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Last-Minute Gift Ideas from the Chazen

Still not done holiday shopping? Art lovers on your gift list? We’ve got you.

From newly designed Chazen merchandise, books, and prints to museum store classics and a few out-there items, there’s plenty to see in the gift section of the Chazen Café. Bonus: every purchase you make supports the museum’s mission.

Jenaille Northey, the Chazen’s retail coordinator, said the café chooses products inspired by or featuring works from the collection. “We try to support small artists and makers. And we hope their work makes you want to learn more about the art at the Chazen, or maybe even create something of your own.”

Chazen tote bags are the café’s top seller (there’s a new design this year). Another popular item: The Hello! Loom, a pocket-sized weaving kit created by UW–Madison art faculty member Marianne Fairbanks as part of her Weaving Lab project. “These little items are quite popular stocking-stuffers,” Northey said.

 

Chazen art

The café carries high-quality giclée prints, beautifully designed and illustrated catalogs from Chazen exhibitions, and special-collection books. All are produced by the Chazen, unless otherwise noted.

See reproductions of paintings from the Chazen’s permanent collection, including Pink Flutter by Sam Gilliam, Untitled by Mark Rothko, and Group of Egrets by Ohara Shoson. They’re printed in accurate, fade-resistant, pigment-based colors on archival paper. Looking for other Chazen art? Go to the Chazen’s page at 1000Museums.Com and find dozens more you can order, in many sizes and formats.

Exhibition catalogs

  • Petah Coyne: How Much a Heart Can Hold
  • Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection
  • Pressing Innovation: Fine Art Printmaking in the Upper Midwest
  • Nordic Utopia? African Americans in the 20th Century (National Nordic Museum, 2024)
  • Southern Rites, Gillian Laub (Damani, 2015)

 

Special-collections books

  • The Terese and Alvin S. Lane Collection: Twentieth-century Sculpture and Sculptors’ Works on Paper (1995)
  • The Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints (1990)
  • Indian Miniature Painting: The Earnest C. and Jane Werner Watson Collection (1971)

 

Insurgent art

For the edgy art lovers on your list, consider some Guerilla Girls merch: a book, a tote bag with a built-in gorilla mask you can wear, banana-scented air fresheners, and a handbag listing (sarcastic) reasons it’s great to be a woman artist. (Learn more about the  Guerilla Girls here and in Petah Coyne: How Much a Heart Can Hold, on view at the Chazen through Dec. 23).

Museum memberships

After being so generous to others, wouldn’t you like a little something, too? Give yourself a Friends of the Chazen membership right here: https://chazen.wisc.edu/support/become-a-member/. By making a 100 percent tax-deductible contribution of any amount, you’ll support our mission, and you’ll get:

  • a 10 percent discount at the Chazen Café, including museum merchandise.
  • benefits and discounts through the College and University Art Museum Reciprocal Program.
  • first news of upcoming events at the museum, delivered right to your inbox, and exclusive communications about programs and activities.
  • early access to register for events, including Sunday Afternoon Live.
  • invitations to openings and events mailed to your home.
  • the Chazen’s yearly 16-month wall calendar, showing the beauty of the museum’s permanent collection—with a few surprises included!

Want to give a gift membership? Contact Jessica Sayer (jsayer@chazen.wisc.edu) and she’ll be glad to help you.

Tell us what you want

Is there something you think would be perfect for the Chazen Café? We’re always looking for new locally made products. Send them to shop@chazen.wisc.edu.