She's painting Port

Longtime middle school art teacher Sherri Kultgen retired last June.

Or so she thought.

Kultgen was already months into Port Washington’s mural program, Paint On Port, that has occupied much of her time. And now, she said with a laugh, “My husband calls it my full-time job.”

This year’s mural project was literally near and dear to Kultgen. She lives above the Jackson Street wall that has been filled with a nature scene.

Kultgen, who taught art at Thomas Jefferson Middle School for 28 years, wanted to involve students of all ages from the Port Washington-Saukville School District and St. John XXIII Catholic School in painting a mural on the 17-foot tall, 100-foot long space.

The concrete retaining wall was long used as a space for chalk drawings by young would-be artists. Kultgen said a recent image was of “beautiful gardens and fish, but it became controversial. I kind of wanted to reclaim it for the students.”

Kultgen assembled a team   that included her former colleagues Nina Koenig and Wendy Leece, nonprofit professional Wendy Braam-Doyle, artist and art therapist Allie Eichenhofer and Rodrigo Santamaria, the lead artist of last year’s mural who had students with disabilities paint Wisconsin and Port icons on a wall on Grand Avenue.

“We met as a team and we kind of decided who was going to be working in painting, who was going to go into the schools and who was going to be working on the wall,” Kultgen said.

Kultgen returned to the classroom to entice teachers and students. She attended a professional development day with the Port-Saukville district’s art teachers to brainstorm ideas, then went to Dunwiddie, Saukville and Lincoln elementary schools each week to work with students.

Kultgen drew the background design and laid out where the animals were going to go.

“When I laid out what I wanted to do, just hands-down they had no issue with it. They were so receptive to having me come in, bringing different people from my team and presenting,” she said.

Kindergartners through eighth-graders painted animals for the wall on polytab, a wallpaper-like material that would be adhered to the wall.

“A lot of the elementary students would put things like a flamingo — well, that’s kind of a fluke — so there is a hidden flamingo in it,” she said with a laugh.

Eichenhofer, the artist for this year’s project, chose metamorphosis as the theme. Different stages of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly are featured.

“I had to pivot my design and fit her design into it. We call it Allie’s alcove. She just kind of transformed it into this beautiful piece,” Kultgen said.

Kultgen also worked with Port High art teacher Mike Styles and his classes.

“Students made a lot of decisions on the color scheme,” she said.

“We worked from the beginning of January to the last day of school every Wednesday,” Kultgen said.

Thomas Jefferson students painted 150 leaves in one day.

“Anytime I would call on an art teacher, they were like, ‘Yes, Sherri, we would do that for you,’” she said.

Kultgen worked with one of her former students who succeeded her as art teacher at Thomas Jefferson. Madisyn Phillips even held paint-and-sip events to raise money for the project.

Kultgen said POP project manager Eileen Grace was her go-to person for a host of tasks, and parents’ groups at the schools also helped offset the cost of supplies.

The high school students understood the scope and impact of the endeavor. Kultgen’s husband Steve is an audio engineer who recorded some of their thoughts. One girl said one day when she has children she can bring them to the wall and show what a difference it made to the city.

Kultgen said she would “just get giddy” when she saw students walking down the hill from the high school to paint the wall.

When Street Commissioner JD Hoile and his team put up the massive tree, “Oh my gosh, it was just amazing,” Kultgen said.

“The giant tree was a true collaboration, “Kolbach explained. “Nina and I made and glazed the trunk, the K-12 students created the handbuilt tiles, Mike Styles and the community art class did the majority of the glazing, Nina did the majority of the layout, and Nina, Wendy Braam, Rodrigo, Eileen and I grouted it. It took five months to build.”

The tree is part of an intriguing mix of work. “There’s some amazing artwork next to a bumblebee made by a second-grader,” Kultgen said.

Art came naturally for Kultgen in choosing a career. The Grafton native always liked art and won a bike in the Kellogg’s Stick Up For Breakfast art contest when she was about 10 years old.

“It was my hobby. It was my passion,” she said.

Kultgen’s father was a charter boat captain and worked for Trak International. She got her creative side from her mother, who retouched wedding and senior photos and did needlecraft.

Kultgen earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

She taught two years in Greendale before coming to Thomas Jefferson.

“My goal as a teacher was not to create artists, but to give students an opportunity to try, and that to me is incredibly valuable, she said. “Most of the kids really liked the idea that they didn’t really have to be good at art, yet sometimes they’d surprise themselves and the good ones would flourish.”

She still dabbles in art, making jewelry and mosaics, painting and garden art, as well as gardening.

Kultgen is thrilled to live in a community that values art. She worked with the late Jane Suddendorf, the former art teacher who founded Gallery 224, and is a board member for the gallery.

“I think we’re really, really fortunate, and for me to be able to retire and still have this fabulous connection with the schools and Gallery 224 and the art community, I think it’s very special,” Kultgen said.

Signing on with the mural project was easy to agree to.

“After you teach for 28 years in a community as wonderful as this it’s really important to give back what you can.”