Milwaukee Arts Board Invites Applications for Public Art Conservation and New Work Funds

The City of Milwaukee Arts Board recently released guidelines and applications for Public Art Conservation and New Work Funds. Guidelines and applications are available at milwaukee.gov/MAB. Requests for both funds were accepted starting Jan. 1, 2017. Conservation applications are due no later than Jan. 31, 2017. New Work applications are due Feb. 28, 2017.

Up to $15,000 is available for Public Art New Work in 2017. The Public Art Subcommittee seeks strategic partnerships with organizations, neighborhoods, and artists to commission new public art in the City of Milwaukee. The Arts Board is willing to consider large projects for which the board is a smaller catalytic funder, as well as smaller projects in which the board would be an equal partner. In 2016 the Arts Board awarded $11,000 to Marquette University’s Haggerty Museum for “Happiness Project: Under Construction; $7,000 to Friends of Hank Aaron State Trail for “The Milwaukee Road Monument; and $2,500 in support of “Temporary Resurfacing,” an outdoor multi video projection installation.

Concurrently, the Arts Board is launching its 12th cycle of funding devoted to conserving public art in the City of Milwaukee. The goal of the fund is to preserve that part of the city’s cultural and civic heritage embodied in its public art. The fund supports the conservation of works that are historically, culturally and aesthetically important to the city.

In this round, $5,000 will be available to conserve public art in the city. Grants will be made in increments of $1,000, with no single award greater than $5,000. Qualifying works must be fully accessible to the public. Most recently $5,000 was awarded to the Wisconsin Black Historical Society for repairs to the wall where a mural “The Gift” was later painted, and $4,436 to the Juneau Park Friends toward restoration of the Leif Erickson and Solomon Juneau statues in Juneau Park.

More information on public art in Milwaukee can be found at WikiProject Public Art Milwaukee, a Milwaukee Arts Board-funded project designed to share the city’s public art collection on Wikipedia.

To alert the Public Art Subcommittee to a piece of public art that requires conservation or to pose questions about the funding process, individuals may contact the Arts Board at artsboard@milwaukee.gov.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.