50 Artists for 50 Years: Helen Klebesadel

Helen R Klebesadel is an artist, educator and arts activist best known for the large-scale watercolors she creates addressing woman-centered and environmental issues in the studio she maintains in Madison, WI. 

She earned an MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  Her 30+ year academic career includes a decade of teaching art and chairing the Art Department at Lawrence University followed by eighteen years of directing the system-wide Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium for UW-System and UW-Madison. She has served as director of the Wisconsin Regional Art Program (WRAP) and is a past president of the national Women’s Caucus for Art.  The Bergstrom-Mahler Museum presented her first solo museum exhibition in 1994. The Copelouzos Family Art Museum in Athens, Greece acquired her work in 2020. Her paintings have been exhibited in several American Embassies abroad and her art is included in numerous public, private, university, hospital, and museum collections. Helen also served as a Wisconsin Art Board board member for eight years.

What is your relationship to the Wisconsin Arts Board?

As a young artist living in rural Spring Green, I had the great good fortune of being the recipient of a Wisconsin Arts Board administered “Comprehensive Employment and Training Act” (CETA) federal artist grant in 1978-79. CETA was a short-lived, WPA-like federal program that provided training and employment for artists.  It changed my life and led to a 40+ year career in the visual arts and higher education.  Over the years I benefited personally from many WAB programs and events that were designed to stimulate the creative economy and culture of Wisconsin and to promote artists careers either directly or through programs funded through non-profit arts organizations. Most recently, WAB contracted with me to present a series of ‘Business of Arts’ workshops around the state for Wisconsin’s visual artists.  It is a point of pride for me to have had the opportunity to serve as a citizen member of the Wisconsin Arts Board from 2006-2013.

What energizes you as you consider the future of the arts in Wisconsin? 

I have seen the amazing work the Wisconsin Arts Board and its organizational art partners have done over the last 50 years to encourage an expanding cultural and creative economy; to support access to the arts for citizens in all parts of our State; and to engage in community building toward environments that support thriving creative careers and arts organizations.  All of this continues to happen, despite Wisconsin’s status as 50^th in per capita public funding for the arts.  As more people begin to understand how increased public investment in the arts and culture moves all of us forward, I cannot help but be excited for what is possible for the future of the arts in Wisconsin.

Where can people find your work?

I am represented by the Wisconsin-based virtual art gallery Artful Home and my work also can be found on Portal Wisconsin Virtual Gallery and on my personal website: http://klebesadel.com/