Jan Serr and John Shannon, Co-Owners of the Warehouse Art Museum

We – Jan Serr & John Shannon - want to turn things around, looking where we normally don’t look.  In a sense, we want to see the “arts” backwards.

It’s common when we talk about the arts in Milwaukee that we talk about actors on stage, musicians playing music, dancers padding across a Marley floor, or works of art hung in a gallery or museum. We talk about the artists – if we could generalize – and how well they performed, what the sets or gallery walls were like, what sounds were heard. 

Sometimes we’ll dig a little deeper and ask about the director, conductor, or curator; the lighting designer; the costumer; and others involved with a production.

We would like to turn the lights up and the camera around. Let’s talk about the audience, the Milwaukee audience.  Let’s talk about us and you.

As audience, we buy a ticket to a show or a membership to a museum. We care that much about what we do and where we go. We might even go further and make a donation to some thing or some institution that we love. 

Milwaukee audiences are supportive. We talk about our enthusiasm to others, sometimes in person or through social media.

In our shadowy post-covid world, audiences are more important than ever before. During covid, many venues closed or had reduced hours or programs. People didn’t go to events. We got out of the habit of going. Now people are returning, and hopefully new people will experience events live and in-person.

The best way to support the arts right now is to make a decision to go to events again, and bring a friend or two. 

Friends double the pleasure. Be a friend to your friends and at the same time a “friend” to theater, dance, music, the arts.

When you do this, you become a star, which is "arts" rearranged.

Visit: Warehouse Art Museum

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Photo Credit: Erol Reyal

Jan Serr and John Shannon