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A Beautiful Friendship: The Museum Store Welcomes Milwaukee Artist Chrisanne Robertson

This winter, the Art Museum Store has had the good fortune to forge a new and wonderful relationship with an exciting Milwaukee artist, Chrisanne Robertson.

Chrisanne Robertson's illustration in the Museum Store. Photo by the author
Chrisanne Robertson’s illustration in the Museum Store. Photo by the author.

This winter, the Art Museum Store has had the good fortune to forge a new and wonderful relationship with an exciting Milwaukee artist, Chrisanne Robertson.

Chrisanne worked closely with our Product Development lead, Julia Jackson (you can read my previous post about Julia’s work for the Museum here) to create a bright and cheerful keepsake ornament featuring Milwaukee’s lakefront.

Ornament by Chrisanne Robertson. Photo by Museum Store
Ornament by Chrisanne Robertson. Photo by Museum Store.

Chrisanne applied her creative vision and talents with a watercolor paint brush and ink to a delightful design, which Julia then had reproduced onto a glass ornament.  The inside of the spherical ornaments are painstakingly painted by hand with a teeny-tiny brush inserted through the teeny-tiny hole at the top of the ornament.

Yes, really.

The “Grand Unveiling” of Chrisanne’s new holiday ornament took place at the Museum Store’s annual Milwaukee Art Museum Member Private Holiday Shopping Event.

Biking through the winter weather from her home-base and studio in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood, Chrisanne joined us for the evening wearing a festive pink sparkling beret that perfectly announced both her vivacious personality and the advent of the holiday season (in my mind, nothing says “parTAY” like sequins).

The Museum Members, being the first to see the new ornament, responded with delight—couples were buying several at a time for Chrisanne to personalize with her gold glitter paint pen.  She delicately signed each ornament “Love, Chrisanne.”

Chrisanne Robertson at the Museum Store. Photo by ThirdCoast Digest
Chrisanne Robertson at the Museum Store. Photo by Third Coast Digest.

Chrisanne so thoroughly charmed the Museum Store staff with her liveliness and warm hugs that we welcomed her back into the store not once, but two more times before the holidays came to a close.  Each time, a small crowd would gather, engaged by Chrisanne’s charisma and the sunny little glass globes she wielded.  On her last visit, she even drew some press, resulting in this sweet article by Judith Ann Moriarty at Third Coast Digest.

Donele Pettit Headshot

Donele Pettit-Mieding was Museum Store Marketing Manager. She organized Museum Store events, promotions, and communications and introduced visitors to art and design objects to enjoy in their daily lives.

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