Our free programs are on Mondays beginning at 6:30 PM.
If cancellation is required, an announcement will be made on
Lakes 92.7FM, WILW 96.3FM and Facebook.
OUR MISSION
Winchester Academy’s mission is to enrich the community by providing free, intellectually stimulating, informative, and engaging programs.
The name "Winchester Academy" implies a building and physical structure, but there is none. The Academy is a voluntary organization with a Board of Trustees comprised of area citizens that fosters lifelong learning based on ideas originating in Scandinavian folk academies. The Academy offers, on average, twenty-five programs annually. There is no membership required for attendance at programs. All are FREE of charge and open to the general public. Programs are usually held at the Waupaca Area Public Library on Monday evenings at 6:30. Other venues and days of the week are occasionally used for special seminars and musical programs (e.g., churches, or other sites that can accommodate larger crowds). Some programs might include controversial subject matter, but the Academy takes no position and seeks to provide balanced and reliable information.
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Scholarship Information
Winter/Spring 2025
Program Information
April 14, 2025
6:30 pm
Waupaca Area Public Library Meeting Rooms
Building the City of Waupaca:
The early years
Speaker: Tracy Behrendt, Director of Waupaca Historical Society
2025 marks the City of Waupaca’s 150th anniversary. Waupaca’s history, however, goes back thousands of years, beginning with ancestors of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. Behrendt, director of the Waupaca Historical Society, will focus on our area’s early history, white settlement in 1849, and Waupaca’s early years of change and growth.​
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The Waupaca Historical Society is co-hosting this program.
This program is sponsored by David Raether & Kim Anderson
April 21, 2025
6:30 pm
Waupaca Area Public Library Meeting Rooms
Door County Shipwrecks:
Raising Truth from the Depths
Speaker: Brennan Christianson, Collections Coordinator of the Door County Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay
Door County has the highest concentration of shipwrecks in the state with over 200 shipwrecks. Despite so many wrecks taking place, only half of all vessels have been found. By studying these wrecks several questions emerge including what were they shipping? How many people lost their lives? and why was Door County so dangerous?
Come learn the answers to these questions and many more!
This program is sponsored by David Raether & Kim Anderson
April 28, 2025
6:30 pm
Waupaca Area Public Library Meeting Rooms
From Mountain Water:
The Ancient Art of Japanese Papermaking
Speaker: Carol Kratz, Papermaker, Author, Editor and retired Physician Assistant
Washi is strong, supple, and beautiful paper, still handmade in the mountains of Japan using methods unchanged since its perfection in 600 AD.
Kratz learned these methods with a Japanese master papermaker in Mino, Japan, long a papermaking center. Through her illustrated talk, she will detail the history and uses of paper in Japanese culture, illustrate the process, and through her paper, will show us the results. Her love of paper originated with her love of the book in all forms, practical and artistic.
This program is sponsored by Patricia Reckrey & Kate Saunders
