On a visit to the Milwaukee Public Museum with my grandmother when I was 7 or 8, I recall being enchanted by an exhibit called the “Urban Habitat” which included a large mound of garbage as one of its central features (don’t judge—I was just a kid!). Located in a remote section of the museum, it often felt like my own secret space as I wound my way through it with friends or family over the years.
A few decades later, my career path led me to Discovery World, shortly after it opened on Milwaukee’s lakefront. Audra and I have two children—now 15 and 17—who quite literally grew up in and around the facility during my 11-year tenure. Birthdays and family parties; summer camp programs; concerts and movies; galas and grassroots fundraising events. All these formative experiences—and more—took place for my children and our family because of the visionary investment made by leaders in our community’s science and technology center.
Thousands of Milwaukee families can point to their favorite cultural amenity as the place that has brought enrichment into their lives. It could be watching peers and friends in a play, learning a new instrument (as my daughter did with the steel pan drum a few years back), getting dressed up to attend “The Nutcracker” or gaining skills in a hands-on art or science lab. Kids in our community have had their eyes opened to new experiences and even career opportunities through the arts.
As my own experience attests (that junk pile exhibit was removed from MPM in the late 1980s), the arts—like our overall community—represents a living, breathing entity that must continually adapt and evolve to remain vital and relevant. MPM will break ground in the coming months on a state-of-the-art facility, the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum is in search of a new site, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater is reimagining its home, and many other projects are in the queue or underway. These will be the places where future generations go for inspiration, inquiry, and plain old fun.
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The institutions—and their exhibits and experiences—change from one generation to the next. And that is as it should be, even for those of us with deep appreciation and a longing for what once was. The constant is that arts and culture provide a gateway to a brighter and stronger future for our kids, and we should celebrate that as a gift that every generation can embrace.
Visit: Greater Milwaukee Committee
Photo Credit: Erol Reyal
