Photo by Tom Jenz
Kristen Hardy and John Russick
Kristen Hardy and John Russick
For the past three years, I've been tracking the ambitious plans to establish the Bronzeville Center for the Arts (BCA) at North Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive in the central city. The project, aiming to raise $55 million for construction, has faced a series of starts and stops. Progress has been intermittent.
Currently, the project is still in the planning phase. The proposed facility promises to feature a gallery showcasing Black art from Milwaukee and beyond, a versatile program space for youth activities, an artist-in-residence initiative, and areas for events and educational purposes. Leaders hope the BCA will serve as a community hub for Bronzeville residents and attract visitors from across the state and nation.
The vision of the BCA, as articulated on its website, is to “elevate the human capacity for creativity and knowledge, expand Bronzeville’s legacy as a vibrant artistic hub of the Midwest, and make art of the African diaspora a central focus in the cultural consciousness of present and future generations.” Through the new museum, the BCA aims to enhance Bronzeville’s reputation as a dynamic artistic center and ensure art from the African diaspora is accessible to all.
The project's first milestone has been achieved with the recent opening of Gallery 507, a small yet impactful space located at 507 West North Avenue, near the future site of the BCA Museum.
The BCA board, chaired by prominent Milwaukee attorney Kristen Hardy, recently appointed John Russick, a museum and cultural heritage professional, as managing director to steer this visionary initiative forward. I met them in the conference room at Gallery 507 to discuss the plans for the BCA.
Where did you grow up, and how did you get interested in cultural heritage and museums?
J.R: I grew up in Ottawa, Illinois, in the flat country. I loved nature and being outside. I went to college at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. In college, I had a part time job working in an art gallery. I earned my degree in history, but I have a minor in art history. After college, my first full time job was in a Chicago art gallery. Ultimately, those skills landed me my first museum job at the Chicago Field Museum. After a few years, I moved to Washington D.C. and worked at the Smithsonian and the National Museum of American History. After that, I went to grad school at the University of Texas, and then came back to Washington D.C, and worked at the Smithsonian and the National Museum of American History. Eventually, I moved to Chicago. For 24 years, I worked at the Chicago History Museum, part of that time as the senior vice president.
You are presently the managing director of the Bronzeville Center for the Arts, and you’ve been at this job a short time. What attracted you to the BCA?
J.R. This project is fascinating, and so is what’s happening in Bronzeville as the community expands. A lot of interest is going on in this neighborhood with preservation and infrastructure. The city and state and several agencies are behind the neighborhood-based initiative. I was also impressed with the BCA board members.
You are a white guy, but you are heading up a huge, Black-oriented arts facility. What are the challenges for you?
J.R.: The BCA eventually will have a diverse team. Our leadership positions will be filled by people of color who know the community well. Right now, my job is to organize around how to build the museum, and I have nearly 40 years of experience in museums.
Give me the shorthand version of your career background. From what I understand, it is quite impressive.
K.H.: I grew up in the metro Detroit area. I did my undergrad at Seton Hall in New Jersey. I was an athlete, a runner on the college track team. I went to law school at Marquette and graduated 10 years ago. After law school, I specialized in Insider Risks and Insider Threats where I investigated cyber sabotage. I eventually expanded that specialty as a corporate and compliance attorney practicing at several different corporations in metro Milwaukee.
How did you get interested in the BCA and the new building project? You are the chair of the BCA’s board of directors.
K.H.: I had recently closed on a home in the Bronzeville area, and instantly knew I wanted to get involved in the community. I’ve always believed in the importance of learning, preserving and celebrating our culture, art and our history, which are what museums are about. Through some of my other community involvement, I got a call asking if I wanted to join the BCA board, and I accepted the assignment at the end of 2021 during the early stages of planning.
What is the responsibility of the board of directors?
K.H.: First and foremost, we are all volunteers. We all have individual specialties and perspectives that we bring to the project. I’m not an architect or an artist or a museum expert. But I am good at organizational leadership, and that’s what I try to bring to the board. The board is responsible for setting the mission, exercising its fiduciary duties, and hiring high level staff. My role is to keep the ship moving and putting the right people in place, like our managing director John Russick, to make the BCA successful.
Could either one or you give me a brief history of the Bronzeville Center for the Arts, and how it got started?
K.H.: Our vice chair, Della Wells, well-known local and national artist, posts a lot of interesting facts and articles about the Milwaukee art community and about Bronzeville. Through her influence, people grew more interested in Bronzeville and the Black art scene. Della Wells’ influence created interest in building the BCA.
J.R.: The board of directors created the steps to build the new BCA. The first step was creating Gallery 507 where we are today. This gallery will be a showcase for Black art, a place for artists to gather, and a headquarters for planning the new museum.
As of about a year ago, the BCA’s building budget was $55 million for a 50,000-square-foot museum and events space. Is $55 million still the budget?
J.R.: The $55 million was the estimate for the construction of the new building. This full amount of money has not yet been raised. We will be starting a capital campaign to solidify an endowment to keep the museum running after it is built.
How much money has been raised so far to develop the BCA building?
J.R.: We have raised more than half of the proposed budget. An anonymous donor donated $25 million. We also have an additional $5 million that Governor Evers recently allocated from the state of Wisconsin. Total of $30 million.
Do you have enough money to start breaking ground on the new building?
J.R.: Not yet, but we have enough money to start the process and to engage the architects and designers.
Let’s discuss the future Bronzeville Center for the Arts, which, and I quote, “leaders hope will be a transformative community and arts center.” The plan is to construct the 50,000-square-foot building, which will replace a former Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources office on North Avenue and Milwaukee’s ML King Drive. How is that plan progressing?
J.R.: First, we already own the three-acre property on the corner of ML King Drive and North Avenue. Second, as I said, we have constructed this Gallery 507 building where we are now. We are beginning community engagement to spread awareness of how we are progressing. We are hiring staff and presently have two employees. For the proposed building, we still have to design the project and hire the staff.
Where does the $55 million in building funds come from? Government? Non-profits? Private donations?
J.R.: We already received nearly half the funds from the anonymous donor. We expect more private donations in the future. Our total budget might eventually exceed the building cost. We will need to raise significant additional money for an endowment to keep the BCA operating in the long term. These proposed funds will all be part of our capital campaign.
When will the capital campaign begin?
J.R.: We would like to start it next year, 2025.
What will be the purpose of the new BCA? What does it hope to accomplish?
K.H.: The purpose of the BCA will be to inspire, inform, and educate people. Hopefully, it will spawn new opportunities and careers in art. At its core, BCA acknowledges Bronzeville and
its history as the primary economic, educational and social cause for Black Milwaukeeans in the 1960s and 1970s. We hope to attract people from all over Milwaukee and the state and
elsewhere to be inspired and informed. We want to make art accessible for all, showcase artists, create interest in art, and continue educating everyone about African American arts’
rich history. There are also new buildings and businesses being built in this area, and we want to be a part of this expansion.
That is quite eloquent and an admirable goal. But let me add a caveat. I’ve spent some time here in the community and have developed observations about this primarily Black neighborhood where the BCA will be built. First, the beautiful Black Holocaust Museum is not doing too well. They still don’t have a full-time CEO. Most of their attendees consist of children on field trips. Anecdotally, when I tell suburban white people to visit the Black Holocaust Museum, they are reluctant because they think this neighborhood is too dangerous. In the future, you may be fighting that perception.
On the plus side, the huge ThriveOnKing complex, a block from here, will be finished soon and should bring in tourists and pedestrians because it offers business offices, childcare, the Medical College, the Versiti Blood Center, apartments, food courts, and recreation. Next door to that building will be the Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy currently under construction. These two attractions should really help the BCA gain visitors in the future.
K.H.: Yes, we admire the work of people like Kevin Newell, the builder of ThriveOnKing, and Cory Nettles, the investor behind Howard Fuller. Those are big flagship projects.
But think about the small businesses on MLK that are already bringing people into Bronzeville and providing residents like me with cool places to shop and eat. For instance, Pete’s Fruit
Market, Pilcrow Coffee, Pepperpot and Honeybee Sage all attract a lot of people.
Who are the architects? Last I heard, you are working with Isaac Menyoli of M&EArchitects and Peter Cook of HGA Design. And your representative is the Milwaukee-based Emem Group, meaning Deshea Agee and Michael Emem.
K.H.: Isaac Menyoli and his M&E Architects are not, at present, the architects, but the Emem Group is still our representative.
J.R.: Peter Cook and HGA Design are still part of our architectural group. But we are now building out the rest of the team. We won’t be making a public announcement until we have the contracts in order.
What exactly is Gallery 507, this artistic white house where we are now sitting at 507 North Avenue?
J.R.: Gallery 507 is the headquarters for the Bronzeville Center for the Arts. Gallery 507 will also hold community gatherings and an art gallery space to showcase artists.
K.H.: We will also have meetings here to decide what kind of arts programming is going to be attractive to people. Gallery 507 is kind of a launching pad for the future Bronzeville Center For The Arts.
For more on Bronzeville Center for the Arts, visit their website at bcamke.org.
