The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is a museum dedicated to self-taught artists and the creators of what it calls "art environments" — the obsessive, total-immersion constructions that people build in their homes or yards when they have something they need to express. The collection includes material from dozens of such environments across the United States, buildings and installations that were created by people who had never considered themselves artists and usually built entirely alone.
The museum building itself incorporates the original Kohler house, an 1882 Italianate mansion, extended by a substantial modern wing. The permanent collection covers outsider art, folk art, and visionary architecture, and the temporary exhibition programme brings in contemporary artists working in related territory. The Rhinestone Cowboy House, transferred here from its original location, is one of the museum's most startling pieces — a house covered entirely in rhinestones by an outsider artist named Loy Allen Bowlin. Entry is free.