“Passed to the Present: Folk Arts Along Wisconsin's Ethnic Settlement Trail” featured folk arts and artists in communities along Lake Michigan. Envisioned as a three-stage project, it included 1) a field survey of artists and craftspeople in communities along the Lake Michigan shoreline in eastern Wisconsin, 2) a traveling exhibition and an accompanying exhibition catalogue, and 3) a directory which would make the artists' work more accessible to heritage institutions and other residents and visitors to the area. Wisconsin's Ethnic Settlement Trail (WEST), a historic preservation organization established in 1991, had been collaborating with the Cedarburg Cultural Center (CCC) since its inception to promote cultural tourism in eastern Wisconsin. James P. Leary and Janet C. Gilmore's previous fieldwork in the state for the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan provided the basis for further fieldwork for this project. Research for a previous CCC traveling exhibition, “In Tune With Tradition: Wisconsin Folk Musical Instruments” (1990-1991), also contributed to this project, since organizers reestablished connections made for the earlier exhibition. The exhibition featured eighteen artists, representing thirteen communities (African American, Armenian, Czech, Danish, German, Hispanic, Holland Dutch, Hmong, Oneida, Polish, Slovak, Slovenian, and Ukrainian). The directory included thirty-one artists, out of an initial group of 100-150 artists.
The National Endowment for the Arts, the Fund for Folk Culture at the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Community Folklife Program, and the Wisconsin Arts Board provided funding for “Passed to the Present.” After opening in January-February 1994 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Art History Gallery, the exhibition traveled to the Oshkosh Public Museum, the Mead Public Library in Sheboygan, the Cedarburg Cultural Center (running concurrently with the Museum of International Folk Art's national traveling exhibition, “America's Living Folk Traditions”), the Miller Art Center in Sturgeon Bay, the Kenosha Historical Society Museum, the Neville Public Museum in Green Bay, and the Racine County Historical Society and Museum, where it ended its tour in July 1995.
