UW-Whitewater alumnus is Wisconsin Commemorative Quarter finalist
Released: April 4, 2002
When Gov. Scott McCallum asked for input on the 2004 Wisconsin Commemorative Quarter and 9,608 people replied, it may have seemed difficult to get noticed in the crowd. But Matt Craft, a 2001 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater graduate, designed a quarter impressive enough to be chosen as one of the 18 finalists to be minted as the Wisconsin Commemorative Quarter.
Craft, a New Berlin resident, said he came up with the idea for his quarter through lots of research, looking through books and reading articles on Wisconsin, trying to get an idea of what the committee was looking for.
“I wanted to show Wisconsin’s natural beauty and man-made beauty in a nice way, and without cramming in too many images,” said Craft.
Craft also studied the designs of the other state quarters for ideas. Using photographs as a drawing reference, he drew all of the images free hand using a pencil.
Craft said he is excited and honored to be one of the 18 finalists.
“The governor had a reception for the finalists March 26 at the Capitol building,” said Craft. “We each received nice certificates of congratulations.”
Since graduating from UW-Whitewater, Craft said he has done some traveling, worked on various art projects and is currently working at the Midway hotel in Milwaukee.
Even though public voting for the quarters ended April 1, those interested can view Craft’s design on the commemorative quarter homepage at www.wdfi.org/newsroom/wi_quarter/.
The governor will send three to four themes to the U.S. Mint in Washington, D.C. and the final design will be chosen sometime this summer.
- Steve Garczynski,npa@uww.edu
