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2026 Summer Arts Guide
Your guide to visual and performing arts this summer in Wisconsin.
Summer Arts Guide
The Shepherd Express presents your guide to arts and culture in Milwaukee this summer. From Shakespeare in the park to opera with pasta, contemporary galleries, grand exhibitions and makers markets, find something to enjoy every week with Milwaukee's growing creative economy.
Looking to add an event or exhibition? Contact our Web Coordinator via caroline@shepex.com
5 Points Art Gallery
Acacia Theatre Company
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Angel Street (Gaslight), June 12-28
"Our theme for the season is truth. And Angel Street (Gaslight) is a highly entertaining mystery-thriller that also is the source for the concept of ‘gaslighting.’ It dramatizes how persistent lying about a situation can lead people to believe those lies. How could we not do this show in a season on truth?" says Acacia’s Artistic Director Janet Peteson. Director Josh Scheibe adds, “I'm hoping the audience will feel just as tuned into the dread as the characters are." (David Luhrssen)
Alverno Art & Cultures Gallery
Bach Chamber Choir
Black Arts MKE
Boerner Botanical Gardens
Bombshell Theatre Co.
Boulevard Theatre
The Box Theatre Co.
Bronzeville Arts Ensemble
facebook.com/BronzevilleArtsEnsemble
Bronzeville Center for the Arts
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Above, Below, Within: Ciarra K. Walters, through Aug. 14 (Gallery 507)
Broom Street Theatre, Madison
Cabaret Milwaukee
Capital City Theatre, Madison
Carroll Players
Carthage College Theatre
carthage.edu/arts/experience-the-arts/theatre-dance-performances/
Catey Ott Dance Collective
Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist
- Wednesday concert series
Cedarburg Artists Guild
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The plein air festival has become a Cedarburg staple, bringing art across Downtown Cedarburg. This year the seven-day event runs from May 30 to June 6 and will dot the quaint town with a flurry of hard at work artists and curious art enthusiasts and passers-by. (Andreas Scocos)
Cedarburg Cultural Center
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Blueburg Café open mic, June 10
Cedarburg Performing Arts Center
Chant Claire Chamber Choir
Charles Allis Art Museum
Chazen Museum of Art (UW-Madison)
Choral Arts Society of Southeastern Wisconsin
Civic Music MKE
Coalition of Photographic Arts
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2026 Juried Exhibition: Sunshine, Lollipops & Rainbows, July 10-Aug 26 (Art*Bar)
The Constructivists
Concord Chamber Orchestra
DanceCircus
Danceworks Performance MKE
Door County Contemporary Art Fair
- June 4-7 (Peninsula School of Art, Fish Creek) — You could fly to Basel or Miami for their annual art fairs, but you’d probably have a better time—and save on plane fare—by driving to Door County this summer. The Second Annual Door County Contemporary Art Fair promises 20 booths from
Door Shakespeare
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Love’s Labour’s Lost, June 29-Aug. 21
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The Importance of Being Earnest, June 30-Aug. 22
Deploying words like a chessmaster, Oscar Wilde was a perceptive observer of his society and human foibles. He was fascinated by the gaps between appearance and reality, and his devastating wit is fully displayed in his most enduring play, The Importance of Being Earnest. (David Luhrssen)
Early Music Now
Ex Fabula
Falls Patio Players
Festival City Symphony
First Stage
Florentine Opera
- Pasta and Puccini, June 19-20 (La Lune)
- Al Fresco with Kathryn Henry, July 28 (house concert, Fox Point)
- Al Fresco with Zachary Nelson, Aug. 20 (house concert, Fox Point)
Forward Theater, Madison
Four Seasons Theatre, Madison
Frankly Music
Gallery 218
Germantown Performing Arts Center
Green Gallery
Greendale Community Theatre
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Mean Girls, TBD
Green Lake Festival of Music
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June 5-Aug. 6, Green Lake, Ripon and Oshkosh
Grohmann Museum
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Boots and Sand: The Marines of 29 Palms, through Aug. 23
Vietnam and Marine veteran Dennis Darmek was pleasantly surprised by the response to his camera when he visited the California base and “came away with some interesting photographs. My focus was the strength of diversity in today’s Marine Corps. This allowed me to get into areas normally off limits to outsiders.” (David Luhrssen)
Grove Gallery
Haggerty Museum of Art
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Defying Empire: Revolutionary Prints from Britain and America, through Aug. 1
Harley-Davidson Museum
- “Creating a Legend: Art & Engineering at Harley-Davidson,” through spring 2027
- “Ezy Ryders: History & Tradition, Heart & Soul,” through 2026 — Photographer Cate Dingley’s book Ezy Ryders focuses on New York City’s Black riding culture today. Images and text from her book have been chosen for the new exhibition at the Harley-Davidson Museum. All of Dingley’s photographs are in black and white. “There’s a sense of timelessness to them, black and white can be a very expressive medium,” curator Ann Sinfield says. (David Luhrssen)
H. F. Johnson Gallery of Art
Hover Craft
Hyperlocal MKE
Inspiration Studios Art Gallery
- Inspiration Studios Art Gallery
- inspirationstudiosgallery.com
- The Rogue Artists Exhibit: Artini with a Twist, June
- Regrets Only, June (Theatrical Tendencies)
- Exhibit by Denise, Penny, Jodi, July
- 2nd Annual One-Act Play Festival, July
- Visual Sounds Exhibit, August
- Morning Woods Merengue, August
- Schmitz & Giggles, August
- Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah, August (Lotus Theatre)
James May Gallery
Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts
- Free Improvisation, Saturdays
- Milwaukee Jazz Institute, Sundays
Jewish Museum Milwaukee
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48 Jews: Layers of Identity, through Sept. 6
“The plurality and complexity of modern Jewish identity is explored in this vivid portrait series by artist Abshalom Jac Lahav. Public images of Jewish cultural icons, ranging from historical to contemporary, are translated into paintings with shifting styles of representation. Considering the individual and cultural narratives they carry, identity is portrayed as evolving and layered,” says curator Molly Dubin. (David Luhrssen)
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
- Emily Endo: Estuary, through Aug. 16
- Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis: Rock Fade, through Aug. 30
- How Do You Throw a Brick Through the Window…, through Oct. 4
- Silvio Barile, through October
- Roger Brown Study Collection, through spring 2027
Joy Engine
- ArtBlaze, July 30 (McKinley Beach), Aug. 6 (South Shore Beach), Aug. 20 (McKinley Beach)
Kettle Moraine Playhouse
Kettle Moraine Symphony
Ko-Thi Dance Company
Lake Arts Project
Lake Country Playhouse
- Rainbow Fish: The Musical, June 11-21
- Disney’s Descendants: The Musical, July 23-Aug. 2
Latino Arts, Inc.
- Christie Tirado: Cosechando Historias, through June 5 — An exhibit of prints and installations by Christie Tirado, a University of Wisconsin MFA.
- The Big Idea XIII: De Colores, June 26-Aug. 19
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The Painted Path: A Guided Tour of Murals and Heritage, July 9
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Talavera Birdhouses, July 16
Lily Pad Gallery
- Liminal Worlds: France Jodoin’s Contemporary Romanticism, through June 7
- Ocean House Exhibition, through Sept. 8
Lion Performance Hall, Richfield
- The Milwaukee Damenchor with Heidi Hongsermeier, June 6
Lutheran A Capella Choir of Milwaukee
Lynden Sculpture Garden
- Warren King: Homecoming, June 20-Nov. 15
- Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group: The Reclamation, July 11
Marcus Performing Arts Center
- & Juliet, June 9-14
- Monty Python’s Spamalot, July 14-19 — In the ‘70s, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” was cult television on PBS, but by the ‘80s, the British comedy troupe were international stars and in the ‘00s, their distinctive brand of comedy was on Broadway. Mike Nichols’ Spamalot, his adaptation of the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail., won three Tonys (David Luhrssen)
- Jennifer Lynn and The Groove Revival Electric Eden, Aug. 13
- Madre Latina Peligrosa pero Divina de Josue Comedy, Aug. 15
Marquette University Theatre
marquette.presence.io/organization/Marquette-players-society
Marquette University Theatre
Master Singers of Milwaukee
Material Studios + Gallery
Memories Dinner Theatre
Menomonee Falls Symphony
MIAD Gallery at the Ave
Miller Art Museum, Sturgeon Bay
- Bill Reid: Bee-cause, Why Knot, June 27-Sept. 12
- Margaret Lockwood: Awakening Space, June 27-Sept. 12
Milwaukee Art Museum
- Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World is a Mystery, through July 19 — Gertrude Abercrombie (1909-1977) was a prominent Chicago surrealist, painting enigmatic landscapes and interiors lifted from dreams and oddly elongated bodies from a dark palette. Owls and broomsticks and doors opening to nowhere were motifs. She led a fascinating bohemian life. Dizzy Gillespie played at her wedding and thought her art was bebop visualized. (David Luhrssen)
- Currents 40: Widline Cadet, through Aug. 9
Milwaukee Ballet
Milwaukee Chamber Theater
Milwaukee Children's Choir
Milwaukee Festival Brass
Milwaukee Film
Milwaukee Fringe Festival
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design Gallery
Milwaukee Irish Arts
Milwaukee Jazz Orchestra
Milwaukee Makers Market
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Sunday (Celebrate Family), June 21 (American Family Field)
Milwaukee Musaik
Milwaukee Opera Theatre
Milwaukee Repertory Theater
- Georgie & Grace: A Love Story, through June 14 (Stackner Cabaret)
- And Then There Were None, through June 28 (Checota Powerhouse Theater) — Agatha Christie is claimed as the world’s bestselling author, and her very English murder mysteries continue to be adapted for screen and stage. She transformed one of her bestsellers into a play, And Then There Were None, about strangers invited to a remote island who find themselves being murdered, one by one. (David Luhrssen)
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
- Rachmaninoff & Saint-Saëns, June 5-6 — Camille Saint-Saëns is ranked with the great composers of the Romantic Age while the much younger Sergei Rachmaninoff was at the cusp of Modernism, yet both wrote profoundly romantic music. With Iván López Reynoso conducting, the MSO pairs Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3 (1880) with Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 (1907). Classical star Jinwoo Lee guests on violin. (David Luhrssen)
- Masur Conducts Missa Solemnis, June 13-14
Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra
Milwaukee Youth Theatre
MKE Black Theatre Festival
Museum of Wisconsin Art
- To Whom It May Concern: A Teen Perspective on Human Connection, through June 21
- Mary Jane Friend: Hooked, June 27-July 23
- The American Landscape: Beyond the Horizon, through July 19
- Tom Uttech: From the Permanent Collection, through Sept. 6 — Uttech, who grew up in Merrill, Wis., has long been painting his north woods surroundings. He studied at Milwaukee’s Layton School of Art, which closed in 1974, and earned an MFA from the University of Cincinnati in 1976. Except for a brief period in college where he experimented with what were then current trends in art, Uttech has always turned to the north woods for inspiration. (Michael Muckian)
- Vanessa German, through Dec. 31
MOWA | DTN (Saint Kate–The Arts Hotel)
- Tony Macias: Terra Firma, through June 14
- MOWA Contemporary Exhibition 2026, through Aug. 30
MOWA on the Lake (St. John's on the Lake)
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Sarah McRae: I Told the Moon About You, through Aug. 9
Next Act Theatre
Nō Studios
No Instructions Gallery
- Christopher Peterson: Paintings, June 19-July 31
- Fred Smith: Paintings, Aug. 7-Sept. 19
North Shore Academy of the Arts
Northern Sky Theater
- The Thing with Feathers, June 24-Aug. 29
- When Butter Churns to Gold, June 26-Aug. 28
- Something in the Water, June 29-Aug. 27
- Doc Heide, July 19 (concert, Gould Indoor)
Oak Creek Performing Arts and Education Center
Oconomowoc Arts Center
Optimist Theatre
- Merry Wives of Windsor: Falstaff’s Tale
- Richard III (Puppet Edition)
Outskirts Theatre
Over Our Head Players
Overture Center for the Arts, Madison
Peninsula Players
- Baggage, June 16-July 5
- The Mousetrap, July 8-July 26 — Agatha Christie is claimed as the world’s bestselling author, and her very English murder mysteries continue to be adapted for screen and stage. Her most enduring venture into playwrighting, The Mousetrap (1952), is by many estimates the world’s longest running play, sustained by its cast of disparate and a twist ending. (David Luhrssen)
- Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash, July 29-Aug. 16
- Moon Over Buffalo, Aug. 19-Sept. 6
Peninsula School of Art
- Door County Contemporary Art Fair, June 4-7
Philomusica Quartet
PianoArts
- Recitals, May 27-June 1
- Concertos with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, June 2
Pink Umbrella Theater
Portrait Society Gallery
- John Tyson: Silencio; Andrew Whitver: Only Queens;
- MC Winston: Future Collection, through June 12
- Khari Turner, June 26-Aug. 15
Present Music
- Nathalie Joachim, June 5 (Milwaukee Art Museum) — Present Music concludes its season with composer/flutist/vocalist Nathalie Joachim performing her Haitian-inspired work Ki moun ou ye. “The performance explores themes of ancestral connection and cultural memory through a blend of electronic and acoustic textures. The program, presented in collaboration with the museum's Haitian art collection, also includes works by Marcos Balter and Paul Wiancko,” says Eric Segnitz, PM’s co-artistic director. (David Luhrssen)
Prometheus Trio
Quasimondo Physical Theatre
Racine Art Museum
- Wisconsin Made, through July 4
- Cut It Out: Papercutting Traditions and Beyond, through Oct. 3
- Handmade Up North: Jewelry and Small Metals by Wisconsin Artists, through Oct. 3
- Tanya Crane: Embodied Histories, Exploring the Legacy of African Jewelry, through Jan. 9, 2027
Racine Symphony Orchestra
Racine Theatre Guild
- Dad’s Season Tickets, July 17-26 — West Allis’ Matt Zembrowski authored this comedy of family, folly and football. Crucial question: Which of Frank’s three daughters will inherit his treasured season tickets? The Kosinski sisters employ every trick in the playbook to reach the end zone. (Morton Shlabotnik)
Re:Craft and Relic
- Night Market, Aug. 22 (Franksville Craft Beer Garden)
Real Tinsel Gallery
- Footloose, June-August
- Sean Heiser: New Paintings, July 31-September
Sacra Nova Chorale
Saint Kate – The Arts Hotel
- Bobbi Meier: Invented Décor, through July 12 (The Space)
- Abigail Hedley: 31 Walnuts, through July 12 (The Vitrine)
- Galeh Penn: Phantoms, through July 12 (The Gallery)
- Dick Blau, Water, through July 12 (The Closet)
Sculpture Milwaukee
- Sculpture Milwaukee was founded in 2017 from an idea by local entrepreneur Steve Marcus and became an independent nonprofit in 2020. Sculpture Milwaukee has commissioned work to line Wisconsin Avenue from living artists, some with ties to our state. As much as possible, the sculptures are fabricated in Wisconsin in keeping with the Badger State’s machine-shop history. (David Luhrssen)
Seat of Our Pants Reader Theatre
Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts
- Wisconsin Philharmonic Orchestra, July 3
- Rockin’ Robins and Classic Car Show, July 10
- Kal Bergendahl Project, July 17
- Driveway Thriftdwelllers, July 24
- BD Greer and The Gents, July 31
- Jessica Meuninck-Ganger and Christiane Grauert: Wandering Folds, through Aug. 24 (Ploch Art Gallery)
Sheboygan Theater Company
Skylight Music Theatre
South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center
- Del Amitri, June 13 — The Scottish alt-rock band began recording in the ‘80s and scored a pair of hits in the ‘90s, “Nothing Ever Happens” and “Roll to Me.” Their most recent album, Fatal Mistakes, was released in 2021. (David Luhrssen)
Sunset Playhouse
- Sing Along with Sinatra featuring Johnny Rodgers, June 3-7
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Sleuth, June 4-21 — England’s Anthony Shaffer’s wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcocks Frenzy and the cult classic The Wicker Man. He earned a Tony for his 1970 play, Sleuth, a twisting tale of a murder mystery author plotting to commit murder. (David Luhrssen)
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Tapestry: Kerry Sings Carol King, June 16
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Legally Blonde: The Musical, July 16-Aug. 9
Theatre Gigante
Theatrical Tendencies
Third Avenue Playhouse, Sturgeon Bay
- Moonlight and Magnolias, June 3-21
- Red Herring, July 15-Aug. 9 — Film noir and the era it represents are the setting and references for Michael Hollinger’s comedy Red Herring. The place: big city America; the time: the McCarthy era. The humor is apparent in plot and casting: Joe McCarthy’s daughter is engaged to a Soviet spy and when a stiff is fished out of Boston harbor, the tough-talking detective is a dame. Hollinger twists the genre like a pretzel—a salty one. (David Luhrssen)
Thrasher Opera House, Green Lake
Tory Folliard Gallery
- Jan Serr: Intimate Interiors, June 6-July 11
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Summer in Wisconsin, July 17-Sept. 5
Underscore (inside Real Tinsel)
UW-Parkside Theatre
UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts
- UpStart: MFA Dance Concert, July 29 (Mitchell Hall Studio 254)
UWM Union Art Gallery
uwm.edu/studentinvolvement/arts-and-entertainment/union-art-gallery
UW-Whitewater Crossman Gallery
UW-Whitewater Young Auditorium
Var Gallery & Studios
Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum
- Sasha Kinens: Momenti, through July 26
- Summer Chamber Festival, Aug. 27-28, Aug. 30 — Villa Terrace is an Italian Renaissance-style home on a bluff above Lake Michigan. From the Great Hall in the center of the house, you can look at Lake Michigan, relax and spend an hour or so listening to wonderful music presented by Yaniv Dinur and musicians from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. (Kenneth Kapp)
Village Playhouse, Wauwatosa
Voices Found
Walker's Point Center for the Arts
West Allis Players
West Bend Theatre Company
West Performing Arts Center
Whitewater Arts Cultural Center
- Annual Fran Achen Juried Photography Exhibition, June 4-June 29
Wild Space Dance Company
Windfall Theatre
Wisconsin Classic Stage
- Ghosts, July 10, 11, 12 and 17, 18, 19 (Calvary Presbyterian Church Parking Lot) — “Ghosts still haunt the American family,” says director Josh Pohja. “In a time when families across Wisconsin are still being devastated by the fentanyl crisis, Ibsen’s exploration of inherited disease, hidden sins, and generational destruction feels devastatingly relevant.”(From Press Release)
Wisconsin Conservatory of Music
Wisconsin Craft
- Morning Glory Art Fair, May 30 (Marcus Center Performing Arts Center)
