A recent article in online news magazine LGBTQ Nation announced San Francisco’s opening of “America’s first LGBTQ arts center” in a building purchased by the city’s gay chorus for $9.6 million. Aside from the purchase details, it’s fake news. The Milwaukee Gay Arts Center (MGAC) was the first.
Dedicated to presenting LGBTQ relevant visual and performance art, the Walker’s Point storefront facility opened in spring of 2005 with an exhibit entitled “Tapestries.” It featured three Names Project quilt panels with names of Milwaukee AIDS victims along with works by several local artists.
New art shows followed in six-week cycles. They showcased local, regional and international artists of all persuasions, ages and genders who displayed their art in all media, from traditional works on canvas and sculpture to textiles and video. There were collaborations like “The Gay Youth Art” show with MPS Alliance School. Another, with the Lesbian Alliance, included Zanele Muholi, a then little known South Africa lesbian photographer. Today, her works hang in Cape Town’s new Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art and in renowned art institutions throughout the world. A discerning Milwaukeean recognized Muholi’s brilliance and wisely bought one of her photos.
Angels in America, Twilight of the Golds, and The Penetration Play were among MGAC’s earliest stage productions of contemporary LGBTQ theater. It made national news when the MPD Vice Squad illegally closed its staging of the musical Naked Boys Singing, an international hit. The ACLU took the case, suing the city that, six years later, settled for $20,000. Theatrical Tendencies, the city’s only LGBTQ theater, made MGAC its home and produced the critically acclaimed Thrill Me, The Little Dog Laughed and Corpus Christi.
Its stage also hosted Shaia Fahrid’s monthly “hafla” belly dance parties. She also founded the first and only gay-male Egyptian cabaret style belly dance troupe, MGAC’s Extreme Taqsim (aka the Extremes). Music from the Baroque to show tunes echoed in its marvelous acoustics. In its heyday, performers included Seattle-based duo (a trans man and his girlfriend) Coyote Grace, locals Matt Walton and Brian Firkus (pre-Trixi Mattel), men’s and women’s choruses, among dozens of others.
MGAC suffered its share of the usual indignities—eggings, harassing phone calls and, during the first Walker gubernatorial campaign, a rock smashed through one of its windows and posters in its foyer were torched. Undeterred, MGAC strove to integrate the LGBTQ community with audiences at large. It collaborated with the Milwaukee Art Museum, providing guest docents (myself and Dear Ruthie) for its special exhibition of British gay artist couple Gilbert & George. It fielded its own SSBL softball team, MGAC Scream, the league’s only non-profit sponsored team.
The MGAC stage became an annual PrideFest staple, presenting Shaia Fahrid’s Pride of Dancers, an international dance extravaganza, and a full spectrum of musicians, comedians, the first PrideFest performance by Richard Brasfield’s hip-hop dance group Revamped as well as Nomadic Limbs, a modern dance ensemble comprised of Milwaukee Ballet members. Meanwhile, MGAC Scream volunteers staffed a beer pod and artists exhibited in the Art & Culture Building.
Funding always remained an issue. An all-volunteer organization, it raised money through its admissions and support from philanthropist Joe Pabst, Cream City Foundation (CCF) seed money, art sale commissions and other creative fundraising (like eBay sales of donated vintage beefcake magazines). It was the first Milwaukee LGBTQ organization to receive a Milwaukee Arts Board grant. Still, despite its penny pinching finances, rent increases and unforeseen costs (inexplicably, the building’s laundry for its six apartments ran off MGAC’s electric system), sustaining the Center became more and more difficult. The then CCF executive director told me “my donors are business people, not artists.” In other words, supporting Milwaukee’s LGBTQ arts wasn’t worth the investment. When, in 2014, MGAC’s landlord announced a new tenant would pay 50% more rent, he added “I know you can’t pay that” and gave 30 days to vacate.
Still, for a decade, MGAC celebrated LGBTQ life and identity through art. It was a historic first for Milwaukee and the nation.
