Community Calendar

The Best Way to Start Your Saturday.
The Tosa Farmers Market is a local not-for-profit organization that carefully curates the best, freshest foods in the region, but it’s more than that. It’s a community hub for foodies, cyclists, coffee-lovers, music fans, yogis, kids — and all their neighbors.

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.

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

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.

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.

(For everyone) Join us at Riverside Park Urban Ecology Center for an opportunity to learn the basics of overnight camping! We'll host several hands on learning stations including:
Packing & preparedness
Cooking at camp
How to set up a tent
Dress for the weather, pack a snack, and bring your family/friends for this unique opportunity to connect with people and nature in the city! Urban Ecology Center will provide all gear necessary to participants who wish to prepare for a campout this season. Let's cover the essentials and address your burning (pun!) camping questions to prepare you for a successful overnight journey in the great outdoors! Children must be accompanied by an adult, and all are invited to participate.

Sometimes someone just needs a little jump start before landing that gig on stage or getting their gifts on store shelves. From stunning ceramics to funky prints and handmade jewelry, from toe-tapping music to captivating writing and storytelling, Outpost Co-op’s new quarterly Community Creatives event spotlights local artists, crafters, and makers. It offers greater Milwaukee’s creative community a day to showcase their talents directly to Outpost customers who love to support all things local.

Outpost’s next Community Creatives is Saturday, May 17 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at its four locations in Milwaukee, Bayview, Mequon, and Wauwatosa. It’s a chance for shoppers to discover the hidden gems, local treasures, and the rising stars who make our community the vibrant and soulful place that it is. Community Creatives is a festival for the senses, from eyes and ears to tongues and tummies as local vendors are also on hand with pickles, jams, snacks, sweet treats, teas, and more to drink and eat. It’s all about supporting and lifting local creatives and entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds.

Outposts’ first Community Creatives, held in March, featured nearly 20 local artists and vendors. In addition to the upcoming May 17 event, future Community Creatives are scheduled for Saturdays August 18 and October 11.

In celebration of ten years in business, Cream City Clay will be holding a clay carnival May 17, 2025 from 12pm to 6pm outside their downtown West Allis studio at 7105 W Greenfield Avenue. This free, family friendly event is open to the public.

Activities will include hands-on wheel throwing and hand building demonstrations, face painting, games and a smash tent. Al Pastor Mexican Restaurant and Perspective Brewing will be on location selling food and beverages. Attendees are encouraged to participate in an on-site Raku firing to raise funds for studio renovations and scholarships for community members.

Cream City Clay is a learning center for the advancement of ceramic art that offers multi-level classes, studio memberships and private studio rentals. For more information about upcoming classes or opportunities for artists, please visit creamcityclay.com.

Open House Event!
Join us on Saturday May 17th from 12:00 - 2:00 PM at Dretzka Park Chalet (12020 W Bradley Rd, Milwaukee, WI 53224) to learn about the wild and wonderful changes coming to the Little Menomonee River Parkway! You may have seen some big changes along the Little Menomonee River Parkway (or LMRP) in the past two years. Dense stands of invasive species have started to come down and for many, the river can be viewed for the first time in 30 years. This is one of the largest Milwaukee Estuary Area of Concern restoration efforts - seeking to improve habitat and make enhancements for fish and wildlife on hundreds of acres of parkland and 6 miles of river! More work is coming soon in new sections of the parkway, providing more opportunities to explore this special gem in Milwaukee County Parks’ “emerald necklace”.
You can connect with the project team and partners for Q&A, get a refresher on how we got here, and find out what to expect when restoration work expands later this year. Don’t miss a chance to meet some of the critters who call the parkway their home, “play & learn” about habitat restoration with our LMRP Passport activity and discover new ways you can help revitalize the woods and waters right in your backyard.