Here at Radio Milwaukee we've got a fantastic internship program. Whether our interns are curious about audio production, the non-profit sector, marketing, sales, digital... you name it, we'll help them hone in and get experience with those skills.
Check out a Community Story written, recorded and produced by our current intern Edward Otto of Beloit College:
The Milwaukee Art Museum hosts works from artists such as Piccaso, Monet, Giocometti. But as you walk around to gaze upon these works, you begin to notice something that all of these artists have something in common…they’re all dead.
“You know, you look at the art venues that are around in Milwaukee, like the Milwaukee Art Museum everybody knows, but the amount of living artists that exhibit there is very few,” says Mark Klassen, the director and curator of the Ski Club-a non-profit contemporary art space located on the corner of Auer and Bremen. “So there’s really a void in venues or spaces for living artists to exhibit their work.”
The Ski-Club in some sense, provides an opportunity for artists but also for the community to see what artists are doing.
Since the Ski Club is nestled in the midst of the Riverwest neighborhood, Mark thinks galleries like his might change how people interact with art.
“You know, it gives people the opportunity to see art within their community. They don’t have to go to these mega-institutions, but they can walk out their front door with a cup of coffee and see an art show.”
The gallery operates as a non-profit space and, according to Mark, it allows for incoming artists to have freedom to play around or to even deviate from their past work at times. This often lets artists avoid having to present a “buttoned-up proposal” and instead focus all their energy on their creativity.
“Most artists make work specific for the Ski Club, so I don’t always know what the artists are coming to bring,” Klassen says. “So in that sense I play a kinda lazy curatorial role.”
One of those artists exhibiting at the Ski Club this August is Marissa Lee Benedict. Her opening reception is going to be hosted on August 26. To get a little bit of background on her work we asked Ski Club intern Sam Kindler to explain it to us.
“Well Marissa Lee Benedict has worked on a lot of projects that involve investigating forces in the world or human systems or industrial systems in like a D.I.Y. kind of approach. So it’s these like sort of funny, like personalizing of these larger forces.”
Excitement is not only high around the Ski Club as both Mark Klassen and Sam Kindler await Benedict’s incoming installation, but also around Milwaukee’s art scene.
“You know and in Milwaukee, its really an incredible renaissance in the arts,” explains Klassen. “I mean the amount of exhibition spaces that are there at really all levels and its really drawing some national attention.”
Want to learn more about the Ski Club, as well as find information on upcoming and past exhibitions? Be sure to check out their website and check them out on Facebook.
Dig Eddie's piece and want to apply for an internship at Radio Milwaukee? Send a cover letter and resume to Makenzie@RadioMilwaukee.org.