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Milwaukee has a long tradition of parades, starting with the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, which first occurred before Wisconsin was a state in March 1843. This parade, honoring Milwaukee’s Catholic and Irish heritage, was conceived and led by Father Martin Kundig, the leader of the Catholic Church in Milwaukee. The current iteration of the holiday… Read More

This local recording label strongly impacted the history of early blues music in the 1920s. It was formed in 1917 by the New York Recording Laboratories—a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Chair Company located in Grafton. The label’s first recording, “Wedding of the Winds,” was released on June 29, 1917 and was followed by recordings for… Read More

Milwaukee has entertainment venues for everything from theater to live music. Their diversity creates an interesting architectural landscape. The German brewing industrialists established the first performance spaces in Milwaukee and would eventually help Milwaukee become “an important musical center for the Midwest” during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Stadt Theater, built in… Read More

Milwaukee’s first Polish Fest was a four-day event held in 1982 over Labor Day weekend on the city’s Summerfest grounds. Organized on a shoestring by Conrad Kaminski and Adrian Choinski but with the enthusiastic involvement of hundreds of volunteers, it and the 1983 Polish Fest that followed were enormous successes, attracting nearly 50,000 patrons each… Read More

Milwaukee has been a vibrant, distinctive center for popular music since the earliest years of the twentieth century. Styles widely popular with performers, listeners and dancers in Milwaukee changed with different eras, but live music remained essential to local cultural life—deriving from the gemütlichkeit principle of well-being through balanced work and recreation instilled by the… Read More

The powwow has a prominent role in Milwaukee’s cultural life through the Indian Summer Festival, founded in 1986. The contest powwows in the Indian Summer Festival take place over three days and bring in hundreds of Native Americans each year from across the country, as well as many non-native spectators. The term powwow likely comes… Read More

PrideFest Milwaukee is an annual summer festival celebrating local LGBT community and culture. It has roots in the Pride celebrations held in New York and elsewhere in June 1970 to mark the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Milwaukee’s earliest Pride event was held in January 1971 and included a small rally at the Milwaukee… Read More

In its broadest sense, public art is an expression in art of any kind existing in public space. This entry describes only standing works of art in the open air. All public art is meant to encourage community engagement. It can include non-objects such as dance and theater; however, those expressions, as well as pieces… Read More

Over forty public libraries have been established in the Milwaukee metropolitan region since 1878, when the Milwaukee Public Library first opened its doors. Early library development in the region took place during the American Public Library Movement, which swept across much of the United States, including Wisconsin, in the late 19th through the early 20th… Read More

The practice of dancing for amusement in Milwaukee dates back to the area’s pioneer days. By the 1840s, notices for formal dances appeared in local newspapers. These dances, promoted as “balls,” were held at hotels and often raised money for charitable purposes. Soon, a number of dance schools were operating in the city. These institutions… Read More

Noted Milwaukee artist Richard Lorenz was born in 1858 in Voigtstedt, Germany. He began to study art at a young age as a student of prominent German artist Theodor Hagen. In 1886, shortly after winning the Carl Alexander prize, Lorenz was hired by William Wehner to work for Wehner’s American Panorama Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.… Read More

The Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts was born in early 1994 when a five-person committee conducted a survey of approximately fifty performing arts groups to assess the needs of the community for an arts-oriented facility in Brookfield. Named after Sharon Wilson, an avid supporter of the arts who died of breast cancer in… Read More

The Skylight Music Theatre was founded in 1959 when TV program manager Sprague Vonier and public relations Agent Clair Richardson sought to replicate the cultural vibrancy of New York and San Francisco in Milwaukee by opening a beatnik coffee house in the empty building next to Richardson’s office. While at a fundraising event for a… Read More

Home to world famous theater couple Alfred Lunt and his wife Lynn Fontanne, Ten Chimneys earned National Historic Landmark status in the early 2000s. Lunt, a Milwaukee native, bought the site in Genesee Depot in the Town of Genesee in 1913 and began building the house a year later. The Lunts brought in famed theater… Read More

This experimental troupe was recognized for producing unique and unconventional plays. Formed by a group of theater faculty and students from the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MILWAUKEE in 1969, they first made waves with their production of The Measure’s Taken at the 1970 International Brecht Symposium. Their 1978 production of A Fierce Longing earned a prestigious Off-Broadway… Read More

The Walker’s Point Center for the Arts (WPCA), founded in 1987, welcomes both cutting-edge works and visual art focused the traditions of the neighborhood’s Latin American residents. The Center is situated on the city’s south side at 839 West 5th Street. It was the brainchild of a mother-son team—Steven and Phyllis P. Chicorel—who wished to… Read More

The Wisconsin Black Historical Society and Museum, located at 2620 West Center Street, is dedicated to preserving the heritage of Wisconsin’s African-American community. Founded in 1987, both the museum and its associated organization—the Wisconsin Black Historical Society—were formed by Clayborn Benson, III. Benson, an experienced video and photo-journalist, created the museum to gather together a… Read More

The Wisconsin Conservatory is among the nation’s oldest community-based arts schools. Founded by William Boeppler, Hugo Kaun, and Dr. Louis Frank in 1899, the institution provides music education to community members, both amateur and professional. While flourishing in the first half of the twentieth century, the conservatory suffered financial problems at mid-century, and again in… Read More

Wisconsin Visual Artists (WVA) was formed in 1900 as the Society of Milwaukee Artists. Originally organized by painters and sculptors, the membership came to include visual artists who worked in numerous media. After the formation of the group, the members began to meet in the basement of Milwaukee born-artist Louis Mayer. The Society included numerous… Read More

Woodland Pattern Book Center is Milwaukee’s hub for individuals who are passionate about non-mainstream poetry and literature. Founded by Karl Young, Karl Gartung, and Anne Kingsbury in 1979, it is located on 720 E. Locust Street in the city’s Riverwest neighborhood. It carries over 25,000 volumes, mostly works of avant-garde poetry from independent and small… Read More