An international publication has bestowed a major honor on a Manitowoc museum.
Travel & Leisure Magazine last month listed the Rahr West Museum among the 15 best small town art museums in the country.
During an interview on WOMT’S Be My Guest program with host Lee Douglas, Rahr West Executive Director Greg Vadney said, “It’s nice…You work hard at it day to day and try to improve the museum. And just wonder whether anybody notices….It’s nice when somebody notices, absolutely.”
Vadney added that one of the amazing things to him is the company they’re in, that some of the best museums in the country happen to be in small towns.
He specifically named, “The Crystal Bridges Museum of Art which is in Bentonville, Arkansas. The Walton family of Wal-Mart fame created a museum with a $ 50-million-a-year budget. To be in company of that kind of place that is known throughout the art world as a place that’s just been collecting the top level of art.”
But, the museum director said, “The Rahr West holds its own. Even with a vastly smaller budget and staff we are able to showcase the top international art, Georgia O’Keeffe, Picasso, those kinds of names. And then, the key for us really is the Sputnik story that makes us so different from any other art museum. ”
Vadney said he invites lakeshore area residents to check out other museums on the list “to give them an idea how special this is.”
