"When we engage in fiber arts, we are creating something, but we're also participating in historic traditions tens of thousands of years old. You are not only making art for your soul and for future generations, you are embodying the work of our ancestors."
 

Ellen Rosewall’s life has been dedicated to the arts ever since she took her first piano lesson at age 7. Since then, she has been a student, teacher, performer, artist, director, manager, author and advocate, passionately dedicated to sharing her love for all forms of art and their transformative power in individuals and communities.

 

After moving to Green Bay in 1992, Ellen worked for the Green Bay Botanical Garden and the Weidner Center until she was hired to develop an arts management degree program at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in 2001. She chaired and taught this program until her retirement in 2019, after which she developed and taught online courses for LeMoyne College, the University of Kentucky and Eastern Michigan University. She is the author of Arts Management: Uniting Arts and Audiences in the 21st Century, a textbook which is recognized as one of the standard texts of the field, and which has been adopted by colleges and universities throughout the United States, Canada and Asia. She has served on boards of directors including the Association of Arts Administration Educators, Arts Wisconsin, the Art Garage, Weidner Center Presents, and Wisconsin Public Radio Association.

 

As an artist, Ellen works in textiles, mixed media, and a variety of drawing and painting media. Her mandala murals, Seasons, can be seen at Triangle Park in Green Bay, and her collection of mixed media bird’s nests were shown at the Artless Bastard in DePere and in the office of Green Bay mayor Eric Genrich. She has exhibited in shows at UWGB’s Lawton Gallery, St. Norbert College’s Baer Gallery, the Art Garage (Green Bay), New Visions Gallery (Marshfield), Langdon Divers Gallery (Fond du Lac), UW-Wisconsin Union (Madison) and Woman Made Gallery (Chicago). She has also participated in several national craftivist projects including the Exquisite Uterus Project, the Protest Banner Lending Library, the Sketchbook Project, 5.4 million and Countingand the Welcome Blanket Project.   Her collaborative work has been exhibited at the Grand Rapids Art Prize two years in a row: in 2024 with ceramicist Karen Eckberg and in 2025 with Eckberg and sculptor Naomi Moes. Ellen and Karen's work has also been exhibited at the Art Garage and the Miller Art Museum, and won first prize in the Art Garage's Collaboration exhibit. 

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Ellen writes book reviews for a variety of publishers and organizations including NetGalley(.com) and several professional and art-related publications.