Community Calendar

Parallel Play was created as an integral component of Marquette’s Biology class, Creative Problem Solving. This cross-disciplinary course teaches STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) students to embrace divergent thinking as a path to innovative problem solving. Through art-based activities and small group interactions with artists and STEM faculty, the class emphasizes the similarities between the creative processes of scientists and artists. The class is team-taught by Dr. Deanna Arble, Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences and Lynne Shumow, Curator for Academic Engagement, Haggerty Museum of Art.

Featuring work from the Haggerty’s permanent collection, Parallel Play is divided into four sections that coincide with the scientific method—clarify, ideate, develop and implement. Through the exhibited art pieces, connections have been made between the work of artists and scientists with a special emphasis on the essential elements of scientific research—rejection, revision and the formulation of new ideas. Parallel Play aims to demystify the process of innovation across disciplines and to illuminate the multiple routes of discovery and interpretation that art has to offer.

Support for this exhibition is generously provided by the Stackner Family Endowment Fund.

For more than fifty years, Ellie Lee Weems (1901-1983) trained his lens on the African American residents of Jacksonville, Florida. Weems imaged entertainers, newlyweds, and beauty queens in his photography studio. In addition, his camera accompanied him throughout his vibrant community as he documented life events as ceremonial as graduations and as quotidian as backyard gatherings. His yearslong practice resulted in a copious archive that continues to expand visual and historical accounts of the American South and beyond.

Born in McDonough, Georgia, Weems studied photography at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) and later lived briefly in Atlanta before settling in Jacksonville, where he worked until 1981. His images trace the advancement of photographic techniques, as well as document a community’s commitment to sustaining and nurturing itself throughout major shifts across the twentieth century. The exhibition presents a glimpse into the photographer’s work and offers a gateway for reflection on the power, practice, and preservation of African American photography, situating Weems among a host of image makers who have contributed to the rich visual repository of African American life and culture. 

Visual Legacies is organized by guest curator Dr. Rikki Byrd, in collaboration with Weems’s family members Dr. Saundra Murray Nettles and Kali Murray, Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School.

The exhibition features selected photographs from the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History in Atlanta. Photographs and materials from the Ellie Lee Weems Family Collection held by Dr. Murray Nettles will also be on view.

Support for this exhibition is generously provided by the Marquette University Women’s Council Endowment Fund and in part by a grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.

Milwaukee-based artist, writer, and curator Michelle Grabner pays homage to custodial labor through this installation of household sinks and replicated everyday objects. Largely unseen janitorial work is instead foregrounded through the presence of commonplace objects used to keep institutional spaces sanitary. In the traditionally orderly gallery space, rests a silver leafed garbage can, cast bronze broom, and cast porcelain buckets, caddies, wash brushes, toilet paper rolls, washcloths, "wet floor" signs, and cleaning supplies.

The majority of the work in Grabner's exhibition is produced in the Kohler MakerSpace, an invitational project space for artists and designers based in Kohler's Pottery. In addition, the display includes work from Kohler Co.’s commercial production line including single basin wall-mounted sinks.

Grabner’s display celebrates the labor of sanitation, highlights the design of those objects, and creates a conceptual link to Cleaning Woman, a photograph by August Sander in the Museum’s adjacent collection display.

In Partnership with Kohler Company

The Big 4-0, Vol. 2: New Views of the Collection reimagines the Haggerty Museum of Art’s six lower galleries for the spring semester, presenting an entirely new installation of outstanding works from the Museum’s own holdings. The exhibition expands on collection favorites such as Keith Haring and Salvador Dalí paintings with rarely seen works on paper brought out for the special anniversary. The show of modern and contemporary art contains distinct themes within each gallery such as artistic composition through chance, the role of personal biography, artistic use of commercial printing, and artistic creation following wartime.

The Big 4-0 Vol. 2 is the second of a two-part installation of the exhibition galleries. Vol. 2 features a completely new display to demonstrate the breadth and depth of the Museum’s collection. In combination, the Fall and Spring anniversary exhibitions feature more than 100 works of art. Both installations are curated by Dr. Kirk Nickel, Marc and Lillian Rojtman Curator of European Art.

Support for this exhibition is generously provided by the Emmett J. Doerr Endowment Fund and in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Since 1974, over five hundred artists have participated in the Arts Center’s Arts/Industry residency. The program, operated in collaboration with Kohler Co., offers artists the time and space to focus on the creation of new work in the company’s pottery and foundry studios. As part of the Arts Center’s celebration of Arts/Industry’s fiftieth anniversary, the twelve artists in residence at the Kohler Co. factory during 2024 will exhibit their work in a yearlong group exhibition, Clocking In: 2024 Arts/Industry Residents.

The exhibition will present four residents’ work at a time, in rotations of approximately four months each.

The Hitman.
A New Dark Comedy by Patrick Schmitz
Sam has decided to have someone killed, but when he begins to doubt himself, he seeks comfort in the worst possible place: the hitman he’s hired for the job.

Cast and Team
Starring: Chris Goode & Patrick Schmitz
Featuring: Rollie Cafaro & Beth Lewinski
Directed by: Josh Decker
Written by: Patrick Schmitz

TICKET LINK:
https://schmitzngiggles.org/the-hitman/

The New York Times calls it “the best musical of this century.” The Washington Post says, “It is the kind of evening that restores your faith in musicals.” And Entertainment Weekly says, “Grade A: the funniest musical of all time.” Jimmy Fallon of The Tonight Show calls it “Genius. Brilliant. Phenomenal.” It’s THE BOOK OF MORMON, the nine-time Tony Award® winning Best Musical.

This outrageous musical comedy follows the adventures of a mismatched pair of missionaries, sent halfway across the world to spread the Good Word. With standing room only productions in London, on Broadway, and across North America, THE BOOK OF MORMON has truly become an international sensation. Contains explicit language.

“THE BEST MUSICAL OF THIS CENTURY. Heaven on Broadway! A celebration of the privilege of living inside that improbable paradise called a musical comedy.” – The New York Times

What makes Wisconsin pop culture unique?

From the Packers and Oscar Meyer to Liberace and Trixie Mattel, join the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Milwaukee County Historical Society as they partner to present the exhibition of “Homegrown: Wisconsin Pop Culture” at the Milwaukee County Historical Society. View items spotlighting Wisco-culture, learn about iconic Badger State contributions to TV, media, sports and industry—from Happy Days to Harley Davidson to Hildegarde and more—and gain a better understanding of our place in popular culture history.

Visitors are $8.
Seniors, military, children between 13 and 18, and students are $6.
Children under 12 and MCHS members are free.