The Mary L. Nohl Fund, among the largest funds created at the Foundation, invests in local arts education programs and projects. Since its inception in 2001, it has invested more than $7.8 million in the creative spirit and culture in Milwaukee. Below is a list of the latest visual arts projects and programs the Nohl Fund has supported:
Arts@Large: $20,000 to create a free community art lending program of MPS student-created art that will be produced in 10 artist residencies throughout the 2017/18 school year. Half of the art will be displayed at the participating schools and the other half will be displayed at the new Arts@Large Community Center and Gallery, which will open in summer 2018. The art will be available to check out, thereby creating increased access to art among the public.
UWM Foundation: $20,000 to expand arts programming based in the Kenilworth building so it becomes a year-round hub of arts and culture, with a focus on community engagement, particularly with a goal of drawing in underrepresented communities. Three UWM art and design faculty/staff will lead the programming and engage middle to high school students in in-depth, multi-session arts experiences, as well as offer workshops and short-term arts programs to youth and adults from throughout Milwaukee.
Radio Milwaukee: $15,000 in support of a visual art project that will produce two community murals – one on its Fifth Ward building and one on Penfield Children’s Center’s building at 27th and Wells streets. The murals will be based on the concept of “Are you listening?” with the goal of encouraging viewers to open their minds and embrace the richness of our community so to create a more inclusive city. Community participation will be woven into Radio Milwaukee’s June 24 block party.
Milwaukee Environmental Consortium: $12,000 for the Milwaukee Water Commons Water School. Through the initiative, the Milwaukee Water Commons partners with numerous community-based organizations to create community water leaders through instruction and art-based learning about water-related issues. Artist-in-residence Melanie Ariens will lead projects in conjunction with a number of community artists who will work at each site. Teams will develop project proposals through group meetings and field trips to local water resources and will engaged in summer artmaking sessions. The We Are Water event at Bradford Beach in August will bring together program participants and include public art displays, such as an illuminated art installation in the sand, along with other water-themed arts-inspired activities.
Port Washington Saukville Arts Council: $12,000 for the Studio 224 artist residency program. The grant specifically will support the work of two anchor mentoring artists, presenting artists and project-based artists in residence.
Sherman Park Community Association: $12,000 for Sherman Park Peace Posts, an art project where local artist Muneer Bauhauddeen will lead a community artmaking project during summer 2017 to create 16 peace posts. Youth, adults and law enforcement will participate in eight artmaking workshops where they will write vision statements related to self, family and community to be placed inside the posts. In tilemaking workshops, participants will press clay, chisel posts, apply glazes and ready the posts for firing. Installation will take place in September with assistance from Safe and Sound, the Seventh District police station and Pepp Nation.
TRUE Skool: $10,000 for a seven-week artist-in-residence program where 25 youth from its Urban Arts Program will work with artist James Tomasello to create community-based arts projects reflecting social relevant issues and related to the theme of “TRUE intergenerational perspectives.” Youth interns will participate in community service projects, attend entrepreneurial workshops to develop leadership skills, and develop art projects with partner organizations.
American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin Foundation: $10,000 for visual arts-based sessions at the 2017 Youth Social Justice Forum in November 2017 and the 2017/18 Public Art Student Alliance art-making sessions for high school students in the summer and during the school year. Programming includes printmaking, activism art and filmmaking via smartphones. Art-related sessions about bullying and incarceration will be added features new in 2017.
The Friendship Circle: $10,000 to help pair teenage volunteers with children and adults with special needs who together will engage in arts programming directed by artist Kari Slater. This year, arts activities will be integrated into Friends at Home, a program where teen volunteers visit participants’ homes to develop relationships, sometimes for the first time outside of family relationships. The nonprofit’s Walk for Friendship will incorporate both artmaking activities and display the work created in Friendship Circle sessions.
Milwaukee Art Museum: $8,000 for a collaboration with RedLine Milwaukee where 18 ArtXpress teen interns and 64 MPS elementary school students will be selected to participate with nine local artists and art educators, a resident artist, a arts education student from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and six guest mentors in the exploration and creation of artwork inspired by the Rashid Johnson “Hail Now We Sing Joy” exhibition in the summer of 2017. A mural based on social justice themes and student artwork will be displayed on a Milwaukee County bus for at least eight months.
SHARP Literacy: $6,000 for an eight-week summer artmaking project led by artist Sally Duback in collaboration with Neighborhood House. Eighty second and third graders will work in small teams to create eight to 10 totems, which will be unveiled at a community event in late August 2017.
In Tandem Theatre: $5,000 to continue its visual art exhibitions in its lobby gallery space by selecting five artists who will create interior murals that respond to the themes of the 2017/18 plays. This work will be exhibited during the runs of the shows and there will be openings in conjunction with the theatrical presentations to highlight each artist’s work.
Milwaukee County Historical Society: $5,000 in support of its “My Milwaukee – This Place Matters” exhibition. Between 300 and 350 K4-12 grade students from at least five Milwaukee schools will create artwork inspired by their exploration of Milwaukee’s history and resources in art-making sessions led by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee ArtsECO students and art teachers. Students will visit MCHS and/or tour Milwaukee’s neighborhoods for inspiration and the resulting artwork will be exhibited at MCHS during Milwaukee Museum Week in October 2017. The exhibition will tour to other sponsoring locations in the successive months.
Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts: $15,500 to support puppet-making artist residences in elementary schools and mural-making residencies in high schools as part of its ArtsReach initiative.
Artists Working in Education: $15,000 to expand its teen arts programming in Clarke Square, Harambee, Layton Boulevard West, Lindsay Heights and Washington Park by building upon its truck studio and artist-in-residence programs. It also will create a teen youth council to stimulate leadership development among teen constituents.
ArtWorks for Milwaukee: $15,000 to hire an artist in residence and high school interns for a community-based public art project at North 30th and Congress streets that will include a green stormwater control basin, community garden and public art.
Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee: $10,000 for its visual arts programming, which will include on-site Art in the Clubs sessions, workshops and field trips to community arts institutions like the Milwaukee Art Museum, Jewish Museum Milwaukee and Redline Milwaukee.
Express Yourself Milwaukee: $15,000 for its visual arts program, which will relocate to the Running Rebels building in Lindsay Heights.
First Stage Children’s Theater: $15,000 for two interactive visual arts projects in conjunction with its production of “Antarctica, WI.”
Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition: $15,000 for the 2018 Muslim Film Festival.
Casa Romero Renewal Center: $12,000 for its “Journeys Arts Program,” in which local artist, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee community arts program student interns and Casa Romero staff will lead art making sessions and provide hands-on visual arts experiences for urban youth that focus on relevant community issues.
Milwaukee Artist Resource Network: $12,000 for three MARNsalons, an artist residency that will include studio visits, workshops and round table discussions.
Latino Arts: $12,000 for its 2017-2018 visual arts season.
Neighborhood House of Milwaukee: $12,000 to sponsor an artist-in-residence program on site and at the Safe Place after-school program it operates at Story Elementary School.
Milwaukee Riverkeeper: $12,000 for Water Art Parade MKE, featuring teams of local artists, designers and engineers who will design and construct water crafts that will float down a 3.8 mile course of the Milwaukee River as part of the Harbor District’s Harbor Festival on Oct. 7.
Carroll University: $10,000 to support a residency program with Dutch artist Saskia de Rooy where Carroll’s students and faculty will create individual portraits in clay of more than 100 community members and students in non-art disciplines will develop narrative portraits of the same subjects. The work will become part of the university’s permanent collection.
Lotus Legal Clinic: $10,000 for Untold Stories, a program rooted in art and art therapy for survivors of gender-based violence and human trafficking. The work will serve as the basis of a new digital magazine.
Marquette University: $10,000 for two visual art programs, “Picasso Across Curriculum” and “Water Across Curriculum,” that will be presented to elementary and middle school students. Tours of the Global Water Center and Marquette’s Water Quality Center will be offered.
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design: $10,000 for an exhibition featuring the work of more than a dozen national and regional artists that will explore the power of empathy and the human potential to exercise it for good.
Milwaukee Public Theatre: $10,000 for the visual arts components an after-school program for high school students from Barack Obama School of Career and Technology Education.
Grand Avenue Club: $5,000 for an open studio program on Saturdays for members where they can work on a project of their choice under the guidance of an artist staff member. Two public art exhibitions will showcase the work created.
Cedarburg Art Museum & Society: $3,832 for its high school sketch program, which will collaborate with Gallery 224 of Port Washington and Concordia University and culminate in an exhibition that will showcase the work produced by teens in the program.
Ruach Inc.: $12,000 for Project Vital, a two-part community-based arts residency initiative focused on the Sherman Park neighborhood.
5Points Neighborhood Association: $10,000 to further the revitalization and transformation of the 5 Points Neighborhood through the creation of public art under the guidance of lead artist Evelyn Patricia Terry. Terry will work with residents to design and construct a composite public art piece, mural, art benches and banners to mark the neighborhood.
More than $330,000 invested into area visual arts programming>
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