Milwaukee Art Museum Wisconsin

When we arrived in Milwaukee, from Davenport IA, we knew we didn’t have a whole lot of time for sightseeing. We were on staying a couple of nights. So the first thing we did was head to the waterfront and the Milwaukee Art Museum Wisconsin.

O’Donell Park, the location of the Art museum is filled with whimsical art, fountains, a fabulous bridge leading to the museum itself and other attractions. Sadly, by the time we arrived the museum was about to close, so we never got to enjoy the art. But we did thoroughly enjoy the incredible architecture and the fabulous waterfront.

The Milwaukee Art Museum Wisconsin is literally right on Lake Michigan! Milwaukee sits on Lake Michigan’s western shore. The city is known for breweries, many of which offer tours, but it was this artistic area by the lake that held us captivated.

History of Milwaukee Art Museum Wisconsin

Way back in 1888, Frederick Layton built an art gallery near Cathedral Square in Milwaukee. This spurred  other civic-minded individuals to form the Milwaukee Art Association, which later became the Milwaukee Art Institute. It wasn’t until many years later, in 1957, that the Layton Art Gallery moved the Layton collection, together with the Milwaukee Art Institute, into the Eero Saarinen–designed War Memorial Center. This was the beginning of the Milwaukee Art Center’s growth.

There was a building addition in 1975 by David Kahler that provided more gallery space for the expanding Collection. In 2001, architect Santiago Calatrava designed the Quadracci Pavilion, which not only provided what was now the Milwaukee Art Museum with greater public gathering space, but also provided the city of Milwaukee with a new, international icon.

1880s Milwaukee’s Artistic Growth

In the late 19th century, Milwaukee was a thriving port city with an industrial base that included meatpacking houses, tanneries, shipyards, brickyards, and breweries. A number of organizations formed in Milwaukee in the late 1970s to promote culture in the city. They presented art exhibitions and their goal was to establish an art gallery and formal art school.

Layton Art Gallery

Businessman Frederick Layton, established Milwaukee’s first permanent art gallery in 1888. Layton built a Greek Revival building on the corner of Mason and Jefferson Streets, designed by London architects W. J. and G. A. Audsley. Layton endowed the gallery with a $100,000 and thirty-eight paintings, many of which remain in the Museum Collection today.

Milwaukee Art Association + Milwaukee Art Institute

After forming in 1888, the Milwaukee Art Association moved into a building on Jefferson Street just north of the Layton Art Gallery in 1911, and became known as the Milwaukee Art Society. By 1914 it was nearly six hundred members strong. The Milwaukee Art Society began the annual Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors exhibition and offered free Saturday classes for children. Together with the Layton Art Collection, the Milwaukee Art Society worked tirelessly to bring fine art to the people of Milwaukee.

The 1920s + 1930s

Under the leadership of Charlotte Partridge, the Layton Art Gallery lent artworks, dedicated one of its galleries to Wisconsin art, formed the Layton School of Art and organized traveling exhibitions. While the Milwaukee Art Institute, on the other hand, became a haven for community arts groups and presented numerous avant-garde art exhibitions.

After World War II

Following World War II, the Milwaukee business community became interested in building a complex for art and music dedicated to Milwaukee servicemen. The Metropolitan Milwaukee War Memorial Corporation raised the funds and hired acclaimed architect Eero Saarinen. This resulted in the lakefront masterpiece of mid-twentieth-century design. The War Memorial Center was dedicated “To Honor the Dead by Serving the Living” on Veterans Day of 1957. At that point the Milwaukee Art Institute and Layton Art Gallery moved into their new quarters, and together became the Milwaukee Art Center.

A Growing Museum – 1960s-1980s

In the late 1960s, Mrs. Harry Lynde Bradley offered her entire collection of more than 600 modern works of art to the Museum. It was given with a challenge to the community to build an addition that would house her extensive collection and to that end she donated $1 million. In 1975 the challenge was met and the Kahler building opened with vastly enlarged galleries for the Museum.

In 1980, the Milwaukee Art Center changed its name to the Milwaukee Art Museum and, in 1983, it was accredited by the American Association of Museums.

The Brink of Change

The Museum celebrated its centennial in 1988 and developed plans for another expansion. Construction began on December 10, 1997, on the addition that Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava designed with an eye to carry the Museum into the next millennium. The bold Quadracci Pavilion opened in 2001 to rave reviews! The project included a grand hall, new exhibition galleries, and an auditorium, as well as a store and a café, bringing the total size of the Museum to 341,000 square feet.

Today

Currently the Milwaukee Art Museum is the largest art museum in the state of Wisconsin. It houses a Collection of more than 30,000 works and hosts an impressive lineup of internationally recognized exhibitions.

War Memorial Center

The War Memorial Center was completed in 1957. Designed by the Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen, the modernist building is shaped like a floating cross, with wings cantilevered from a central base. Time Magazine called it “one of the country’s finest examples of modern architecture put to work for civic purposes.”

Quadracci Pavilion

The Quadracci Pavilion is the iconic sculptural addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Highlights of the building, which was completed in 2001, are the gorgeous cathedral like space of Windhover Hall. Windhover Hall  has a vaulted 90-foot-high glass ceiling. And the Burke Brise Soleil, is a moveable sunscreen with a 217-foot wingspan that unfolds and folds twice daily. The Reiman Bridge is a pedestrian suspension bridge that connects the Museum to the city.

Cudahy Gardens

The Museum grounds, originally named O’Donell Park, were redesigned in conjunction with the Quadracci Pavilion. They feature a network of gardens, plazas, and fountains which were created by landscape architect Dan Kiley. His understated Cudahy Gardens use a grid of lawns divided by hedgerows and linear fountains to create a forecourt for the Milwaukee Museum of Art.

There was something about the architecture of the Quadracci Pavilion that reminded me of the Sydney Opera House in Australia. It was extraordinary!!!

A couple of the attractions we want to return to Milwaukee to explore: the Harley-Davidson Museum, where they display classic motorcycles, including one of Elvis Presley’s and the nearby Milwaukee Public Museum, with its large-scale European Village and a recreation of old Milwaukee. And, of course, we want to tour a couple of those breweries that Milwaukee is so famous for. When we return, we will definitely make sure that we arrive at the Milwaukee Art Museum with plenty of time to stroll through the galleries!