In 1910, Agnes and Eugene Meyer commissioned their friend Edward Steichen to paint a set of ten-foot mural panels for their Park Avenue townhouse, and he finished them in 1914. He paired each figure with the flower he thought best matched that person's character. The painter and poet Katharine Rhoades is shown with geraniums, because she and a friend called themselves the "geranium club." The panels never hung in the townhouse. According to the Museum of Wisconsin Art, they sat in storage for nearly a century until Art Bridges bought them in 2015.
On Saturday, October 24, that mural, In Exaltation of Flowers, goes up at MOWA on Veterans Avenue in West Bend. It will stay through January 17, 2027. It also sets the theme for the museum's next three months. This year's BLOOM floral weekend is built around it, and a second major exhibition opens the same afternoon. Because of how MOWA prices admission, a resident who walks in on October 24 has already paid for every later stop on that calendar.
A painter's mural from a photographer best known for photographs
Most people know Steichen as a photographer. MOWA's exhibition page covers the part of his career that tends to get skipped. Steichen was born in Luxembourg and spent his formative years in Milwaukee, where he apprenticed at a fine art lithographic firm. He left for Paris in 1900 to pursue both painting and photography. The Meyer mural comes from the end of his painting years. Not long after he finished the panels, he gave up painting entirely.
The work is tempera and gold leaf on canvas. MOWA describes its style as Art Nouveau, in the spirit of Gustav Klimt and Alphonse Mucha, two artists Steichen admired. The museum's page opens with a line from Steichen himself:
"I claim that the flower is a work of art."
MOWA took Steichen at his word and planned its November around it.
The same afternoon, a Wisconsin-born photographer's America
At 2 p.m. on October 24, the opening party for Steichen shares the building with a second exhibition, Lewis Hine: Pictures America. It also runs through January 17, 2027. Both opening parties are listed for 2 to 4 p.m. that Saturday. The Hine event page says the party is free for members.
MOWA notes that Hine was born in Oshkosh. The show has 75 rare vintage photographs, including Ellis Island immigrants, child labor, working people, and the construction of the Empire State Building. The prints come from the private collection of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg, and the exhibition was organized by art2art Circulating Exhibitions.
Putting the two together makes a strong pairing for a museum that collects Wisconsin artists. Two photographers with Wisconsin roots, working in the same era, open on the same day in two very different registers. Steichen's gilded flower portraits were painted for a private Manhattan home. Hine aimed his camera at the people building and working in the same city. You can see both in one afternoon, and on the days that follow you can go back for whichever one held you.
BLOOM takes its cue from the mural
Two weeks after the opening, MOWA's annual BLOOM weekend fills the galleries with floral installations, Friday through Sunday, November 6 to 8. This year the museum says outright that BLOOM is "inspired by Edward Steichen's In Exaltation of Flowers." In past years the event stood on its own. In 2026 it serves as the second act of the Steichen show.
As of October 7, 2026, MOWA's BLOOM page lists these designers and their businesses:
- Michael Alt, Alt's
- Dabrielle Barry, Leaf and Bloom
- Lisa Belisle, Flora Elements Education and Design
- Cindy Bihlman, Flowers by Cammy, LLC
- Kathy Bondar, Kathy's 2nd Chance Plants, LLC
- Jennifer Breitbach, Zinndahlia Designs
- Arissa DeFrancesca, Bank of Flowers
- Chelsea Dorgan and Megan Duerlinger, The Botanical Collective
- Kimberlee Grob, Locker's Florist
- Abigail Hoffmann, Abigail's Flower Grove
- Anna Merkt, Little Local
- Lauren Morin, The Flower Mill
- Emily Neubauer, Belle Fiori
- Liza Redli, Milwaukee Terrarium Co.
- Amanda Strassburg, Consider the Lilies
The museum says the page will keep being updated, so the roster may change before November 6. Besides the installations, the weekend includes holiday shopping, a pop-up café, and botanically inspired workshops. The MOWA Shop runs extended hours, 9:30 to 4, Thursday through Sunday.
Several workshops need registration, so they are the parts most likely to fill up:
| Day | Session | Led by | Listed price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., Nov. 6, 10 a.m.–noon | Watercolor Blooms, beginner-friendly | Artist Erin Blum | $45 with membership |
| Fri., Nov. 6 | For the Love of Flowers, rose care lecture | Bryce Schoen, Rose Innovations | Free for members, registration recommended |
| Sat., Nov. 7, morning and afternoon | Stained Glass Flowers | Artist Allie Fritsch | $125 with membership |
| Sun., Nov. 8, 10:30 a.m.–noon | Evergreen Succulent Wreaths | Liza Redli, Milwaukee Terrarium Company | $75 with membership |
| Nov. 6–8 | Tintype portrait sessions | Photographer Amber Ascher | $125 per session |
Why the October ticket covers November too
What ties the season together is MOWA's pricing. The visit page lists entrance fees of $15 for one adult, $25 for two adults, and $50 for a family "Crew." Those same three prices are MOWA's membership levels. Every level includes unlimited access for a full year, plus invitations to exhibition openings, lectures, and classes. The Crew level covers four adults and any children under 18, and children four and under are always free.
BLOOM works the same way. Washington County Insider reported that the weekend is free for current members and starts at $15 for nonmembers, with an annual membership included. So the order matters. If you pay $15 at the Hine and Steichen opening on October 24, you walk into BLOOM on November 6 as a member. If BLOOM is your first visit, that same $15 gets you back to the mural and the Hine photographs until they close in January.
Laid out in order, that one admission covers this calendar:
- Saturday, October 24, 2–4 p.m. Opening parties for Lewis Hine: Pictures America and Edward Steichen: In Exaltation of Flowers.
- Friday, November 6, through Sunday, November 8. BLOOM, with the workshops above priced separately.
- November 6 through December 6, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. The MOWA Shop's Annual Book Sale, 20% off selected books, with some exclusions.
- November 14 through January 3. The Members' Show 2026 at MOWA | West Bend.
- Through January 17, 2027. Last chance to see Hine and Steichen.
Other work is on view during the same stretch. MOWA lists vanessa german's Black Girl on Skateboard… through December 31, Georgia O'Keeffe's In the Patio IX through June 30, 2027, Bruce Nauman's No, No, New Museum through June 30, 2027, and the permanent collection, along with permanent outdoor installations by Jason Yi and Michelle Grabner.
Fitting it around the rest of downtown
MOWA is open Wednesday through Sunday, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and closed Mondays and Tuesdays. It also closes on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day, which takes four days out of the window before the Hine and Steichen shows end. Parking is free.
The downtown calendar fits around those hours. Visit West Bend lists the Downtown Tree Lighting at Old Settlers Park on Thursday, November 5, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., the evening before BLOOM opens. Closer to the museum, the City of West Bend announced in September that Teresa Baker's bronze-and-enamel sculpture Abundant is now installed on the downtown Riverwalk near Water Street and Wisconsin Avenue. West Bend Friends of Sculpture funded and donated it, and the city added seating stones, landscaping, and lighting around it. After a morning with Steichen's flower portraits, it makes a short outdoor stop.
At Wisconsin Real Estate Solutions, we follow what's opening on Veterans Avenue and along the Riverwalk because it's part of what makes West Bend worth knowing well. If a season like this has you thinking about what your home near downtown is worth, Craig Kasten offers a free home valuation and consultation, with no obligation and a straight answer.
