When Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton was preparing to move into the Capitol shortly after the 2002 election, she looked at the bare walls of the double office and saw artistic potential.

"I looked around and realized that this was a tremendous space," Lawton said, "and that it would be a wonderful opportunity to make the work of Wisconsin's artists visible to the people of this state."

The first exhibit opened on the day of her inauguration. Since then, the Wisconsin Arts Board has kept artwork rotating every six to eight weeks on the walls of 19 East in the Capitol.

"We've had an amazing variety," Lawton said. "For me, of course, to be awash in beautiful artwork is pure pleasure. People say, 'How generous of you,' and I think, 'What, are you crazy? I've got this around me.' "

Mary Kay Neumann, whose watercolor solo show "Talk to Me: The Emotional Life of Flowers" opened in Lawton's office in last month, recently welcomed friends and supporters to an artist's reception in the office. Lawton's politics were key in Neumann's willingness to display her work in the Capitol.

"(Her) politics are right down the same path as mine -- women's rights, social justice," said Neumann, a therapist and founder of the Women's Psychotherapy Centre in Madison. "She's been an advocate for parity in mental health. She promotes the best of government."

Neumann's watercolors employ bold colors and blurred edges -- deep blues, yellows and greens that pop on the bland walls of the Capitol office. Those colors are important to the political staff, who otherwise work amongst a duller color palette.

Lawton isn't the only elected official who uses her office to showcase the talents of Wisconsin artists. In fact, starting in March 2007, she suggested the idea of official art tours of the Capitol offices, according to Anne Katz, executive director of Arts Wisconsin. About 15 to 20 legislative offices were part of the tour.

"Some had local arts councils involved; some had independent artists work with them," Katz said. "It was a great idea, and we just need to keep finding ways to do it."

Katz has already started contacting potential legislators about future arts involvement after the election.

"There's a lot more awareness now," she said, "so I think we have a good opportunity to make some things happen once the new Legislature comes in."

Melanie Hovey, executive director of Lemon Street Gallery in Kenosha and board vice president of AHA!, the Arts and Humanities Alliance of Kenosha, recently brought artwork for four southeastern Wisconsin

representatives' offices to the Capitol.

She brought a collection of abstracts, landscapes and still life paintings, mosaics, watercolors and oils for Sen. Robert Wirch (D-Pleasant Prairie) and Reps. John Steinbrink (D-Pleasant Prairie), James Kreuser (D-Kenosha) and Samantha Kerkman (R-Genoa City). Hovey features artists from the representatives' area.

"Everyone said color, we want some color," Hovey said. "In the Capitol building the offices are so gorgeous, but they are a little bit dark. There's not a lot of vibrant colors except for in that beautiful rotunda."

The art on their walls will change quarterly, Hovey said. She wants to present a range of styles, and she doesn't plan to let the staffers choose which pieces will go in each office.

"Where you work and live, you surround yourself with things you want to look at," she said. "But in a government building especially, it's important to go outside your comfort zone.

"We've begun to tell the legislators that it's important that you have a wide variety of artwork to look at. Stretch yourself. All art is valid -- it's all valid."

Jack Jablonski, chief of staff for Sen. Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls), said the Northern Lakes Center for the Arts organizes the artwork in Harsdorf's office at 108 South.

"We've done a rotating art exhibit for a number of years," Jablonski said. The most recent works have been up for more than six months; Jablonski confessed that since several art-loving members of the staff have departed, the images haven't changed as often.

"We benefit through the arts in the community economically," he said. The exhibits showcase the art that's being made in the state and emphasize artistic careers, Jablonski added. "Sometimes it's overlooked."

Karin Wolff, arts program administrator for the Madison Arts Commission, said artwork produced by Dane County residents is on view in designated areas of the mayor's office and the Madison Municipal Building known as ARTspace.

The Arts Commission put up artwork by Nina Bednarski and Craig Grabhorn on Tuesday, Sept. 2, and Martha Kauppi's glass art will remain on view in the mayor's conference room for another month. (The application deadline for local artists to exhibit work in ARTspace is due each year on Oct. 1.)

"It's win-win," Wolff said. "A lot of artists get to have work in the municipal space. It's not a gallery and they don't have high sales, but they have really great exposure.

"Artists have said it's an honor to put work in a public space where it's not necessarily the gallery visitor viewing the work; it's more the everyday person who's going to mail something or get their permit for something. They like that exposure to a different demographic."

Hovey said exhibiting at the Wisconsin Capitol is a key resume builder for many of the Kenosha artists she works with. Lawton, too, recognizes the visibility of her workspace.

"I have people coming not only from all over the state, but from all over the world to this office," Lawton said, "and for them to begin to get a measure of the high level of work that Wisconsin artists are producing is very important to me. It defines our state."