A strong arts sector is crucial for a vibrant metro Milwaukee. In 2024, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and its donors invested more than $9.5 million in the arts — from local museums and dance companies to theater and public art projects — to add to the region’s vitality. Here are three recent examples:
Public art honors visionary developer of Milwaukee’s Halyard Park neighborhood
Milwaukee realtor and developer Beechie Brooks encountered his fair share of doubters when he sought to create a suburban-style subdivision for the Black middle class in Milwaukee. But his persistence paid off, and the naysayers were silenced when Halyard Park, an area spanning four city blocks and encompassing 44 homes, came to fruition. It changed the character of a neighborhood on the decline and set the standard for central city residential redevelopment.
His daughter and Foundation donor, Cassandra Brooks, and the Halyard Park Neighborhood Association Foundation are spearheading an effort to make sure his vision and the neighborhood’s history will forever be preserved. They are raising $125,000 to install a life-size bronze statue of Brooks at North Sixth and West Lloyd streets. It will face south toward the first house that he helped build. The Foundation was one of the project’s early supporters with a $50,000 grant, which the association has leveraged to encourage other contributions.
New ‘Wisconsin Wonder’ taking shape on Sixth Street
The largest cultural project in state history ranked among the top 10 funded projects by Foundation donors in 2024. Donors provided more than $716,000 in grants to the Milwaukee Public Museum’s “Wisconsin Wonders” campaign, which seeks to raise $250 million for a new, five-story, 200,000-square-foot building on Sixth Street and McKinley Avenue. Named the Nature & Culture Museum of Wisconsin, the building will replace the nonprofit’s current location, which was constructed in the early 1960s and has $100 million in deferred maintenance. It is set to open in 2027.
Foundation donors have given more than $4.5 million to the capital campaign since 2021.
Fellowship invests in local talent, elevates Milwaukee art scene on national stage
In the early 2000s, Milwaukee was hemorrhaging artistic talent. Support for artists, through the National Endowment for the Arts and other entities, had ceased. Many artists couldn’t sustain their work and were leaving town.
At the same time, one of Milwaukee’s well-known artists, Mary Nohl, died, leaving a $9.6 million bequest to the Foundation. Her creative spirit and the community’s need led the Foundation to use a portion of her gift to create the Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowships for Individual Artists, which provide unrestricted support to emerging and established visual artists.
Since 2003, 126 fellowships have been awarded to creatives ranging from painters to filmmakers, from recent college graduates to septuagenarians. The program also has provided 414 artists and 26 artist collectives with funds to exhibit their work on the national and international stage.