Art Milwaukee

In TCD’s continuing series on the people places and ideas that define our city, we visit six businesses in the Shops of Grand Avenue participating in the “Creativity Works Here” program. This is Part Two. Click here for Part One at VETransfer.

 

Who: ART Milwaukee is an organization that strives to empower local artists to show their work and bring social experiences through art.

The company consists of “young professionals who are truly passionate about Milwaukee,” according to Angela Damiani, Vice President of ART Milwaukee.

“Our employees wear moccasins,” said Jeremy Fojut, founder of ART Milwaukee, to illustrate (no pun intended) the laid back, friendly appeal of ART Milwaukee’s staff.

What: Through monthly themed ART Jamborees, ART Milwaukee features artists in gallery settings as well as live art creation, allowing patrons to mingle with one another to strengthen the artistic community of Milwaukee and make the art accessible to everyone.

Where: The organization started out in employee’s homes and coffee shops like Gravity Connect, a free coffee house and meeting place for Milwaukee’s creative and business communities.

Damiani heard about Grand Avenue’s “Creativity Works Here” and went to look at the space with no intention to sign a lease.

“We came down on a whim and were convinced by the space to move in and became one of the first organizations to sign,” she said. Art Milwaukee is now located on the ground floor of Grand Avenue’s Plankinton building

Why: Art Milwaukee is determined to bring a better image to the city. “I don’t want someone walking out of the Marriot that’s not from here and saying “Milwaukee sucks,” and I don’t want someone here saying “to be a part of an art scene, I have to move to New York,’” said Fojut, who says the reason he founded the company was to provide an art scene that didn’t exist before in Milwaukee.

TCD was there for ART Milwaukee’s 1st birthday, click here for our photo gallery of the event.

Video by Kenyatta Pugh.