Each year, more than 600 artists apply for just a dozen slots at Kohler’s dynamic and wide ranging Arts/Industry residency program. Having been there, it’s not hard to see why.

Headquartered in the middle of Wisconsin and known for its sleek bathroom and kitchen fixtures, the manufacturer might seem like an unlikely source of artistic inspiration. But the Arts/Industry program, which turns 50 this year, has its roots in the passion of two founding family members who saw the chance to create something special.

The results are unexpected and sprawling. They include two major art centers, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) and the more recently opened Art Preserve, a satellite campus that houses a fascinating collection of more than 25,000 individual artworks created by 30 artists described as “art-environment builders” (audiences will likely classify them as “outsider” or “folk” art.)

Exterior view of the Art Preserve in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Photo by Rain Embuscado.

It was in 1974 that siblings Ruth DeYoung Kohler II and Herbert V. Kohler, the children of the original founder, Austrian immigrant John Michael Kohler, Jr., first dreamed up the idea to have artists come to the eponymous village and work side by side with Kohler staffers. Those who work with the artists are called “associates” and assist with planning and creation in the factory’s pottery, foundry, enamel, and plating facilities.

“Artistry is essential to our work at Kohler. Without it, Kohler would not be Kohler,” said Laura Kohler, who is Herbert’s daughter and acts as chief sustainability and DEI officer. “I’ve been involved in the Arts/Industry program for over 30 years and have seen first hand how this program brings diversity, inspiration, and new ways of thinking to our manufacturing environments.”

On a recent tour of the foundry, we spotted current artist in residence Lee Running wearing protective gear as she and another worker were removing a bronze sculpture from its sand cast. A few minutes later we were standing in her dedicated work space within the factory as a fork lift driver carefully deposited it there.

Artist Lee Running working on her sculpture at the Kohler Factory in Kohler, Wisconsin.

“The Kohler Foundry has opened my practice to two things difficult to achieve in other environments: working in a repeated form, and working at a large scale,” Running said. “Having endless quantities of sand for molds, and iron for sculptures, is exhilarating—I feel like I can make anything!”

Running said that at Kohler, where she is in residence through mid-December, she’s developing a process that “renders iron very thin, and very fragile looking.”

On the weekend we visited, Kohler was hosting an alumni reunion for the roughly 500 artists from 25 countries who have participated in the Arts/Industry program (some are repeats; Running, for instance, is on her second residency). The list includes figures such as Ann Agee, Willie Cole, Woody De Othello, Michelle Grabner, Edra Soto, and Tomas Vu, among many others. Amy Horst, executive director of the Arts Center and Art Preserve, called the gathering testament to the fact that what Kohler had built was “more than a residency program—it’s a community built on collaboration and shared inspiration.”

Artist David Franklin working on his commissioned installation for The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

On hand for the reunion weekend, artist and sculptor David Franklin spoke about the incredible journey his Kohler residency has taken him on. In the early aughts he was working in a forestry job, barely making ends meet. Then he won a coveted position in the Kohler arts residency program.

His skill in carving and sculpting wood—often animal and human shapes—is evident from even a glance at his work. But Franklin said it was Ruth Kohler who helped him focus in on the fish he was creating and to render them in ceramics. When he began creating them in groups that suggest movement, the effect was compelling.

“I think Ruth Kohler must have known a carver could excel in ceramics as it is so easily carved,” Franklin told me. “This was a revelation and helped me make the leap.”

In 2015 Franklin was commissioned to create a major installation for the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The next challenge? Finding the location and infrastructure to create the work, imagined as a swirling, ceiling-hung school of fish suspended at different heights.

Detail of a sculpture by David Franklin.

When he re-approached Kohler for help, the answer was a resounding yes. Out of that need, a new program which brings in artists by special invitation, known as “Makerspace,” was born. (Franklin also had a similar major installation at the most recent edition of the Salon del Mobile in Milan, where he was on hand to greet visitors and discuss his work.)

Kohler is often a major exhibitor at the Art Basel Miami Beach-adjacent, Design Miami fair. This year, along with hosting a pop-up show in Miami’s Design District to celebrate the 50th anniversary, Kohler just unveiled the names of the 12 artists chosen for the arts program in 2025: Sula Bermudez-Silverman, Sameer Farooq, Tanda Francis, Jude Griebel, Iris Hu, Margaret Jacobs, Salvador Jimenez-Flores, Sahar Khoury, Marie Lorenz, Mathew McConnell, Natalia Mejia Murillo, and Eun-Ha Paek.

I asked Running what advice she might have for future and aspiring Kohler residents. “This residency is always a challenge,” she answered. “The environment of the factory is its own eco-system, and it doesn’t stop. It never closes. It’s possible to work as hard as you can here, and that’s liberating! It can just be hard to remember physical limitations.”