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Century-Old Midwest Grotto Traditions Inspire Contemporary Creativity

by Kate Mothes

Three ornate sculptures made from small stones. In the center are three arches made from stones with religious statues in the center of each. To each side are identical pieces in a droopy heart shape with mosaic tiles and Christian crosses hanging in the center.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the John Michael Kohler Art Center
Madeline Buol's untitled work from 1948, made in Dubuque, Iowa. It is now in the permanent collection of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

From pilgrimages to community gathering spaces, hand-built grottoes across Iowa and Wisconsin continue to share histories and spark new ideas.

When Brooklyn-based artist Stephanie H. Shih attended the Arts/Industry Residency in Wisconsin in 2023, she didn’t realize that the experience would lead to a new direction in her artistic practice. 

Shih’s residency introduced her to Jacob Baker’s (d. 1939) “Dream House,” an assemblage sculpture at the John Michael Kohler Art Center’s (JMKAC) Art Preserve in Sheboygan. She also learned about the Dickeyville Grotto in southwest Wisconsin, created by Father Mathias Wernerus between 1924 and 1931.

Grottoes are typically hand-built concrete forms that have been embellished with collected objects. Baker’s numerous “Dream Houses,” for example, are covered in everything from small toys and furniture knobs to mirrors and crockery fragments.

Stone sculptures on white platforms in an art gallery. Foreground piece resembles a rocky structure with arches, and mosaics of smaller stones spelling out "St. Peters."
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the John Michael Kohler Art Center
The exhibition ‘A Beautiful Experience: The Midwest Grotto Tradition’ at the JMKAC taps into the region’s unique, vernacular creative expression. Pictured here are pieces by Madeline Buol (center; St. Peter’s Basilica, 1948), Jacob Baker’s Dream House (right; created in 1928), and Stephanie H. Shih’s work created in 2025 (left).
Three sculptures make from stones. The center one is the largest, made of a star shape on a rectangle base. The center of the star has a religious statue surrounded by a mosaic of smaller stones and colored glass. A cross hangs from the bottom of the star into a alcove in the base. There are two identical, smaller statues to each side. They are rectangular and have patterns of small stones and colored glass.
The exhibition is co-curated by Laura Bickford and Chava Krivchenia and includes objects from the JMKAC’s collection alongside pieces by Stephanie H. Shih and Chicago-based artist E. Saffronia Downing.

Grotto materials reflect local industries, pastimes, and decorative trends. Many examples include colored glass, figurines, fossils and rocks, and other found objects. “This accumulation, as well as the objects incorporated, creates a documentation of the maker’s life, faith, and home,” says an exhibition statement for JMKAC’s A Beautiful Experience: The Midwest Grotto Tradition. 

Madeline Buol, one of the few known women grotto builders, used figurines, stones, and shells that she gathered during her travels. She began building a grotto outside of her home in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1943. 

Buol wrote a memoir that describes “some of the places that she visited that inspired her and places where she gathered components,” says Chava Krivchenia, one of the curators of A Beautiful Experience. “There are these moments where you’re able to identify objects in her assemblages, and they trace histories from the Midwest or her personal life. Moments like that were very moving.”

Midwest grotto-makers often used the art form to channel spiritual beliefs. Father Paul Dobberstein, for example, immigrated to Wisconsin from Germany in 1893 to study at a seminary. After moving to West Bend, Iowa, his keen interest in geology converged with his desire to express his faith, resulting in the Grotto of the Redemption.

 

Shih’s ceramics explore themes of domesticity and the Chinese diaspora, and she found local inspiration in a long-gone Milwaukee landmark called the Toy Building. Demolished in 1939, it featured pagoda-like awnings and elaborate signage.

The artist combined inspiration from Baker’s “Dream House” and the Toy Building to create her first-ever mosaic piece. She used crowdsourced fragments along with a unique collection of potsherds excavated from a 19th-century Chinese fishing village in Monterey Bay, California, thanks to a connection at Stanford University. For Shih, grottoes provide an unexpected link to Chinese heritage and have spurred techniques in her work.

A colorful sculpture of a miniature building with ornate details, windows, and intricate patterns made from broken glass and ceramic pieces in teal, pink, and red. There is a vertical yellow sign with Chinese text on square tiles.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Artist and the John Michael Kohler Art Center
Stephanie H. Shih, Toy Building (1915-1939), 2025.
A miniature building made from colorful mosaic tiles, glass, and found objects. One side of the building sculpture has a stone facade, and small hanging lanterns. There are small playful figurines gathered on the roof.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Artist and the John Michael Kohler Art Center
The roof pieces are the brown ginger jar pieces,” Shih says. “There are some wintergreen, celadon-type sherds, and then there’s the painted blue-and-white ones from their bowls and dishes.”
A miniature building made from colorful mosaic tiles, glass, and found objects. The sculpture is teal and pink with small playful figurines gathered on the roof. Red letters made from tile pieces spell out "CHOP SUEY" on the side of the piece.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Artist and the John Michael Kohler Art Center
This piece by Shih is made of Chinese export porcelain, found and crowdsourced objects, archaeological ceramic fragments from a Chinese fishing village on Monterey Bay (c. 1850-1906), stained glass, ceramic, polished stones, glass rods, resin, enamel, and grout on ferrocement, steel, and polystyrene.
A colorful collection of assorted Asian figurines and pottery. Including a green camel, lucky cats, ceramic teapots, a chubby frog, various dolls, and a small golden pagoda.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Artist and the John Michael Kohler Art Center
The artist combined inspiration from Jacob Baker’s “Dream House” and the Toy Building (a Milwaukee landmark demolished in 1939) to create her first-ever mosaic piece.
A rectangular block decorated with teal, green, and pink ceramic pieces. In the center is a large sign made with small square ceramic tiles. The sign is yellow with a blue border and reads in text made from tile: "Dance at toy's restaurant. 2nd floor. Chinese and American Dishes." On top, there are small figurines and toys.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Artist and the John Michael Kohler Art Center
Shih’s ceramics explore themes of domesticity and the Chinese diaspora, and she found local inspiration in a long-gone Milwaukee landmark called the Toy Building.

JMKAC is a unique force when it comes to preserving and exhibiting vernacular artworks by self-taught artists. In 2021, its Art Preserve became the first museum dedicated solely to art environments. In partnership with the Kohler Foundation, JMKAC is dedicated to saving and restoring one-of-a-kind sites, like the Tellen Woodland Sculpture Garden near Sheboygan, Wisconsin..

When grottoes have faced demolition, the Kohler Foundation saves and conserves pieces, often adding them to JMKAC’s permanent collection. Shows like A Beautiful Experience highlight these treasures for everyone to enjoy.