Sculpture Milwaukee Brings Fine Art to the Bradley Symphony Center

David Lewellen

Tagged Under: Bradley Symphony Center, Partners

The Milwaukee Symphony and Sculpture Milwaukee have developed a symbiotic relationship.

Sculpture Milwaukee’s mission is to provide a rotating collection of outdoor art along Wisconsin Avenue and elsewhere downtown. And the Bradley Symphony Center’s glassed-in atrium, fronting directly on the sidewalk, is an ideal place to exhibit a sculpture that is too delicate to be exposed to the elements.

“This space is exceptional for our exhibits,” said John Riepenhoff, executive director and curator of Sculpture Milwaukee. “It’s viewable 24/7, there’s over 180 degrees of visibility from the outside, there’s natural light during the day and great lighting at night. And the cultural community of MSO patrons offers a great crossover of appreciation to the artwork we show.”

The symphony also enjoys the notice that artwork brings to an underused corner of its building. Communications Director Erin Kogler said, “It has been great to work with Sculpture Milwaukee to activate that space with art.” Sculpture Milwaukee even installed specially designed lighting to illuminate the artwork it places there.

The current exhibit of three works by Wisconsin artist Truman Lowe was installed in December and will be on view through early March. Lowe, a member of the Ho-Chunk nation, taught at UW-Madison for decades and advocated for Native American art. The three pieces in the Ellen & Joe Checota Gallery window, made from wood and leather, are Canoe Man, Plains Image, and Untitled. After the artwork leaves the Bradley Symphony Center, it will be part of an exhibit of Lowe’s work at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington.

Using traditional materials in new ways, Lowe drew attention to contemporary Native American culture. As the artist’s daughter Tonia explains in Sculpture Milwaukee’s online audio tour: “There are many different layers to Truman Lowe’s work, but there are perhaps two things that are most important to know: The first is that he is a minimalist. He excels at reducing ideas, concepts, experiences, or moments to their most fundamental and often their most elegant and aesthetically beautiful essence. The second is that he is truly of The Woodlands. He grew up at the Indian Mission near Black River Falls, Wisconsin, immersed in his Ho-Chunk culture. He is skilled in many media, but his unique use of wood is unmatched.”

“The partnership with the MSO is essential to us,” Riepenhoff said, along with other institutions such as the Milwaukee Art Museum, Marquette University’s Haggerty Museum, and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan.

What goes into putting a particular sculpture in a particular place? “It’s a dance,” Riepenhoff said. “Does a piece need a sense of calm? Can it stand up to the glass and steel of a building, or does it need space? What do the artist and property owners think?” Many of those factors will go into deciding what the next piece in the Gallery will be.

But engineering and logistics, as well as aesthetics, are also important. Sculpture Milwaukee works with Vanguard Sculpture Services to clean and maintain outdoor works, and they have a growing list of outdoor sites that they have used to host a wide range of art.

Since its founding in 2017, Sculpture Milwaukee has exhibited 150 works, including the 42 currently on exhibit, of which more than 80% are new commissions. “We’re excited to share our passion for and connection to the contemporary art world with the MSO community,” Riepenhoff said — an arts organization with no gate or admission charge that provides a constantly changing collection of public sculpture. New exhibits draw visitors from the art capitals of the world — as well as Chicago, Madison, and small towns in Wisconsin. And if a newly commissioned work is sold, or exhibited in another city, that also spreads the impact of Milwaukee’s art scene.

With at least one piece of art per block along Wisconsin Avenue from the lakefront to the Baird Center, Sculpture Milwaukee offers “a touchpoint of welcome to the public,” Riepenhoff said. “It’s a chance to pause and appreciate the beauty of what it means to be in Milwaukee.”