Best of Milwaukee 2021
Arts & Entertainment
Art Gallery (Non-Museum)
Saint Kate-The Arts Hotel 139 E. Kilbourn Ave. saintkatearts.com
Since 2019, Saint Kate-The Arts Hotel, has offered music, theater and food from steak to pizza. But the galleries, one of them run by MOWA and the other by the hotel, are alone worth a visit. (Blaine Schultz)
Finalists: Dream Lab Var Gallery The Warehouse
Art Museum
Milwaukee Art Museum 700 N. Art Museum Drive mam.org
With an eclectic collection as its base, spanning the ancient world through the moderns, MAM continues to host increasingly ambitious programming with multi-media aspects and contemporary relevance for Milwaukee and the wider world. The soaring spikes of the museum’s Santiago Calatrava addition have become Milwaukee’s symbol—and you can’t beat that heated underground parking garage on cold days. The year opens with a timely exhibit by Vietnamese American photographer An-My Lê. (David Luhrssen)
Finalists: Grohmann Museum Haggerty Museum of Art Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum
Art & Craft Fair / Maker's Market
Milwaukee Makers Market MilwaukeeMakersMarket.com
The maker community in Milwaukee is thriving, and Ryan Laessig’s Milwaukee Makers Market is one of the reasons why. From crafts to artwork as well as local food, the experience of the regular markets goes far beyond your typical craft fair. Milwaukee Makers Market uplifts local small business with their events. (Allen Halas)
Finalists: Cream City Creatives The MKE Youth Collective Fair West Allis Farmers Market
Choral Group / Music Education
Kids From Wisconsin kidsfromwisconsin.org
The Kids from Wisconsin are an extremely talented group of singers, musicians, and dancers. Do yourself a favor and check out one of their suitable-for-all-ages shows. These 36 “kids” will blow your socks off with their high-energy renditions of classic tunes, Broadway hits, pop and country songs. (Susan Harpt Grimes)
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Finalists: Choral Group Bach Chamber Choir Bel Canto Chorus Master Singers of Milwaukee Finalists: Music Education Isharai Artist Management Milwaukee Jazz Institute Music Together North Shore
Church Festival
St. Gregory the Great Festival 3160 S. 63rd St.
This four-day late-summer event includes rides, children’s games, a raffle, fish fry, chicken dinner, an outdoor mass on Sunday and a raft of popular local cover bands. (Morton Shlabotnik)
Finalists: St Mark's Episcopal Church St. Dominic Catholic Parish St. John Vianney Catholic Parish St. Robert's Parish St. Roman Parish
Classical Music Ensemble
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) mso.org
Things may never look the same again for this flagship Milwaukee arts organization. The Bradley Symphony Center is the fully re-furnished Warner Theater, a grand artifact of the Art Deco period hidden away for decades like a great urban mystery. The venue now transports the MSO concert experience into an era of cultural splendor. This wholly befits an organization that, by its nature, mines a cultural treasure trove of the past, the classical music repertoire, while striving to attract an audience distracted by a myriad of 21st century entertainment possibilities. (Kevin Lynch)
Finalists: Bach Chamber Choir Frankly Music Present Music
Comedian
Charlie Berens
In December 2020, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled a limited-edition Charlie Berens bobblehead, an honor recognizing the mind behind “Manitowoc Minute” and other Wisconsin-themed comedy videos. (Morton Shlabotnik)
Finalists: Dana Ehrmann John McGivern Myron Jewel Ton Johnson William Krolowitz
Dance Company
Milwaukee Ballet milwaukeeballet.org
Milwaukee Ballet stands with the best in the country in quality and creativity. Able to safely train and perform for the past year, the dancers are in top form. The current “Season of Inspiration” continues with a new iteration of the career-enhancing choreographic competition, Genesis. PUSH (as in boundaries) follows with a world premiere by 2019 Genesis winner Aleix Mañé, another by in-demand choreographer Stephanie Martinez, and a revival of Alejandro Cerrudo’s unforgettable Extremely Close, performed by the company in 2012. The season will close with the long-awaited return of Michael Pink’s deeply felt story ballet, Beauty and the Beast. (John Schneider)
Finalists: Catey Ott Dance Collective Danceworks, Inc. Signature Dance Company
Local Radio Personality
Tarik Moody (88Nine Radio Milwaukee)
As the director of digital strategy and innovation for 88Nine Radio Milwaukee as well as an on-air personality, “The Architect” Tarik Moody has his eyes on the future at all times. His “Rhythm Lab Radio” show has become syndicated beyond Milwaukee, as he aims to redefine the urban sound. (Allen Halas)
Finalists: Bob & Brian Dori Zori Gene Mueller Mandy Scott
Local TV Personality / Stage Actor
John McGivern
Offstage, John McGivern is as nice a man as you will ever meet. Onstage, in any of his enormously popular one-man shows, he’s just as nice but funnier. His Milwaukee PBS series “Around the Corner” has earned Emmys as the actor/playwright chats with residents of a different Wisconsin town while historian John Gurda explores the town’s history. (John Schneider)
Finalists: Local TV Personality Mark Baden Steve Chamraz Ted Perry Toya Washington Finalists: Stage Actor Andrew Varela Lee Ernst Norman Moses
Milwaukee Author
John Gurda
What other author has done more to awaken Milwaukeeans to the unique history of our city? His book, The Making of Milwaukee, was transformed into an Emmy Award-winning PBS special that aired coast to coast. He continues to produce lavishly illustrated and solidly researched accounts, such as City Built on Water and Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods. (David Luhrssen)
Finalists: Britney Morgan Mikey Cody Apollo Steven Binko
Movie Theater
Oriental Theatre 2230 N. Farwell Ave. mkefilm.org
Among many of Milwaukee’s unique attractions is the handful of still-operating cinemas that date from Hollywood’s golden age. The Oriental is truly a movie palace with its eclectic Near East-Far East décor. The landmark underwent an expensive renovation before reopening last fall as a venue for indie and foreign films. (David Luhrssen)
|
|
Finalists: Avalon Atmospheric Theater Downer Theatre Marcus Majestic Cinema
Museum (Non-Art)
Milwaukee Public Museum 800 W. Wells St. mpm.edu
Milwaukee Public Museum collections contain more than four million specimens. Visit the turn-of-the-century Streets of Old Milwaukee, European Village and ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Or take a giant leap back more than 65 million years to The Third Planet and see one of the largest dinosaur skulls ever found. (Harry Cherkinian)
Finalists: Discovery World Harley-Davidson Museum Jewish Museum Milwaukee
Outdoor Festival
Summerfest 200 N. Harbor Drive summerfest.com
Milwaukee’s premier music festival and outdoor venue puts the “summer” in the festival setting. The internationally known—and renowned—music fest literally features every type of music and entertainment possible under the sun, the moon and the stars. In fact, that’s the best way to enjoy it. (Harry Cherkinian)
Finalists: Irish Fest MusiConnect Wisconsin State Fair
Radio Station
88Nine Radio Milwaukee radiomilwaukee.org
Few local radio stations have been able to make the strides in Milwaukee that 88Nine Radio Milwaukee has. While the station provides an eclectic mix of trendy music from around the world daily, the community-focused organization has also looked to showcase the diversity of the city with on-air and online programming. (Allen Halas)
Finalists: Jammin' 98.3 Milwaukee's NPR 89.7 WUWM-FM WMSE 91.7 FM
Stage Actress
Laura Gordon
Decades of perfect acting in town, in particular at the Rep, have endeared Laura Gordon to audiences and to her fellow theatre artists. She’s equally celebrated these days for her perfect directing, here and around the country. That she’s honored as best actress this year might just stem from her tour de force, pre-lockdown January 2020 performance as Winnie in Samuel Beckett’s play Happy Days at Renaissance Theaterworks. “With virtually non-stop monologues, Gordon gives a career defining performance,” wrote the Shepherd’s Russ Bickerstaff. “Her Winnie is so real, so three-dimensional we forget her physical entrapment in the mound of earth.” (John Schneider)
Finalists: Gabriella Ashlin Marcee Doherty-Elst Marti Gobel Laura Gray Carrie Hitchcock Sandra Hollander Mary MacDonald Kerr Isabelle Kralj Rana Roman Amber Smith Samantha Sostarich Jennifer Vosters Tami Workentin Anna Marie Zorn
Theater Company
Milwaukee Repertory Theater milwaukeerep.com
The Rep is recognized as a leading regional theater in the U.S. Its decade-long commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion onstage and off sets a very high standard. So does its commitment to new play development, which expanded during the pandemic. This season’s big productions are ahead: an adaptation of Shakespeare’s rom-com As You Like It featuring 20 Beatles’ songs; a new dramatization of Agatha Christie’s whodunit, Murder on the Orient Express; the giant Titanic The Musical; two commissioned world premieres by Dael Orlandersmith; musical tributes to Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland, and the genre-defying virtuosity of the Piano Men. (John Schneider)
Finalists: Next Act Theatre Renaissance Theaterworks Skylight Music Theatre
