Rhinelander ArtStart will sponsor its inaugural art exhibition in the ArtStart Gallery, 68 S. Stevens Street, opening Thursday, July 19, at 11 a.m.

The exhibition, entitled “Wisconsin Contemporary,” includes art chosen from the work of hundreds of artists from the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s Wisconsin Triennial Exhibition. Works of noted Wisconsin artists are included in the exhibition including selections by University of Wisconsin Professor of Painting Nancy Mladenoff from Madison, Chad Hallblade (Milwaukee), George Williams (Beloit), Sonja Thomsen (Milwaukee), Gina Litherland (Cedarburg) and Tom Berenz (Madison). The exhibition is co-sponsored by WXPR Public Radio.

Gallery hours are from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Sunday, July 29, then Thursday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday 1 to 7 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday noon to 4 p.m. Wisconsin Contemporary runs through Sept. 29. There is no charge to view the exhibition.

“We celebrate the best of contemporary art in our Wisconsin community in Wisconsin Contemporary,” said ArtStart Programming Coordinator Laura Ehmann. She noted that ArtStart will bring other exhibitions to the gallery in future.

“During School of the Arts at Rhinelander (July 23-27), we will host a special exhibition of art by the School of the Arts Rhinelander staff. Our next exhibition, ‘Impact: The Experience of Service,’ honors our veterans’ community, and in October we will host the ‘ArtStart Fusion Project’ exhibition.”

Wisconsin Contemporary Curator Martin Rowe added that ArtStart has ambitious plans to be a center for visual art in the Northwoods.

“We want to bring a wide variety of high-quality exhibitions to the gallery,” Rowe said. “I see ArtStart this way: as the Tate Modern is to London, where I’m from; as the Art Institute is to Chicago; as the Kohler Arts Center is to Sheboygan; as the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum is to Wausau; we want to be able to say, ‘so ArtStart is to Rhinelander and the region.'”

The ArtStart Gallery is located in the former Federal Building on Stevens Street, which is owned by the City of Rhinelander and is currently leased to the organization. The building, which was originally built as a post office in 1909, has undergone a renovation to accommodate the gallery, and has received significant upgrades for accessibility and convenience. A second phase of the building’s renovation will begin in January with the goal of defining the gallery’s “look.”

ArtStart is a volunteer organization funded by its members and individual donors. The group plans a capital campaign in the fall to fund 2013 art exhibitions, youth arts education programs, and to fund further building improvements.

For more information, visit ArtStartRhine lander.org.