Every Year This Wisconsin Museum Hosts the Best Modern Bird Art in the World

The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its annual 'Birds in Art' exhibition, which opened in early September with 142 artworks by 142 artists from 16 countries—the largest edition in its history. The show features paintings, drawings, sculptures, and collages ranging from hyper-realistic to abstract, and drew over 80 attending artists from as far as Australia, along with the local community. The museum was founded in 1976 after the death of Leigh Yawkey Woodson, with the inaugural exhibition organized by wildlife artist Owen J. Gromme, and the show has run annually ever since, with a competitive jury selecting works from over 1,100 entries this year.