From headdresses and helmets to turbans and crowns, explore the vital role of ceremonial headwear throughout diverse cultural customs, beliefs, and rituals. Transcending utilitarian purposes, each head covering is a work of art, showcasing skill and creativity in conveying meaning. In a profusion of shapes and styles, materials, and embellishments, these hats and headdresses communicate beauty, the diversity of the world’s cultures, and ideas shared throughout humanity.

Featuring headwear from forty-three countries spanning Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America, most date from the mid to late 20th century and many types are still worn today for revelry, ritual, and the rhythms of everyday life. Headwear’s usage and purposes reveal shared themes: cultural identity; power, prestige, and status; ceremonies and celebrations; spiritual beliefs; and protection. White wedding veils of the West symbolize purity, for example, and Vietnamese brides’ open-crowned red turbans symbolize good fortune. Discover intriguing parallels that exist within ceremonial objects from diverse societies.

The Global Language of Headwear: Cultural Identity, Rites of Passage & Spirituality was jointly organized and toured by Stacey W. Miller and International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C.

On viewStormy Kromer logo concurrent with the Global Language of Headwear exhibition, Stormy Kromer: Evolution of a Classic was organized by Woodson Art Museum curator of exhibitions Shannon Pueschner with assistance from Gina Jacquart Thorsen, CEO, Jacquart Fabric Products, home of Stormy Kromer, in Ironwood, Michigan.

For additional details about these and other programs complementing the Hats & Headwear: Global to Local exhibitions, check the Woodson Art Museum’s online events calendar, the events calendar PDF, the online Hats & Headwear press release, and the Stormy Kromer: Evolution of a Classic exhibition webpage.

Exhibition Highlights

Thanks to the members, donors, grantors, and sponsors who support exhibitions and programs. Exhibitions and programs are supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. Marketing is supported in part by City of Wausau Room Tax funds.

Organized by the Woodson Art Museum, Stormy Kromer: Evolution of a Classic puts a local spin on global headwear. From invention and evolution throughout a century, the stylish and durably designed Stormy Kromer hats are interwoven into Wisconsin culture. The lore is part of the lure. A pull-down ear band stitched to a baseball cap kept a train worker’s head warm and dry amid winter winds. From authentic originals to ever-evolving designs, the Stormy Kromer caps – along with fascinating archival material – celebrate the art of hat and headwear design

The idea of the Midwest as a geographic region with fluid borders in the mid-twentieth century when artists navigated, negotiated, and incorporated international and regional influences, is at the heart of this exhibition drawn from the Museum’s collection.

Artists such as Schomer Lichtner and Ruth Grotenrath, who translated wide-reaching, global inspirations including the collages of Henri Matisse and the silkscreens of Pop Art, exemplify this negotiation. Homegrown subjects seemed natural to others, like Andy Warhol, who referenced their birthplaces and mined Midwestern themes throughout their careers.

The exhibition highlights how artists embraced modernism in its many forms, while anchoring their imagery in local landscapes and avian themes. Through more than forty artworks, the exhibition explores how New York City-centered modernism is fractured and translated into multiple art movements – modernisms – with distinct regional characteristics.

Thanks to the members, donors, grantors, and sponsors who support exhibitions and programs.
Exhibitions and programs are supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. Marketing is supported in part by City of Wausau Room Tax funds