Jacob Baker
Approximately twenty miles north of Dickeyville, Wisconsin, Jacob Baker (c. 1880–1939) built a series of embellished miniature houses thought to have been inspired by the nearby Dickeyville Grotto. Baker was a carpenter who built houses throughout the Mississippi River Valley around Menominee, Illinois. He also made a number of “dream houses” that typically stood just a few feet tall.
Baker had a fondness for collecting figurines, radio tubes, bits of crockery, furniture knobs, shells, mirrors, and small toys—all of which found a home in his multi-gabled structures. The exhibition featured the DeSoto House, named as such because it stood in the lobby of the DeSoto House Hotel in Galena, Illinois. Before coming to the Arts Center in 2006, it received significant conservation. Where possible, surface elements were replaced if lost, or the conservator created gray “blanks” where a replacement component could not be found.
The Artists
This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding was also provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Kohler Trust for the Arts and Education, Kohler Foundation, Inc., Herzfeld Foundation and Sargento Foods Inc. The Arts Center thanks its many members for their support of exhibitions and programs through the year. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) (nonprofit) organization; donations are tax deductible.
The Road Less Traveled 50th anniversary program was conceived by Amy Horst, deputy director for programming. The exhibitions series was organized and curated by Arts Center Curator Karen Patterson. Special thanks to Emily Schlemowitz, assistant curator, for the curation of Driftless: Nick Engelbert & Ernest Hüpeden and Folk & Fable: Levi Fisher Ames & Albert Zahn, and Amy Chaloupka, guest curator of The World in a Garden: Nek Chand and Volumes: Stella Waitzkin.
