When Richard Sennett published his provocative thesis on the diminishing boundaries between public and private selves in the late '70s, things like reality TV and the Patriot Act were unheard of. Today they're incontrovertible facts that have further breached this boundary.

Milwaukee's rich heritage of fine art photography continues this week when the Coalition of Photographic Arts (CoPA), a new network of artists in the city, opens their "Second Annual Juried Exhibition" at Walker's Point Center for the Arts on Sept. 12. With sixty images in the show representing four states, CoPA strives to continually promote Milwaukee as a focal point for fine art photography. The 42 participating artists produced more than 140 intriguing entries juried by George Slade, artistic director of the Minnesota Center for Photography and contributor to numerous photography publications. Slade hosts a gallery talk . . .

To paraphrase Chicago's adopted art star and provocateur Jeff Koons, if his work doesn't reach viewers through the intellect, it'll grab them by the genitals. At the very least, the Museum of Contemporary Art's comprehensive survey of the artist's iconic sculptural works, new paintings and companion exhibit, "Everything's Here: Jeff Koons and his experience of Chicago," engage the viewer in myriad ways, not all of them prurient.

The Labor Day weekend offers a host of opportunities to appreciate Wisconsin's vibrant art scene. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center presents "Civil Liberties" in Sheboygan. Most intriguing is the "Vested Interest" component (through Sept. 6), where national artists display garments that demonstrate cultural and political issues. The exhibit features They Are All One, a staggering installation by Cuban-born team Guerra de la Paz. Michele Pred's "(Dis)possessions" (through Oct. 12) features confiscated objects from 9/11 . . .

Vintage-ology: the study of all things from the past characterized by an enduring appeal or excellence. It's the byword that Fossil, a billion-dollar corporation that designs leather goods, watches and apparel, calls their "canvas for creativity and the soul of their brand." A new exhibition at the Eisner American Museum of Advertising and Design titled "Celebrating 25 Years of Fossil Vintage-ology" expands on Fossil's modern appeal and branding. Corporate Fossil began in 1984 as an importer and wholesaler of watches, but in 1989 they developed a branding based on '40s and '50s vintage products. The company then branched out into marketing eyeglasses, sandals, fashion . . .

Shadows. Abstract shapes. Spatial Relationships. These concepts, portrayed in intimate photographs, describe the work of John Heymann exhibited at the Charles Allis Museum with “At a Moment’s Notice: The Photographs of John Heymann” through Sept. 21. Heymann, a photojournalist featured in The New York Times and The Boston Globe, displays approximately . . .

It's hard to forget John Lennon singing the words "There are places I'll remember, all my life" on the Beatles' 1965 album Rubber Soul. Lennon was more than a charismatic musical figure, however: He was a visual artist as well. Lennon picked up a pencil long before his mother Julia bought him his first guitar as a teenager. His talent consistently evolved, leading him to art school and a working practice as a visual artist afterwards. The exhibition "Coming Together Through the Art of John Lennon" opens Aug. 16 at the Waukesha County Historical Society and Museum. It explores both the musical and visual dimensions of his intensely creative genius . . .

Many people haven't heard the name of Charles Thwaites, a Wisconsin artist who was born in Milwaukee in 1904 and graduated from the city's Layton School of Art during the 1920s. However, they may be familiar with his work: Thwaites was one of America's foremost portrait painters before moving to New Mexico in the '50s. The Museum of Wisconsin Art's exhibition "Charles Thwaites: A Retrospective" displays works from a successful career that spanned half a century, connecting Thwaites, who died in 2002, to his former home . . .

The belief that "everybody can create something" embodies the artwork in "DIY: Do It Yourself Series," currently on display in the Community Gallery at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. The "DIY" exhibit presents the work of eight national artists who define the do-it-yourself spirit. The artists use their crafts as a means of personal expression, demonstrating sustainability, individuality, simplicity and appreciation for a community that creates unique material goods. These characteristics . . .

At the start of the period in which the work in "Biographical Landscape: The Photography of Stephen Shore, 1969-1979" was shot, America remained entrenched in the Vietnam War; the tumult of 1968, its assassinations and aftershocks preoccupied the country's consciousness. None of this political upheaval, however, is apparent on the main streets of small towns across the United States that populate the core of the exhibition at the Haggerty Museum of Art, on display through Sept. 28. Shore'sUncommon Places is a series of vernacular images geographically distinguishable only by the titles describing their coordinates in an intersection of time and place.