow down and create together! Families explore how yarn, line, and color can tell stories and express feelings - no words needed. Inspired by the fiber work of artist-in-residence Linda Jurkiewicz, this hands-on experience invites children and adults to stitch side-by-side on burlap using simple embroidery techniques.
Drop in any time, 9am-Noon. FREE for families with children ages 3 to 12.
Please consider bringing non-perishable food and personal care items with you to Family Art Day to benefit Lakeshore CAP’s Door County Food Pantry.
Artist-in-Residence Open Studio
Take a rare look behind the scenes of PenArt’s Artist-in-Residence Program! Meet artists Abigail Hedley and Catherine Sollman, explore their processes, ask questions, and even purchase available works. These events are free and open to all.
Critique Group
Critiques are an indispensable component of every artist’s education, growth, and individual path. Our green monthly Critique Group focuses on constructive feedback to help you reflect on the purpose and progress of your journey as an artist. Moderated by Artistic Director Elysia Michaelsen, the group invites artists of all levels and backgrounds to come together for a conversation. Email her at elysia@penart.org to reserve your spot today!
Critique Group is free and open to all.
Click here to join our meeting on Zoom.
Cabin Fever: Collage and Company
Beat the winter blues! Grab a group of friends or coworkers and come to PenArt for a lively evening of creativity, community, and fun. Enjoy cozy refreshments (with and without spirits) while you create a collage from photographic material, patterned papers, and more. All materials are provided.
Figure Drawing
Join us on the third Saturday of each month to draw or paint from a live model in a welcoming, inclusive environment open to all skill levels. We offer both nude and portrait sessions throughout the season, featuring a range of quick and sustained poses to inspire your work.
Important Details:
These are uninstructed sessions
Easels, drawing horses, and drawing boards are available
Artists must bring their own materials
Personality Portraits
Family Art Day!
Turn your inner world into a bold, expressive portrait in this vibrant art experience! Inspired by artist-in-residence Derriann Pharr, whose work celebrates identity and transformation, artists of all ages can explore playful shapes, dynamic lines, and imaginative color to create portraits that show who we are and we’re becoming! Let your inner self shine!
Drop in any time, 9am - noon. FREE for families with children ages 3- to 12-years-old.
Critique Group
Critiques are an indispensable component of every artist’s education, growth, and individual path. Our green monthly Critique Group focuses on constructive feedback to help you reflect on the purpose and progress of your journey as an artist. Moderated by Artistic Director Elysia Michaelsen, the group invites artists of all levels and backgrounds to come together for a conversation. Email her at elysia@penart.org to reserve your spot today!
Critique Group is free and open to all.
Click here to join our meeting on Zoom.
Figure Drawing
Join us on the third Saturday of each month to draw or paint from a live model in a welcoming, inclusive environment open to all skill levels. We offer both nude and portrait sessions throughout the season, featuring a range of quick and sustained poses to inspire your work.
Important Details:
These are uninstructed sessions
Easels, drawing horses, and drawing boards are available
Artists must bring their own materials