Sarah Gail Luther: Artist in Residence at the Eschweiler Lavery Conservancy
April 27, 2026 | Topics: Articles
The Natural Realm presents Sarah Gail Luther, who is among 12 artists participating in a year-long residency program called ARTservancy, now in its seventh year. Sarah is the first of this year’s cohort to be featured. ARTservancy is a collaboration between Gallery 224 in Port Washington and the Restoring Lands Land Trust, Milwaukee Area Land Conservancy, Tall Pines Conservancy, and Lake Michigan Bird Observatory. The mission of ARTservancy is to promote the visionary work of both the artists and conservationists. Each artist has selected a preserve to spend time in and to engage with.
Reflections from the Artist
As a public artist, spending time in a place is the most important part of my practice. As a Milwaukee based artist much of my time is spent exploring unique urban spaces, getting to know the lay of the land, the history, and the people that use and shape it. While I love meeting people, building relationships, and learning about different parts of Milwaukee, I try to balance my time in the city with projects that give me a chance to spend time in nature, too.
The ARTservancy residency seemed like the perfect opportunity to carve out time for myself to explore a natural landscape. When I was accepted as a resident and looked over the list of possible sites, I noticed one of them was the Eschweiler Lavery Conservancy managed by Tall Pines Conservancy. My Mom’s maiden name is Eschweiler, so it caught my attention.
The land is a wooded ridge that runs between two lakes–Cornell Lake and North Lake. I remembered that North lake is where my Grandpa grew up. I clicked on the video that was linked in the ARTservancy description of the Eschweiler Conservancy and saw Liesel Lavery (nee Eschweiler), a relative who I had just met a few months earlier at my Grandpa’s funeral.
While growing up in Milwaukee, I knew OF the Eschweilers and our relationship to them, I certainly knew that my Great Great Grandpa was an architect and had designed the gas light building, but I didn’t really KNOW anyone or anything about that part of my family until I was much older.
All of the sudden, the idea of the ARTservancy residency became not only a chance to study and soak in a new natural environment, but a way to learn more about my family history and the connection of my family to their homestead.
In late February I met Liesel at the conservancy for the first time. She led me on a very cold walk around the land and we spent time looking through old family photos. She pointed out details in the cottage that you could find in photos taken over 100 years earlier, and a photograph of all the employees of Eschweiler and Eschweiler Architecture firm having a company picnic on the ridge where we had just walked.
Along the path that leads to Cornell Lake, an enormous oak tree infected with oak wilt had recently been cut down and huge segments of the trunk still sit on the hill. I noticed it the first time I visited, it’s hard to miss, but it took a few visits to the land before I decided to count the rings. From the bark on the outside of the tree to the rotted center which cannot be counted, there are 127 perfect rings.
The Bradley’s owned the land and they logged and farmed there before 1904, when it was Purchased by Alexander Chadbourne Eschweiler (my Great Great Grandfather). In 1904 I estimate that tree would have been about 15 years old, A.C. Eschweiler Sr. would have been 39, my great grandfather Carl Ferdinand Eschweiler would have been 10. As I counted the rings I’d think, that’s when my mom was born, or my grandpa was born.
Before going to the land for the first time, Leisel described the driveway to the cottage and conservancy that was designed by A.C. Eschweiler Sr.. She said over the phone, that making the drive to the cottage and conservancy alone was an experience! “He spoke the language of magic” She said, meaning he had both the sensitivity to the landscape and the engineering prowess to be able to plot a dramatic and large-scale path through a winding hilly kettle moraine forest. She was right, it’s an amazing journey.
The driveway led me to the question, how have my ancestors shaped this landscape? It’s easy to consider and see the big ways – the cottages, leveled paths, or gardens that change the terrain. But the area that is now conservancy holds the more inconspicuous impacts. I wonder about the ways that nature absorbs the energy of the people who shape it? The subtler ways people influence a landscape–foot paths walked, seeds carried, wild flowers preserved, trees photosynthesizing with the CO2 of the people who sit in its shade.
I think about how this legacy is being protected through creation of the conservancy with Tall Pines. The more I visit the more my questioning evolves, and my question has flipped. I wonder, how do people absorb the energy of a place? Can the energy and spirit of a place live within us for generations? Can the lessons and creativity and magic learned from a plot of land be passed down from a Great Great Grandpa to a Great Great Granddaughter? How well do I already know this place? How much of my being is matter absorbed from this land? Is it in my DNA?
Liesel, has a deep reverence for the history of the Eschweiler land and is working to compile and preserve its human history. However, she also takes her role of stewarding the land and all of its flora and fauna with just as much enthusiasm. She has put in countless hours (and years) of her own labor, but also works with several companies that support the conservation work and restoration work on the ridge.
I look forward to getting to witness the fruits of this 122-year-old preservation project come to life over the course of the next 9 months. In just the first 5 visits to the Eschweiler conservancy, I have seen the transition from winter to spring. The lakes have gone from frozen to thawed. Sprouting Iris, hepatica, wood betony, wild bergamont, are emerging through dead leaves. Frogs and toads who were hibernating are now singing loudly and leap into the water as I stroll past. Things are changing fast–more birds, more bugs, more green.
Each visit I walk, I sit, I photograph, I draw, I paint and I contemplate. I’ve been taking the images I’ve gathered back to the studio and tinkering with them. I’ve been printing and tracing photos, making drawings and paintings, doing leaf rubbings, cutting pieces of fallen wood, and trying to find the visual language that can help translate the magic of this place and the layers of my connection to it. The year is already a quarter through and I feel like my explorations have just begun. Ideas and inspiration are emerging with the native wild flowers and I’m excited to see how all of it takes shape.
Gallery
Bio
I am a public artist based in Milwaukee, focused on civic engagement, social justice, and environmental activism. My site-specific projects highlight the everyday things we often overlook in people, neighborhoods, and civic life. Through my art, I try to encourage us to slow down and take a closer look at the world around us.
My work often takes place in non-traditional spaces and invites people to participate in ways that are fun, accessible, and interactive. Whether it’s through art, performance, or community projects, I create opportunities for connection and reflection.
Recent projects include Un Paseo Al Agua, a series of road signs along Greenfield Avenue for the Watermarks project; working with Escuela Verde High School to open the Newline Community Cafe; and Reading The Landscape, a free publication distributed at the Lynden Sculpture Garden. These projects all reflect my passion for building community and raising awareness about the environment.
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Note: The Eschweiler Lavery Conservancy is on private property and not open to the public. This residency is sponsored by Tall Pines Conservancy, which holds a conservation easement on the conservancy portion of the private property.
The ARTservancy artists in residence in 2025 can be found here.
This is the latest in our series of featured artists, which is intended to showcase the work of photographers, artists, writers and other creative individuals in our community whose subjects or themes relate in some broad sense to nature, urban nature, people in nature, etc. To see a list of previously featured artists, click here. The work of the 2024-2025 ARTservancy artists in residence is currently being exhibited monthly at Gallery 224. To learn more about ARTservancy and to meet the other ARTservancy artists in residence, click here and then use the drop-down menu.
All images courtesy of the artist, except as noted. The featured photo at the top of Sarah Gail Luther at the Eschweiler Lavery Conservancy is by Eddee Daniel. Tall Pines Conservancy is a project partner of A Wealth of Nature.
About Preserve Our Parks
Preserve Our Parks, Inc. is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of parks and green spaces. Our mission: To advocate for and promote Milwaukee area parks and open spaces and to strive to protect the tenets of Wisconsin’s Public Trust Doctrine.
For more than 25 years, we have been a leader in advocating for the protection of Milwaukee County park lands, halting many proposals to develop, privatize, or sell local parkland and lakefront spaces. More information about POP, including past accomplishments, is available at www.preserveourparks.org.