Artist Statement

Brenda Baker is a Wisconsin native who learned to knit, sew, build, write, paint, draw and appreciate the natural world from her family and a host of fabulous teachers along the way. Her work resonates from those early roots and is grounded in place, family and craft.

Baker’s paintings, sculpture, drawings and installations have been shown around the globe. She has an MFA in painting from UW-Madison, and a BA in studio art from DePauw University. Baker also studied at the Austro-American Institute in Vienna, Austria and the Karl Marx University of Economics in Budapest, Hungary. She is the recipient of numerous awards including an NEA grant, an Arts Midwest Fellowship,  a Noyce Fellowship, a Badger Bioneer and Sustainability Visionary of the Year Awards, along with numerous local Madison Arts Commission and Dane Arts grants.  Along with artist Bird Ross, Baker co-founded the Forward Art Prize and the Women Artists Forward Fund, now the third largest prize for women artists in the country.

Baker splits her time between making art, ecological restoration at her family’s farm, and overseeing the exhibit, sustainability and strategic initiatives at Madison Children’s Museum, where she has worked for more than three decades. When not making things, she can be found chasing her two grown boys and husband on bikes or cross country skis, or tending to her family’s flock of small farm animals in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin, a peacock, donkey, and goats, among them.

As both an artist and museum educator, she is interested in offering playful visions of sustainable practices. Baker splits her time between making art, ecological restoration at her family’s farm and overseeing the exhibit and sustainability programs at Madison Children’s Museum, where she has worked for the past 27 years. When she isn’t making things or writing, she can be found chasing her two boys and husband on bikes or cross country skis, or tending to her family’s flock of assorted small farm animals in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin.