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Elsa Ulbricht was an accomplished artist of many media, a visionary arts administrator, and an influential teacher who inspired generations of local artists and craftspeople. Ulbricht variously helmed the Milwaukee Art Institute, UW-Milwaukee Art Department, and WPA Handicraft Project. Under her visionary leadership, the Handicraft Project became "one of the most successful" art programs of the WPA, offering meaningful employment and skills to 5,000 Milwaukeeans, most of them women and many women of color, during the Great Depression. For sixty years, Ulbricht also collaborated with Frederick Fursman, displayed at the other end of the Historical Rotunda Gallery, in administering and teaching at the Saugatuck Summer School of Painting.
This work, depicting a young girl and her grandmother reading, appropriately presides over the entrance to the Central Library on the second floor of the Historical Rotunda Gallery. The work is a reflection on reading and intergenerational connection, and suggests the outsized contributions of Wisconsin women artists to the rich history of Wisconsin art.
Milwaukee Public Library collections hold more information on Ulbricht and the scores of important programs and institutions with which she was affiliated. Explore related resources: https://milwaukee.countycat.mcfls.org/MyAccount/MyList/13861