Adams Garden Park ARTS
Mission
Founded in 2025, Adams Garden Park Arts builds on the successful restoration of vacant property along the North Ave corridor to engage residents through art, culture, and nature. The Arts, Yard, House, Gallery Project transforms a vacant house into artist residences and studios, with a gallery for exhibits, classes, and gatherings. The surrounding yard promotes environmental awareness through native plants, birdwatching, and landscape design, while cultural programming explores storytelling and histories of artistic expressions during periods of migration, and immigration. Together, the project will serve as a vibrant hub for art, environmental stewardship, and cultural connection within the community.
Funding request details
Desired outcome will increase accessibility and sustainability of arts, nature, and culture for Black children in historically underserved communities.
- Increase accessibility to arts, nature and cultural programming. With a 45% poverty rate in our community, programs are free and walkable. Activities highlight art, culture, and nature as opportunities for employment.
- Create vibrant place based spaces: There are 50+ City owned vacant lots in BID32. We strongly endorse using vacant city properties to develop much-needed housing. However, vacant properties contribute to concerns for public safety. Vibrant active trusted spaces decrease public safety concerns. Increase feeling of belonging vs. isolation
- Increase engagement of Black youth and families: foster relationships with local youth, social media presence, expand partnerships with cultural organizations. Our team will focus on digital outreach, inclusive storytelling, and accessible experiences, driving community involvement and advancing arts and culture in disinvested neighborhoods.
- Strengthen networks with other place-bases arts, culture and youth organizations: Reducing isolation and increasing opportunities for collaboration by sharing data on audience demographics and satisfaction, creating an IMPACT calendar. This information will aid recruitment and innovation both immediately and in the long term.
- Ensure organizational stability: Our volunteers had significant impact in design and installations. It is critical that we transition to a compensated team for continuity. Kenge Adams, a Cultural Strategist, will contribute her expertise in curating, program design, and partnership development. Through exhibitions, youth-focused programs, and STEAM workshops, she will create accessible, educational, and empowering experiences. Her skills in securing funding, managing programming, and building partnerships ensure sustainability. Incorporating digital tools like 3D and VR, she will document community stories and elevate the park as a model for cultural preservation and neighborhood pride. We will engage an executive director to support Board leadership and advancement beyond this project.
Specific funding needs
Amount needed
$95,000
How gifts at different levels would be used
$50,000: Implements accessible, educational, and empowering experiences. Pilot program for 25-30 youth. Incorporates digital tools like 3D. Documents community stories. exhibitions, youth-focused programs, and STEAM workshops.
$20,000: Secures next site and develops site plan. Elevates the park as a model for cultural preservation and neighborhood pride.
$5,000: Engages social media , video productions with youth development group
$15,000: Provides honorariums for one youth development group, one community development group and two artists for celebration and art making
$5,000: Supports a volunteer and family day. Sowing good seeds! A planting day at the yard with sunflowers & birdwatching
Impact in action
Three children live next to a triangle shaped vacant lot that was filled with rubbish, overgrown with weeds and trash. They lived in a house without a backyard. They lived across the street of a busy commercial corridor. Over the course of a summer, a raised bed was installed in the triangle. A multi story high pansy was installed. They turned flips and stood on their heads in the beautiful triangle. No littering on their part. They planted seeds and watered. No fences...they came freely. One day an artist brought handcrafted bird houses- tables were pulled out. They painted and chatted about birds and picked colors. A couple adults that were walking, stopped and joined the tables and colored. One of the young ones went off to paint the raised veggie bed. They are all proudly wore adult sized Milwaukee Water Commons T-shirts. Yes, another conversation popped up about being good water stewards. (I have the cutest picture) Another artist installed a little free library -- books keep coming and going. A parent can be seen watching the children out of her window.
Now imagine this little story multiplied by 100. Caring artists making a beautiful and extraordinary space.
