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Art Events Exhibitions

What’s Happening at the Milwaukee Art Museum: June 27-July 4

It’s another busy week at the Museum, with Gallery Talks, lectures, and the opening of a new exhibition. And don’t forget the Museum is open on Monday, July 4, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

On Tuesday, June 28, enjoy a Gallery Talk at 1:30 p.m. in The Emperor’s Private Paradise. There’s also a 30-minute Express Talk at noon on Thursday, June 30 for those looking for something different to do over the lunch hour.

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Art Events Exhibitions

What’s Happening at the Milwaukee Art Museum: June 13-June 19

Photo Courtesy of Front Room Photography

Welcome to the Summer of CHINA! This weekend marked the official opening of the Museum’s long-anticipated series of exhibitions celebrating 3,000 years of Chinese art and culture. If you haven’t seen it yet, make a point to stop in this week and experience these breathtaking objects.

The feature exhibition for the summer, The Emperor’s Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City is garnering much acclaim from the press. Check out with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Third Coast Digest, and the Business Journal had to say about it.

The Summer of CHINA includes a long list of programs, events, and lectures to complement the art, and a list of programming can be found here. We hope you will come and experience everything the Summer of CHINA has to offer.

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Art Exhibitions

“Summer of CHINA” Primer: Scholar’s Rocks

Zhan Wang, Artificial Rock No. 43, 2008 (detail). Stainless steel. Private collection. Photo by the author.

What do you think of when I say rocks? Probably not much of consequence. Rocks scattered on the ground, surrounded by grass and dirt. Perhaps lining a path somewhere. Maybe caught in your shoe. Rocks are not a huge part of daily American culture (unless, perhaps, you are a gardener).

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Behind the Scenes Education Exhibitions

How We’re Getting Ready for the “Summer of CHINA”

Zhan Wang, Artificial Rock No. 43, 2008. Stainless steel. Private collection. Image courtesy of the artist and Long March Space, Beijing. This work is in the “On Site: Zhan Wang” exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum this summer.

When one exhibition closes, another always opens.

While I’m bummed that Frank (are we allowed to be on a first-name basis after my exhibition Express Talks and school tours?) is leaving the Museum after May 15, I am so excited for the epic series of upcoming exhibitions included in the Summer of CHINA!

You might have heard about this endeavor: the Museum will have no less than five—five!—exhibitions that feature thousands of years of Chinese art, all in one place here at the Museum (you can read all about them in the press release). Right now, as I’m studying The Emperor’s Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City exhibition catalog, I thought I’d give you all a sneak peek as to some of the things that happen around here before an exhibition opens to the public. Warning: This post might exhaust you! We get pretty busy…

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Art Education Events Exhibitions

What’s Happening at the Milwaukee Art Museum: Feb 28-March 6

Illustration for Family Sundays: The Art of ArchitectureIt’s another busy week at the Museum, and it includes a free admission day! There’s plenty of art and activities for adults and kids alike—you don’t want to miss out.

This Thursday, March 3, is another Target Free First Thursday and your first opportunity to see the feature exhibition Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture for the 21st Century for free!

On Thursday evening, there is a lecture on Mrs. Olgivanna Lloyd Wright and her influence on her husband. The lecture begins at 6:15 p.m. in Lubar Auditorium and includes a screening of “A Girl is a Fellow Here: 100 Women Architects in the Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright.” It’s a great opportunity to learn more about life at Taliesin and the role women played in Wright’s work.

In addition, there is a Book Sale from March 3 through March 6 inside Windhover Hall; this is your chance to purchase books (and select items from the Museum Store!) at a discounted rate. Proceeds go to the Museum’s book acquisition fund.

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Art Events

Art and Lego

LEGO® model of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater (1934), co-developed and designed by architect Adam Reed Tucker. Available online from the Milwaukee Art Museum Store.

Tomorrow’s “MAM After Dark: Mr. Wright” will celebrate Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture for the 21st Century. There will be great music, tours of the exhibition, and a twenty by twenty foot Lego pit, hosted by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). I can’t contain my excitement!

I’ll be in there in the Lego pit, building Frank Lloyd Wright inspired buildings, happily looking up like a two-year-old at the larger-than-life Robert Therrien table and chairs in Windhover Hall.

In my Lego-mania, I discovered online that I’m not alone. Notably, in the fall of 2005 the Liverpool Museum’s Walker Art Gallery had an exhibition by The Little Artists (John Cake and Darren Neave) who built their own miniature exhibition of modern and contemporary art made out of Lego bricks.

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Art Events Exhibitions

What’s Happening at the Milwaukee Art Museum: Jan 17-Jan 23

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to everyone. The Museum is open today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the Kohl’s Art Generation Studio is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Kids 12 and under are free, so brave the elements and bring the whole family. (Don’t forget the heated, underground parking at the Museum!)

On Tuesday, January 18, Chief Educator Barbara Brown Lee will be giving a Gallery Talk on “The Lunatic Fringe” at 1:30 p.m.

This Friday, MAM After Dark returns with MAD HOT, a night filled with Salsa dancing, live music by Cache, a salsa tasting station, Bloody Mary’s courtesy of Jimmy Luv, and as always, DIY and Photobooth, plus food by Cafe Calatrava.

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Art Events Exhibitions

What’s Happening at the Milwaukee Art Museum: January 10–January 16

Taliesin, Spring Green, Wisconsin. Photo courtesy of Jim Steinhart, TravelPhotoBase.com

After a highly successful and much-raved-about run, European Design Since 1985 has closed, and now the Museum looks forward to its next feature exhibition, Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture for the 21st Century. Stay tuned here for more information about this extraordinary look at “America’s greatest architect.”

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Art Exhibitions

From the Collection: Claude Mellan’s “The Sudarium”

Claude Mellan, The Sudarium, 1649, printed ca. 1720 (detail). Engraving. Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of the Hockerman Charitable Trust. Photo by John R. Glembin
Claude Mellan, The Sudarium, 1649, printed ca. 1720. Engraving. Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of the Hockerman Charitable Trust. Photo by John R. Glembin

So your family members (or out-of-town friends, or in-laws, take your pick!) are in town for the holidays, presents have been opened, feasts eaten, and now you need to entertain them. Naturally, you bring them to the Museum, knowing that you’ll be able to impress them with the architecture, a work of art in and of itself. But you want to impress them in the galleries, too; you want to show them something so incredible that it’ll even stun the know-it-all of the group.

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Art Education Events Exhibitions

What’s Happening at the Milwaukee Art Museum: December 13-19

MAM After Dark: Euro Bash
MAM After Dark: Euro Bash
As winter unleashes its cold, there’s lots to warm up to at the Museum this week. And for families, don’t forget that kids under 12 are always free at the Museum!

The new exhibition Framing a Decade has opened to rave reviews and the newest acquisition by the Museum, a work by Ludwig Meidner, will be installed in the exhibition on Tuesday, so be sure to stop in this week and see just a small sampling of the over 3,000 prints and drawings that the Museum has acquired since 2001.