WINONA, Minn. (WXOW) – The Minnesota Marine Art Museum (MMAM) is launching its 2026 season with three new exhibitions and a weekend-long celebration designed to introduce visitors to new perspectives on water, art and storytelling.
From childhood picture books to ancient mythology and contemporary craft, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum is kicking off its 2026 season with three new exhibitions and a full weekend of events.
The museum’s New Look Weekend runs Friday, Jan. 30, through Sunday, Feb. 1, marking the start of its 2026 theme: Making Waves.
The weekend includes an after-hours preview party, artist talks, live demonstrations and the opening of three exhibitions.
“All of the artwork here in the museum is inspired by water in some way,” MMAM Director of Engagement Dave Casey said. “So we’re really trying to explore different ways that people are looking at water through different materials, through different mediums, through different cultures, different times.”
The New Look Weekend begins Friday night with the New Look Preview Party from 6:30 to 10 p.m., offering after-hours access to all three exhibitions, artist conversations, food and drinks for purchase, and a late-night dance party.
The evening also features Glacial Spatial, a world-premiere immersive sound performance by Trever Hagen and Josh Berg created in collaboration with the Winona Symphony Orchestra and curated in partnership with Liquid Music.
From childhood picture books to ancient mythology and contemporary craft, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum is kicking off its 2026 season with three new exhibitions and a full weekend of events.
One of the exhibitions opening this weekend is “Water | Craft,” curated by Associate Curator Maggie Sather.
The exhibition brings together contemporary artists whose work draws from traditional craft practices, including weaving, pottery, basketry, glass and textile arts, to address water, climate change and cultural preservation.
“This is actually the first thing I’ve ever curated — not only just in a museum, but in life,” Sather said. “I think there is a real moment of pride when seeing all these pieces that you don’t only see on a computer screen. When it actually comes in and it’s lit, there’s just a little magic that it’s hard to describe.”
Sather said the exhibition was intentionally designed to feel welcoming while still encouraging visitors to think about how materials and stories connect across generations.
“There’s a lot of similar storytelling of generations of knowledge, of climate change,” she said. “There’s a lot of kind of parallels throughout different pieces in the show.”
From childhood picture books to ancient mythology and contemporary craft, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum is kicking off its 2026 season with three new exhibitions and a full weekend of events.
Another exhibition opening is “Robert Gonzalez: Mystical Waters,” featuring large-scale paintings by the San Antonio-area artist inspired by ancient Mesoamerican mythology and spiritual beliefs surrounding water.
Gonzalez said the work grew out of years of drought in central south Texas and his own experience struggling to secure water at his home.
“One of the things I wanted to do was go back to my indigenous roots in Mexico to discover how my ancestors dealt with water,” Gonzalez said. “That’s part of what the exhibition is about — having a spiritual connection to water.”
The exhibition includes two bodies of work: “Mystical Waters,” focused on ancient Mexican rain deities, and a series centered on the temazcal, or sweat lodge, exploring water and steam as sources of healing.
“I hope and wish for people to be able to come and just be there, to be with those paintings,” Gonzalez said. “To experience those paintings on a deeper level. To maybe contemplate, even meditate, on what water means to them. As healing water, as life, water as nourishment. We need water every day. We cannot live without water.”
From childhood picture books to ancient mythology and contemporary craft, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum is kicking off its 2026 season with three new exhibitions and a full weekend of events.
Rounding out the trio of new exhibitions is “Splish, Splash, Story: Selections from The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art,” on loan from the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Spanning more than a century, the exhibition features illustrations from children’s books that use water as both a subject and a symbol, including works by Eric Carle alongside other classic and contemporary illustrators.
“Anyone from toddlers through seniors, you’re going to recognize something in that exhibition,” Casey said. “We have artwork that’s a hundred years old in there, and we have artwork that’s from the last couple years.”
The New Look Weekend continues Saturday with a live demonstration by “Water | Craft” artist Nicole McLaughlin, followed by a lecture and conversation with Gonzalez.
On Sunday, Isabel Ruiz Cano, associate curator at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, will lead a curator talk inside the “Splish, Splash, Story” gallery, examining how artists have depicted water in picture book illustration.
Casey said the weekend is designed to give visitors multiple entry points into the new exhibitions, whether through visual art, performance, conversation or hands-on experiences.
“We’re really giving everyone a chance to connect with something in there,” he said.
Click here for more information about schedules and ticketing.
