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
February 24, 2025
6:30 pm
Waupaca Area Public Library Meeting Rooms
Waupaca Foundry:
A Global Leader in Metal Casting
Speaker: Sara Timm, Director of Marketing at the Waupaca Foundry
Join us for a dynamic overview of the Waupaca Foundry, North America’s leading supplier of iron castings to the automotive, commercial vehicle, agriculture, construction, and industrial markets. This presentation will highlight the iron casting giant’s cutting-edge technologies, commitment to sustainability, community engagement, and workforce development. Discover how the Foundry’s people, processes, and purpose drive innovation, support communities, and create lasting industry impact. Explore what makes Waupaca Foundry a trusted supplier and leader in the manufacturing world.​
This program is sponsored by Brenda and Dave Wenberg
March 3, 2025
6:30 pm
Waupaca Area Public Library Meeting Rooms
Children’s Library
International:
Viet Nam, Laos, & Cambodia
Speaker: Chuck Theusch, Vietnam Veteran
Sissel along with Tamara Thomsen, a Maritime Archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society's Maritime Preservation and Archaeology program, will present the Wisconsin Dugout Canoe Survey Project. They will highlight the persistence of Indigenous cultural traditions and technological ingenuity in Wisconsin. This project embodies the Wisconsin Idea by engaging local and national museums, historical societies, tribal museums, and tribal partners as well as documenting an important yet relatively rare form of material culture. Thomsen’s research has resulted in the nomination of more than sixty submerged sites to the National Register of Historic Places.
This program is sponsored by Dan and Mary Naylor
March 17, 2025
6:30 pm
Waupaca Area Public Library Meeting Rooms
Martha Washington and 18th Century Women's History
Speaker: Becky Liegl, School District of Waupaca Educator
Have you ever wondered about the lives of women during the 18th Century?
Becky Liegl spent a week at the George Washington Teacher Institute at Mount Vernon in 2023. She will share her experience learning about Martha Washington and the lives of women during the 18th century using primary sources, research from top female historians, and ways to engage young women and men through picture books.
What a great way to celebrate Women's History Month!
This program is sponsored by Jeanne Bootz & Linda Kassera
March 24, 2025
6:30 pm
Waupaca Area Public Library Meeting Rooms
From Wood to Watercraft:
Dugout Canoes of Wisconsin
Speakers: Sissel Schroeder, PhD & Tamara Thomsen, a Maritime Archaeologist
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Sissel Schroeder is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UW-Madison. Her research focuses on cultural-environmental systems and the archaeology of climate change on ancient peoples of the southeastern United States and the Midwest. Tamara Thomsen has worked as a maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society's Maritime Preservation and Archaeology program. Her research has resulted in the nomination of more than sixty submerged sites to the National Register of Historic Places. The Wisconsin Dugout Canoe Survey Project highlights the persistence of cultural traditions and technological ingenuity. It embodies the Wisconsin Idea by engaging local and national museums, historical societies, and tribal museums in this project that is documenting an important yet relatively rare form of material culture.
This program is sponsored by Dick Hansen
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
