What is the Kohler Foundations role?
After its use as a MWA camp, the Painted Forest building was used for public gatherings by the local community until it gradually fell into disuse. In the early 1980s, the Kohler Foundation, which had purchased the site, undertook extensive preservation work, restoring the building and its remarkable murals. The Foundation then entrusted the site to Sauk County (with tours provided by the Historical Society of the Upper Baraboo Valley), which cared for it for many years. In 2004, the Kohler Foundation gave the Painted Forest to Edgewood College to foster the use of the site for educational and historic purposes and to preserve this unique work of art. The Kohler Foundation supports education and art, as well as Wisconsin culture and heritage, through scholarships, grants, distinguished guest series, Waelderhaus, and art preservation initiatives. Since the late 1970s, the preservation of folk architecture, art environments, and collections by self-taught artists has been a major focus o
