Happening Type: Art Park

From the glittering home of Loy Bowlin, the Original Rhinestone Cowboy, to the “Healing Machine” made in a Nebraska shed from scrap metal, foil, and lights by Emery Blagdon, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center has long acquired and protected vernacular art environments. Now it opens the Art Preserve, the world's first venue dedicated to them. Set on thirty-eight bucolic acres of forests and meadows, the preserve features environments from around the world, including sculptures from the Chandigarh, India, garden by Nek Chand and a recreation of the New York loft of fiber artist Lenore Tawney. Artist archives, a library, and an education area further the growing study of self-taught, folk, and outsider artists.