Inside Milwaukee’s First Bilingual Art Museum

After visiting art museums across the globe, Ernesto “Neto” Atkinson realized their large, cavernous spaces and smell reminded him of his time as a child working as a tour guide in the catacombs of Antigua, Guatemala.

That’s when the idea came to create The Catacombs of Neto Art Museum.

“I realized that the museum is a cemetery for art,” said Atkinson. “Art is dead, without anyone seeing it.”

The Catacombs of Neto Art Museum opened in October of 2024 in the lower level of  the Marshall Building, 207 E. Buffalo St.

This is the first bilingual art museum in Milwaukee, designed as a space for inclusion, conversation and connection, but not silence.

“Anybody can come here. Art is a language that speaks to all of us,” Atkinson said.

Atkinson grew up in Antigua, Guatemala, and lost his biological father when he was 7 years old.

“My first encounter with death was my father dying in my hands,” Atkinson said.

To help support his family after their loss, Atkinson sold his art on the streets and did other odd jobs. Art became a way to process his grief and survive poverty.

Atkinson began his professional artistic training at North Dakota State University and went on to complete a master’s degree in art therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

In Chicago, he met his wife and business partner, Jenny Urbanek, who is a yoga instructor, artist and art educator.

Atkinson also has a private art therapy practice, Integration Healing/ Alivio Integral. He says the museum is like an extension of that work.

Atkinson said he brings clients into the museum space to see healing in action. There he can show them examples of how he worked through a particular challenge through a piece of his artwork and encourage them to do something similar.

“He often brings clients over here. I don’t know how many a week, but it’s very often,” Urbanek said.

Atkinson’s art therapy clients are not the only ones who can receive mental health benefits while visiting the museum.

Urbanek recounts seeing people who may not usually feel comfortable around art finding meaning and confidence through talking with Atkinson.

“They’re usually old men who are kind of tough. By the end of the conversation, they’re both crying together,” Urbanek said.

“And they come back,” Atkinson added.

Atkinson’s vision for the future of The Catacombs of Neto Art Museum is focused on continued collaborations and long-term sustainability. Plans include yoga classes taught by Urbanek, Milwaukee Museum Days and Gallery Night MKE.

“My vision is that in a couple of years, (the museum) is not mine anymore. I want to give this to the community,” Atkinson said. “I want this to be for them.”

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

This article first appeared on Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.