- Announcer: The following program
is a PBS Wisconsin original production.
- Angela Fitzgerald: Coming up on Wisconsin Life:
Meet the longtime resident
at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin,
an artist adding a splash of color to Packers gamedays,
a Glendale Special Olympics athlete winning big...
- Nice job. - Yeah!
- Angela: ...and a sweet treat at a strawberry farm
in Fort Atkinson.
That's all ahead on Wisconsin Life.
[bright music]
- Announcer: Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided by:
the Wooden Nickel Fund,
Mary and Lowell Peterson,
the A.C.V. and Mary Elston Family,
the Stanley J. Cottrill Fund,
UW Health,
donors to the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs,
and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
[birds singing]
[whimsical music]
- Hello, and welcome to Wisconsin Life.
I'm your host, Angela Fitzgerald.
Let's see if you can guess where I am.
I'll give you a few clues.
It's part of the UNESCO World Heritage site
and home to one of Wisconsin's
most influential architects.
Perhaps you guessed it... We're at Taliesin,
exploring the life and legacy
of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Our journey starts here
inside Wright's personal drafting studio,
one part of this 800-acre estate
just outside Spring Green.
Once a bustling living laboratory
of architectural ingenuity,
Taliesin was Wright's home that survived two fires
and endless renovations.
Renovations completed by apprentices
of the Taliesin Fellowship
that welcomed budding architects to the property
to learn by doing.
Since this home was so experimental,
restoration of the property
can be particularly challenging.
Visitors can see evidence of that for themselves,
as they weave in and out of rooms
that appear to become one with the landscape.
Getting an up-close look
at where Wright worked, played, and lived,
alongside apprentices of the fellowship
and their families.
Let's meet one of the longtime residents,
now more than 100 years old,
who still calls this place home.
As we visit with Minerva Montooth,
who worked alongside Frank Lloyd Wright
here at Taliesin.
- Minerva Montooth: They all studied Frank Lloyd Wright.
It was really a school.
That's what Mr. Wright started it as.
- Angela: Meet Minerva Montooth.
She is 101 years old.
And yet, the most surprising thing about her
is not her age.
It's her address.
- I think I lucked out.
- Angela: Minerva lives at Frank Lloyd Wright's
Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin.
And as one of the last living apprentices
who worked alongside Mr. Wright,
she is surrounded each day
by the memories of their time together.
- Margo: Daddy's smiling.
There's a picture of you and Mrs. Wright.
- We were all apprentices.
I remember very well helping build the theater,
which is where Mr. Wright suggested
we have our wedding, which we did.
- Angela: Minerva met Frank Lloyd Wright
and his wife, Olgivanna,
through her childhood friend and eventual husband,
Charles Montooth.
- Charles was a very good architect.
I didn't know what an architect was.
You know, a farm community, they just all
built their houses themselves. [chuckles]
- Angela: Minerva grew up on a dairy farm.
She and her sister graduated top of their class,
guaranteeing scholarships for college.
It didn't take long for her to seek new horizons.
- I went to Chicago, so I worked
for the Encyclopedia of Britannica doing research.
And then I got bored with a little city like Chicago.
I wanted the big lights. [chuckles]
So I went to New York.
I was the specialized librarian
for the advertising agency.
My office was right over Fifth Avenue,
and I just looked down,
and there was the whole city.
And so it was a pretty glamorous job.
- Angela: Minerva's career took a turn
when she followed her sister for a trip out to Arizona,
where an old childhood friend, Charles Montooth,
had been studying under Frank Lloyd Wright.
So began years of visiting Charles in the desert.
- Charles had been asking me to marry him for five years.
And so, anyway, I finally said yes.
- Angela: Minerva's shy outer shell began to melt away.
- I mean, my sister and I were so shy, twin sister.
I tell you, it was pathological shyness,
but I got over it in one day,
meeting Mr. and Mrs. Wright.
- Angela: To escape the hardships of winter,
the young aspiring architects studying in Spring Green
would caravan to Arizona.
Charles and Minerva had their home base in the desert,
where Minerva raised three children.
- Minerva: We lived for 10 years in a little house
that Charles built, which was so cute.
He built it by hand, all glass doors.
At first it was very small, and then just gradually
he would add bedrooms.
So it got to be a five-bedroom house,
I think, when we had three children.
- Angela: Minerva played an increasingly important role,
not only in her own family, but to the Wrights
and eventually their foundation.
- Having Mr. Wright speak to me on a very familiar level,
I mean, we just were friends for the moment we met.
- Angela: In 1959, Olgivanna assumed the role
of president of the Foundation,
and Minerva began to serve as her assistant.
- Assistant to Mrs. Wright, that's what she called me.
She was like Mr. Wright.
She had an idea, and she wanted it right now.
I was there for 25 years.
- Angela: Between Taliesin West, Spring Green,
and sometimes international business.
- We went to South Africa.
And Europe many summers.
- Angela: Decades later,
Minerva is the last living fellow
that spent time with the original apprenticeship.
- Absolutely incredible that I was ever here,
that I was ever married to Charles,
that I was ever with Mrs. Wright so long,
and that I'm here still.
It's just, all of it is unbelievable.
- Angela: And going to great-grandma's house
is a little extra special.
- I'm in awe that I live here.
Really, I can't believe it.
And I'm very thankful for all of it.
[gentle piano music]
- Angela: Next up, we leap over to Lambeau
where a muralist is adding a splash of color
to Packers gameday.
[machine beeping]
[brush whisking]
- Andrew Linskens: There is a immediate endorphin release
just from mark-making.
[paint stirring]
[upbeat electronic music]
I also love the idea of giving,
and having someone else, the viewer,
have an experience from that art.
- My name is Andrew Linskens.
I am an artist working out of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
[groovy bass music]
I think my style tends to be
a little bit more illustrative
than a lot of fine artists.
And I mostly work in acrylics,
whether that's on the side of a large building
or whether it's on a canvas.
I want both to look equally the same.
I work intuitively.
I mean, I really don't have too much of a plan.
When I make a mark,
I like to make a mark and move on.
I don't like to fiddle with it and keep messing with it.
Once I make a mark or a gesture,
I wanna move on to the next mark kind of thing.
[birds chirping]
I love the idea of flowers and bees
because there's a symbiotic relationship
that is happening there
with the fertilization of the flowers
and how they're dependent on each other.
There's a little bit of a darker side
to the flower things too.
I did lose both of my parents.
Y'know, my father died at a young age.
I had a lot of funeral experience.
We'll put it that way.
So the idea of flowers, even the smell of flowers,
would always remind me of death,
to be honest with you.
So in a way, painting flowers
kind of gives me the ability
to kind of take control of that a little bit.
[upbeat electronic music]
And take that and make it into something
that's a little bit different,
a little bit different memory than that.
[motorcycle roaring] [horn honking]
[upbeat music]
So the Art-Hop is a collective
of artists and musicians.
The three main components of Art-Hop right now
are myself, Gregory Frederic, and DJ RGS.
And we have been working for,
I think about eight years now,
y'know, bringing art and music together.
So I've been working with the Packers
for about seven years now.
And then now, for the last three seasons,
we've been doing every home game.
So we'll welcome, y'know, the visiting team.
So let's say it's Chicago.
We'll say "Chicago," y'know, "versus Green Bay," right?
And we'll allow the fans then to approach that
with welcoming arms.
On game day, we arrive about five hours before kickoff.
And then, we paint for three hours
prior to the game.
People love it.
I think it's something very unique for Green Bay.
[camera shutters clicking]
What does art mean to me?
That's an interesting question.
Art is something that you can speak without polarization.
Y'know, we live in this world
where whatever you say can be, y'know, mistaken
and perhaps, y'know,
people can get the wrong impression very quickly.
Or maybe they get the right impression.
I don't know.
But street art is not, y'know,
considered graffiti anymore.
I think that allows the viewer
to approach art in a way,
give themselves that little moment of pause
where they, y'know, have a little moment of positivity
in their hectic day, you know?
And I think that's what it is.
I think art can really heal.
I think there's something to that.
- We're exploring Taliesin,
home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright,
touring the estate
and learning about their extensive restoration work.
My first stop was to the Hillside Theater
to meet up with Executive Director
Carrie Rodamaker,
and to learn more about the history and preservation
of this 800-acre estate.
- Carrie Rodamaker: Taliesin is Frank Lloyd Wright's home.
This is a place
where his ancestors immigrated from Wales.
He grew to love this area,
and eventually built his own home in 1911.
One of the things that Wright was doing was playing
with the surrounding beauty of the land
and incorporating his buildings into it.
- Beautiful, and so what does that look like
in terms of how they're constructed?
- So, part of it is organic architecture.
So using natural material.
A lot of the limestone was harvested from here.
You'll see a lot of oak.
But you'll also see a lot of new materials,
like plywood.
Because of all of those kind of natural materials,
and this being that laboratory,
that experimental place for Wright,
it poses huge challenges.
It's almost like an archaeological dig,
so we can understand what they were doing
before we can start to figure out
how do we kind of reconstruct
and preserve the historic fabric,
but also making it sustainable for the future.
- Angela: An example of that historic fabric
is this curtain Wright designed
that hangs in Taliesin's theater,
where we chatted with Caroline Hamblen,
Director of Programs.
- Caroline Hamblen: So the Hillside Theater
just reopened last year.
It was designed by Wright to bring lectures,
dance, theater, movies into the space.
And that legacy is something that we're continuing to today.
- Are there other types of programs
or other opportunities
that are available here? - Absolutely.
So, we have our regular tour program.
There is four different variety of tours
that you can come and engage with us
May through October.
We work a lot with schools.
We love working with educators from the region,
bringing their students here.
Then there is workshop opportunities,
and then we have the programming
of the Hillside Theater available as well.
- So lots of opportunities throughout the estate
for all ages throughout the year.
- Yes, absolutely.
And that is really the goal,
that is what Taliesin always has been,
and that's what we want to continue into the future.
All kinds of different ages,
different interests, bringing everybody here
into this UNESCO World Heritage site now.
- Angela: A site that will be preserved
for future generations.
From the stage... - Caroline: Now you can see
how the size of the stage almost doubled.
You notice that part of the stage
is built into the ground.
And that caused a lot
of water infiltration issues.
- Angela: ...to the green rooms.
So this is part of the new space?
- Caroline: We've never had green rooms
for the artists.
The room behind the stage used to be dirt floor.
- Angela: All to honor the world-famous architect
who Carrie Rodamaker says loved Wisconsin
and called it home.
- Carrie: I think we just want to celebrate Wisconsin,
we wanna celebrate this place.
Celebrate Wright for growing up
as a Wisconsin farm kid.
This is where he was really creating
an architecture for America,
and we encourage people to come and see it.
[bright music]
- Angela: Now, we meet a Glendale athlete
sharing her journey from challenges to triumphs.
[gentle music]
Cindy Bentley has never given up.
As executive director of People First,
she has dedicated her career
to helping others with disabilities.
- Cindy Bentley: You have to have a purpose to be alive,
but you also have to have a purpose
to helping other people.
I like helping other people.
- Angela: She serves on several boards
and works with state agencies,
advocating for equal opportunities.
It's a long way from where she started.
- I was born with fetal alcoholic syndrome/cocaine.
I was given 24 hours to live.
I was taken away from my mom right at birth.
My mother was sent to the Taycheedah prison
and I was sent to the foster care center.
- Angela: Tragedy followed Cindy at an early age.
At age eight, Cindy was sent to an institution
for people with disabilities.
- Cindy: And it wasn't the greatest place.
And I was always having to fight my way through.
A lot of times, I thought about giving up.
I really did.
And I didn't think I had a purpose for a long time.
It was a coach there to help me.
I started running,
but I would complain a lot about it.
Then I started to like running.
And then I joined the Special Olympics,
and that's what really changed my life.
I just started to be happy.
- Angela: Cindy also discovered
she was good at winning.
Those wins led her to receive
a White House invitation twice.
- Cindy: President Clinton in 2000.
President Bush.
And I gave him a gold medal that I won in volleyball.
- Angela: That's right.
She gave her gold medal away.
In fact, she's given many of her medals away.
- Cindy: And how many medals can you have?
I have a lot of medals.
- Angela: With a lifetime of medals...
- Two.
- Angela: ...Cindy still finds reasons to compete.
- Cindy: I started getting a trainer last year
to get me more motivated.
She's a great trainer.
Nine and ten. - Trainer: Nice job.
- Yeah!
And I work on basketball and I work on balance,
and then I do the bikes and that.
I just wanna be involved with sports.
I'm a Brewer fan, don't forget that.
- All right! [hands slap]
- Angela: Sports keeps Cindy involved in the community,
and community is the heart of what Cindy does,
whether on a personal level or through her work.
- Nancy Gapinski: These are from last year
that I printed.
I printed extras so you'd have them.
- Angela: She keeps an active schedule at People First,
working closely with her operations manager
and assistant, Nancy.
- A lot of what we do is we try to really
keep an eye on what's going on at the state level,
at the federal level with different bills
that might impact people with disabilities,
so she's pretty active.
Sometimes I feel like I'm with a celebrity
when I'm out in the community with her
because everyone's like, "Oh, hi, Cindy, hi, Cindy."
And it's kinda wild.
- Let's clap it up for Cindy real quick.
[applause and cheers] - Angela: In May of 2024,
Cindy was celebrated by People First
and the State of Wisconsin.
- Hereby recognize the legacy.
- Oh, my God.
- Right, the legacy of Cindy Bentley
and celebrates the positive impact she has had
on countless individuals in our greater community.
So thank you. [applause and cheers]
- Angela: For Cindy, it means so much more.
It's a marker of just how far she has come.
- Cindy: I didn't even think I'd make it this far
to my age because of what I was told.
You know, they said,
"Oh, you're not gonna amount to anything.
"You're gonna have to work at a shelter workshop
and live at a group home all your life."
Well, I don't do any of that.
I have a real job.
I have a real life.
- Angela: A life as an athlete,
an executive, a champion.
- Cindy: Trying to change things, change laws,
change healthcare and make it better, affordable housing,
all those things.
Until I can't do it anymore, I'm gonna do sports
and I'm gonna do everything else
I wanna do with my life.
Done, there you go! [laughs]
Bye, love you!
- Angela: Our last story ends on a juicy note,
as we head to a Fort Atkinson farm
to check out their tech-savvy twist to strawberry growing.
[upbeat music]
- Erin Warner: My horticulture journey,
professionally, started much later in my life.
I didn't know where that was gonna lead me,
but I knew that it would make sense when I got here.
We do the hydroponic strawberry u-pick operation,
and that is about 18,000 plants.
Every year, all the different containers
get refilled and replanted.
I'm the horticulturist.
I'm also one of the farm managers.
The name of the farm is Warm Belly Farm.
It just means that we feel really happy,
we feel really full.
We feel that this is a positive place
for people to be,
so that's what Warm Belly means to us.
How's it going?
A good day for me is when people come out to the farm
and they get to experience our strawberries,
and they might not have picked strawberries
in 20, 30 years.
Because it's a raised gutter system
off the ground, no one has to bend over.
I don't know really many other farms
that are open to the public
that are hydroponic systems.
Growing hydroponically just really means
that you're growing not in the soil.
We use a media called substrate.
This is a Bluelab Pulse Meter,
and it's gonna test the electrical conductivity
of the substrate.
So I'm able to control
how much nutrients are being used,
how much water is being used.
I have it all controlled from my app.
It's telling me it has an EC of 1.1
and a soil moisture of 35%.
The whole idea of hydroponics
stem from the idea that the climate is changing.
People are being forced to farm
in new and progressive ways
using more science and technology.
We do things as environmentally-friendly
as possible.
I've always grown up in nature.
You know, I wanna preserve it for the future.
I grew up in Sheboygan Falls,
so just a tiny little town.
I learned to garden with my family growing up.
I would say I always had just a really andventurous,
like, wanderlust type of spirit.
I went back to school when I was 25,
but I didn't graduate until I was 31.
I think the passion comes from
just taking time in my life
to figure out exactly what I wanted to do.
I ended up here,
and I feel like it's the right place.
We've planted around 8,000 more trees
on about five acres.
We have seven acres total of apple trees right now.
So in the coming years, we expect to have
half a million pounds of apples
coming down the line.
I think that Wisconsin is really special
because we have these seasons.
It's part of who we are as people.
People are just really connected to the land here,
and that's what makes it great.
For me, it's plants, it's horticulture.
It gives me a chance
to interact with the environment,
to interact with people.
And it's also kinda this blend
between science and nature that really excites me.
It'll pull from both tanks, the A and the B tank.
I see opportunity everywhere here,
and I see a future, I see a career.
I'm just really thankful
that my life led me to this point
because this is something that I'm passionate about
and I'm excited about,
and I'm just really, really looking forward
to see what Warm Belly becomes.
[gentle music]
- Our time here is drawing to a close.
We've covered the grounds and history at Taliesin,
all while sharing the lives of people
from around our state.
For more stories, visit us at WisconsinLife.org,
or connect with us on social media.
Reach out by emailing us at stories@wisconsinlife.org.
From Hillside Drafting Studio,
I'm Angela Fitzgerald,
and this is our Wisconsin Life.
Bye!
[water splashing]
[gentle music]
- Announcer: Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided by:
the Wooden Nickel Fund,
Mary and Lowell Peterson,
the A.C.V. and Mary Elston Family,
the Stanley J. Cottrill Fund,
UW Health,
donors to the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs,
and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.