ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The Creative in Residence program is an immersion experience in cultural organizing, placemaking, and art intervention programming. Eleven local residents, artists, and organizers were selected to deliver their proposed initiatives in twelve neighborhoods throughout Milwaukee during the summer of 2019. The creatives shaped engagement experiences prompted by one of seven societal conversations: reentry, water, intergenerational, brain building, stories, fatherhood, and food access. The creatives received professional coaching from a team of project managers, artists, community outreach liaisons, researchers, content experts, and social media consultants.
PROGRAM PARTNERS
The Creative in Residence program is delivered by Still Waters Collective and funded by The Greater Milwaukee Foundation with support from the Milwaukee Arts Board. Both UW Bolz Center for Arts Administration and UW Extension will monitor the project for metrics and discoveries. Institutional and content partners include United Way, FoodWISE, Milwaukee Artists Resource Network, MKE<->LAX, Marquette’s CURTO, JustLeadershipUSA, MPS Black and Latino Male Achievement, Harbor District, Milwaukee Water Commons, Medical College of Wisconsin, Alice’s Garden, Victory Garden Initiative, Next Door Foundation, and ImagineMKE.
FUNDERS
PARTNERS
2019 CREATIVE IN RESIDENCE PROJECTS
Lower East Side
Theme: Brain Building
Creative: Unique Russ
Sound and song are basic elements for early childhood learning. Sound sessions teaching colors, shapes, and numbers to kids under five took place at the park and beach. While the children moved through stations to build their songs, parents received information on other brain building activities in everyday tasks.
Tippecanoe
Theme: Intergenerational
Creative: Kelly Wallschlaeger
Kelly partnered with the Milwaukee Public Library Tippecanoe Branch and created an interactive installation centered around the theme of generations. Titled “IntergenerationALL,” its goal was to move beyond generational divisions and stereotypes to highlight the truly important things that transcend age and unite us all as one humanity. The responses from the installation were compiled into a zine that was distributed at the library during a final celebration event, and it is now a permanent part of the library’s art rarities collection.
Washington Heights
Theme: Stories
Creatives: Kate Schwartz & Chad Piechocki
In building a story about place, this project captured recordings of park visitors and neighboring residents talking about Washington Park—what it’s been, what it is, and what it will be. Stories were then compiled into an audio narrative.
Garden Homes
Theme: Stories
Creative: Nikotris Perkins
This project travelled the stories of generational neighborhood roots. It began with a living room interview of a family with generational ties and porch conversations with other families about neighborhood stories, and culminated in a storytelling event staged in an alley.
Thurston Woods
Theme: Food
Creative: Monique Liston
Connecting food dignity with food access, this photography project explored the stories and journey of food choices, questioning how “healthy” food was defined for families. The culminating conversations and images were produced into several short videos that can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/thefoodcartographies/
Lindsay Park
Theme: Intergenerational
Creative: Tina Nixon
Porch Life invited neighborhood memories in a storytelling and spoken word open mic event staged on family porches.
Walkers Point & Jackson Park
Theme: Water
Creative: Dan Kirchen
This project aimed to educate, empower, and deputize neighborhood Water Stewards. Attendees to farmers’ markets participated in water experiments and activities and were invited to help stencil water drains and sewers with art and text. These stenciled marks reminded residents about water health, dumping, and conservation.
Muskego Way
Theme: Intergenerational
Creative: Evan Sandherr
Intergenerational mentorship and partnership is an invaluable resource, especially between artists. This project involved a series of conversations with intergenerational artists discussing work and sustainability and gathering suggestions for neighborhood resource needs.
Harambee
Theme: Fatherhood/Intergenerational
Creative: Kima Hamilton
Super Baby Daddies was a conversation about our socialization around non-custodial fathers. The project gathered fathers for an intergenerational conversation about non-custodial parenting and to trade resources and success strategies. The cornerstone panel discussion was recorded and edited into a podcast.
Metcalfe Park
Theme: Reentry
Creative: Radaya Ellis
The Plug initiative was created to identify and gather resources by, for, and between returning citizens. Listings included the typical large institutions as well as neighborhood-based individuals and smaller providers. Resources ranged from housing, health and job services, to haircuts, babysitters, and low-drama social outlets.
Avenues West
Theme: Stories
Creatives: Betty Salamun, Gabriella Cisneros, Cy
Turbulence was a multi-genre project—poetry, audio, film, projection, and dance—that captured language and audio from residents about life “turbulence,” filmed buildings with signs of turbulence, and edited the images and voices into a digital soundscore for choreography.
