Young Authors and Artists Celebration

Each fall, students in grades 3-12 from across the state of Wisconsin descend upon the Milwaukee Art Museum to participate in the Young Authors and Artists Conference. Young writers and artists use the Museum as inspiration for creating a narrative or artwork in this one-day, statewide conference. Through brainstorming, drafting, revising, and working with teachers and peers, they produce a compilation manuscript with artwork that is published!

The Museum hosts a book launch party at the Museum to celebrate each young author and artist of Southeastern Wisconsin. The Young Authors and Artists Conference is a sister program of this summer’s Wisconsin Writes, and both are held in collaboration with Kettle Moraine School District.

This spring over 650 young people, along with their parents, returned to the Museum to celebrate this success! Two examples of student’s work, inspired by the fiberglass installation Right After by Eva Hesse, found in gallery 22, are shared below.

Narrative by Isak K. – Grade 3, Atwater Elementary

One day I was on a field trip walking in the woods with my class. I saw a tree that I wanted to climb, so I started walking toward it. The tree was like what I would call a V-tree because it looks like a V. So I’m walking toward it and suddenly I hear an ssSSSsss sound, so I stop… I take one more step. SSsSsS. I look down to see a red and black snake scurrying away from my feet! Then my friend yelled, “Isak, we’re going!” Then I run back to my group. Then we went back to the bus. Once we got back to school, I said myself, “That was the best field trip ever!”

Drawing by Cynthia L. – Grade 8, Horning Middle School

If you have a student interested in this program or in the summer program, you can find more information on the Museum website.

-Laci Coppins, Coordinator of School Programs