2022 PCA Sightseeing Tour-Wednesday, May 18th

The Paine Art Center and Gardens is a historic estate that serves as a multi-faceted museum for learning and inspiration. The museum preserves the property’s historic architecture, with the 1920s Tudor-Revival mansion as the centerpiece, and many of the house’s period-style interiors as they were created by founders Nathan and Jessie Kimberly Paine. Selections from the museum’s art collection are featured in the many rooms and settings of the estate. Outdoors, the Paine maintains and enhances numerous display gardens as “galleries” of horticulture with varied designs and thousands of plant specimens. The museum presents a variety of changing exhibitions, including Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence and Paperweights in Bloom, both on view in spring 2022. Ubuhle Women showcases a new form of bead art, the “ndwango,” developed by a community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Using skills handed down through generations and working in their own unique style “directly from the soul,” the women create colorful abstract and figurative artworks with luminous Czech glass beads. Upstairs in the mansion’s Gothic Gallery, Paperweights in Bloom highlights more than fifty antique, vintage, and contemporary glass paperweights from the collection of Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass in Neenah. Featuring floral motifs in the lampwork and millefiori styles, this exhibition serves as a companion to Ubuhle Women and is held in conjunction with the biennial meeting of the Paperweight Collectors Association.  Please note:  Access to the exhibit of paperweights will require using stairs as it is otherwise not accessible.

Following our time at the Paine, participants will stop at a local restaurant for lunch (cost of lunch is not included; a limited menu will be available, and individuals will order and pay for their own items).

The bus will then proceed to Neenah where a local expert will narrate a driving tour of the area. Neenah's role in the Wisconsin paper industry began during the 1860s and resulted in the formation of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation in 1872.  For well over 150 years, much of its history has evolved around the abundance of water power generated by the Fox River.  These homes are a symbol of the founders who allowed Neenah and many thriving industries to take root in our community. Whether in paper, health care, or unique glass oddities, these homes represent the people who brought new opportunities and prosperity to the Fox Cities.

Participants will then return to our hotel in plenty of time to pick up registration materials and relax before the convention officially opens. 

Check-in for the tour will be in the lobby near the Wisconsin Street entrance, with check-in beginning at 9:00 AM.  Cost, not including lunch, is $40.  The bus should return to the hotel no later than 4:00 PM.

Seats are limited and will be offered at a first-come first-serve basis during online registration. *If all seats have been received members will be able to add themselves to a waitlist. 

Back to the 2022 Online Convention Headquarters