MILWAUKEE, WI.- On January 30, the Chipstone Foundation is hosting its first ever Green Fair at the Milwaukee Art Museum, in conjunction with the exhibition, "Green Furniture: Sustainable Design in the 21st-Century". The event will take place from 10:00AM to 5:00PM; everyone seeking ideas on how to adopt sustainable practices and try green products is invited to attend. Admission to the Green Fair is free with museum admission.

The green lifestyle is quickly becoming mainstream, allowing individuals and businesses to benefit every day by making environmentally friendly choices. "The Green Fair" was created to demonstrate how simple the transition to earth-friendly can be. “A few years ago, the notion of buying ‘Green’ was barely on anybody’s radar screen; today Green products are everywhere,” said Jonathan Prown, director of the Chipstone Foundation. “With this rise in public awareness has come a growing array of products that spuriously claim to be Green but that still rely on problematic modes of production or shipping. "The Green Fair" will allow Museum visitors to meet the best and brightest makers, growers, thinkers, and retailers in the greater Milwaukee area, and to gain a better understanding of this new and enlightened way of reforming our material world.”

The event kicks off with a green marketplace. Visitors will be able to browse and purchase environmentally friendly goods from local vendors such as Rishi Tea, Outpost Natural Foods, Olive Organic Living, and Future Green. The marketplace will also include local green non-profits, such as Growing Power and the Milwaukee Green Building Alliance, presenting information on ways to live a greener life.

Visitors exploring the green marketplace need only look outside to see Hongtao Zhou’s snow furniture demonstration. The artist will be creating furniture out of ice and snow from the Museum grounds. In addition, a variety of artists included in the Green Furniture exhibition will be demonstrating different green building techniques throughout the day. Visitors are encouraged to participate and learn how to build eco-friendly, fun furniture such as newspaper stools.

Being environmentally conscious affects all aspects of a person’s life. With this in mind, Green community leaders will come together in the Museum’s Lubar Auditorium from 1:00 to 3:00, to discuss the Green movement in relation to their different practices. Ken Dunn, founder of Chicago City Farm, will discuss thinking green in the Midwest; James Godsil of Sweetwater Organics will discuss eating green; Nik Kovac, Milwaukee Alderman, will discuss voting green; while the Cedarburg architects Kubala Washatko will discuss building green.

"The Green Fair "is organized by the Chipstone Foundation in conjunction with the Green Furniture exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum. "Green Furniture" is on view from November 12, 2009, to March 14, 2010.