NEW BERLIN — One of the best parts of my job is highlighting the amazing products that Milwaukeeans and Wisconsinites create from beer tap handles to luxury record players to abstract art. And did you know Wisconsin has one of the top, if not the top, stained glass creators and refurbishers in the country?
Conrad Schmitt Studios in New Berlin is one of the leading names in the nation when it comes to creating stained glass windows, restoration work, and painting large-scale murals for churches, state capitol buildings, theaters, and more.
The company has been crafting works of art since 1889. Some of their previous clients were the University of Notre Dame, Holy Hill, Pabst Mansion, the Minnesota State Capitol building, the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, and the list goes on. They work on buildings that are iconic, important, and sacred.
Conrad Schmitt did the original decoration for the Basilica of Saint Josaphat in 1926. Their work helped the church achieve basilica status in 1929. In fact, a few of the churches they worked on later became basilicas.
“You’re really aware of the responsibility you’ve been given to work on something like that, so we’re really really proud of it," Kevin Grabowski, the national projects director at Conrad Schmitt Studios, said.
Current projects include new stained glass windows for a Jesuit school in Florida. Other projects involve restoring older stained glass to its original glory.
“I think the way that you’re able to manipulate light there’s not another medium where you can work with light and get such a dramatic effect," Grabowski said.
Beyond stained glass, the company also makes large-scale murals. These are the kinds of murals you'd see in European cathedrals. They are large, colorful, and magnificent. I always figured many of those murals were painted on-site. However, Conrad Schmitt employees paint on canvas inside the New Berlin studio and then transport them. A current mural project is destined for Florida. Another painting project, refurbishing statues that depict the Stations of the Cross, is going to Tennessee.
Take a look inside the Conrad Schmitt Studios and see their stunning stained glass...
They also do decorative art painting, decorative restoration, mural restoration, historic paint analysis, ornamental plaster restoration, and statuary restoration.
The company is 135 years old. So what’s the key to Conrad Schmitt's longevity and ability to overcome world wars, economic depressions, and a pandemic?
“Even if the economy constricts there are always going to be places looking for that style of work to be done and there’s only a few places to go to get it done at the level that we do.”
Legacy chocolate shops like Freese's Candy Shoppe in West Allis or pizza places like Wells Brothers Restaurant in Mount Pleasant have said their more than a century of success is related to the product's affordability. Refurbishing six foot tall stained glass windows on 100-year-old churches isn't cheap. However, these churches, theaters, and political institutions are revered for their spirituality, artistry, and history. Many people have a deep desire to preserve these buildings.
"There's a whole push in architecture about sustainability and the idea that you can build a building and make it sustainable, but if you make a building that doesn't have artwork or things that people connect to is the building really sustainable? What makes us want to preserve a building? It's those things we react to emotionally, and so when people preserve churches - it would certainly be less expensive to build a brand new church made out of, you know, metal studs and drywall. Why do they preserve them? Because they're connected to those emotionally and spiritually, and so we're a big part of that," Grabowski said.
It's not easy to do this work either. Conrad Schmitt employees continuously pass down their talent to new co-workers preserving the highly specialized trade.
"This is a trade where all these different sorts of craftsmen abilities are taught from one craftsman to another. So when you have that continuity and you have the commitment, the product that comes out is just amazing," Grabowski said.
Given the company's longevity, number of employees, and size of the studio, they are one of the go-to places in the country for this type of work and can handle the demand. However, client work is quickly increasing - which is a good problem to have. Conrad Schmitt Studios works with about 60 clients a year, and now they are trying to figure out how to expand the studio to keep up with all the customers.
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