Listen: What makes Milwaukee a creative place? Who makes Milwaukee creative? And while we’re discussing the topic, how is our idea of ‘creativity’ changing? Let’s find out. This winter, our 2011 Make Milwaukee campaign is going on an adventure — with you — to find those answers.
One of our credos for storytelling at RadioMilwaukee – always look for ways to show, rather than tell. Why talk generally about a neighborhood when we can get inside its buildings, meet its families, and hear the sound of it happening? Along those same lines, why talk about the creative community when we can hear the creativity itself?
Last year, we used "tour guides" from Milwaukee's arts and culture world to show off what's here. Who better to talk about a community than that community's stake holders and active members?
Additionally, we're not only finding and bringing attention to folks working in Milwaukee's creative community, we're also channeling that energy directly. It's a somewhat fine distinction – a short PSA-style interview for an artist/even/organization might catch a few ears, but an excerpt from a theater piece or snapshot from a performance coming to life on-air is a much richer listening experience. This is what we're after in Make Milwaukee 2011.
These are the components of 88Nine RadioMilwaukee’s 2011 Make Milwaukee campaign:
(1) Tour Guides
We introduced this concept in our last Make Milwaukee campaign and were incredibly happy with the results – hand-selected folks deeply interested and invested in the creative world act as our tour guides of Milwaukee’s creative community. They will share with our listening audience what gets them excited about living here, the artists, groups, and organizations that inspire them in their own work.
(2) Performance on the Air
If a performance has an audio component, we want to bring it to our audience – theater of all stripes, music, comedy, storytelling. Whether we need to figure out a way to adapt material specifically for the radio or we're plugging in a readymade product, we want to connect our listeners directly to performance.
(3) Creative Challenges
Many artists work outside the realm of words and performance – so while we can’t paint, sculpt or dance directly on-air, we’re providing a way for other creative folks to get involved. Since they work with ideas on a daily basis, we’re asking them to translate those ideas to a different medium, with a little bit of help, of course. For our Make Milwaukee campaign, they will translate their creativity outside of their own medium and temporarily become a radio producer.
The first challenge is already up too! If the feeling moves you, you can take on the challenge: What is Milwaukee... In Sound?
(4) Features
Sometimes, things are just cool, simple as that. Listen for short features on unique and amazing work going on in Milwaukee, as well as the city’s creative hidden gems.
Ready, set, go! In fact, pieces are already running on air and will soon populate this online space too!