The Milwaukee Art Museum is an art and architecture wonder. The sculptural Quadracci Pavilion greets visitors with its 90-foot-high glass ceiling and its impressive wingspan, which folds and unfolds two times each day. This 2001 addition connects to the War Memorial Center, designed by Gateway Arch architect Eero Saarinen. Inside this modern building, dating to 1957, visitors will find permanent and temporary exhibits, including American, European, and Haitian collections, as well as folk and self-taught artists. The Mrs. Harry L. Bradley Collection includes more than 40 works of art, including Kandinsky, Münter, and O’Keeffe. Current exhibits include Looking Forward: New Gifts of Art and Gertude & Friends: the Wisconsin Magic Realists.
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John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Located just north of Milwaukee, in Sheboygan, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center celebrates self-taught artists through exhibitions and commissioned pieces. The center’s eight galleries feature a wide selection of temporary exhibits, including Recent Acquisition: Roger Brown Study Collection, Sarah Rowe: Water Ledger, and Silvio Barile.
Art Preserve of the John Michael Kohler
This experimental space is an extension of the Kohler Arts Center, which opened its doors in 2021. The Art Preserve isn’t exactly a museum, nor is it a storage space. It’s a hybrid of the two, where the stored work is never hidden. So the art isn’t spaced as it is in a museum; it’s close together, like a school art show. The concrete and wood building, which was designed in response to the collection, is its own architectural marvel.
The Museum of Wisconsin Art’s collection consists of work from only one state: Wisconsin. The permanent collection includes work from more than 300 artists and spans 200 years. The temporary exhibits include everything from Frank Lloyd Wright: Modern Chair Design to Mack Bo Ross: Ancestral Layers. The museum regularly hosts gallery talks and art and wellness programs.
Art infuses every aspect of Saint Kate. Deborah Butterfield’s Big Piney, a bronze statue of a horse that looks as if it’s been made of sticks, greets visitors in the lobby. Saint Kate’s permanent collection features more than 120 works of art and can be viewed in the hotel’s public spaces. The temporary exhibitions change throughout the year and highlight local, regional, national, and international artists at every stage in their career. There is an artist-in-residence program for emerging artists. On Saturday nights, you can tour the collections with Anwar Floyd-Pruitt, the current artist-in-residence. Nightly live music makes Saint Kate a popular destination for local Milwaukee residents as well.
