Sturgeon Bay, Wis. (September 25, 2024) – Each Fall, Winter and Spring, the Door County Maritime Museum hosts experts and interesting characters from around the country for the Maritime Speaker Series (presented in partnership with series sponsor the Door County Medical Center). The Maritime Speaker Series offers an assortment of monthly programs – from historical topics to current issues affecting the Great Lakes and the economy that relies on them.
The Door County Medical Center Maritime Speaker Series programs are held the first Thursday of each month, October through May, beginning at 7pm, on the second floor of the Museum in Sturgeon Bay, as well as online. There is no cost to attend; we suggest bringing a donation of a non-perishable food item, or if watching online, we ask you to donate to your local food pantry.
The first presentation of the 2024-2025 Door County Medical Center Maritime Speaker Series will be held both in person and online on Thursday, October 3 at 7pm, featuring Maritime Markings: The Long History of Tattooing and Sailors by April Beiswenger, Associate Professor of Theatre Studies at St. Norbert College.
Like the North Star guiding sailors, tattoos have a long and storied relationship with sailors. This talk will cover the history and processes of tattooing and how sailors throughout history and around the world have used tattoos to tell the stories of their journeys.
April Beiswenger is an Associate Professor of Theatre Studies at St Norbert College where she teaches courses in Theatrical Design/Technology, Visual Storytelling, and Clothing/Fashion. She is also the Scenographer at SNC and has designed many shows over the past 15 years, including Mary Poppins, Pride and Prejudice, As You Like It, She Kills Monsters, and others. She is the Assistant Artistic Director for Theatre Z, Green Bay’s premier experimental theatre company, producing shows such as Angels in America, Other Desert Cities, The Father, and others over the past 12 years. April is an accomplished artist, mounting installations yearly in the Godschalx Gallery on SNC campus. She is also the recipient of a Public Arts grant from the city of Green Bay and has used that grant to teach free weaving classes.
More information, and a link to register for online presentations, is available at https://dcmm.org/seaperch/maritime-speaker-series/.
- October 3: Maritime Markings: The Long History of Tattooing and Sailors, presented by April Beiswenger;
- November 7: Thankful for Our Lives of Adventure, presented by Mr. and Mrs. Captain Peggy O’Connell and Ray Sheldon;
- December 5: Geology of the Niagara Escarpment in Door County, presented by Eric Fowle;
- January 9: The Lakeland’s Litigation, presented by Brennan Christianson;
- February 6: The History of the Stone Industry of Door County, presented by Don Mikulic;
- March 6: The Anderson Dock, presented by Jeff O’Keefe;
- April 3: Program TBA
Additional in-kind support for the Door County Medical Center Maritime Speaker Series is provided by Bridgeport Resort.
For questions about the Maritime Speaker Series, please email Andrea Stromeyer, Educational Programs Coordinator, at astromeyer@dcmm.org.
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