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Literary art installation will be reimagined, Wisconsin Center CEO explains

Work from Guadalupe Solis Jr. was featured in the art installation at the Wisconsin Center.
Kimberly Blaeser
Work from Guadalupe Solis Jr. is featured in the art installation at the Wisconsin Center.

A beloved literary art installation at the Wisconsin Center will be reimagined instead of removed as part of the center’s $456 M expansion.

The exhibit, called “Portals and Writings Celebrating Wisconsin Authors,” showcases the works of 48 writers. Pushback from artists and elected officials prompted Wisconsin Center CEO Marty Brooks to reconsider.

Brooks says he wanted to remove the artwork to modernize the interior and achieve visual cohesion between buildings. But he and his team made those plans without notifying the public or Wisconsin Center District board members.

An extended conversation with Wisconsin Center CEO Marty Brooks.

In Brooks’ response to a letter from concerned board members, Brooks wrote that he appreciated “the need to absorb conflicting perspectives.”

"A number of members of the board expressed — more so the process than the decision — that they felt they would have liked to have been involved in knowing about this beforehand," says Brooks. "Had I anticipated the outcome of the decision would have gotten such attention, perhaps I would have provided communication a little earlier in the process."

Milwaukee Alderman Robert Bauman is a WCD board member. In April, he told WUWM that he's concerned about how the center is being operated.

"What's most troubling is there seems to be this sense that Mr. Brooks runs this like some private corporation," said Bauman. "But the reality is the Wisconsin Center District is a public entity. It receives and spends over $40 M in tax money. When you get that amount of tax money, you better be transparent and you better hold yourself accountable to the public."

Brooks describes his takeaway after reflecting on his initial decision to decommission the artwork.

"It changed my perspective in that there were individuals who felt a real connection to this art that I didn't take into consideration and didn't appreciate," he says.

Anne Kingsbury (left) and Kimberly Blaeser pose for photo at the Wisconsin Center's literary art installation.
Kimberly Blaeser
Anne Kingsbury (left) and Kimberly Blaeser pose for photo at the Wisconsin Center's literary art installation.

Retired UW-Milwaukee professor Kimberly Blaeser spoke against the exhibit's removal on Lake Effect last month. Blaeser said the absence of the installation is erasing a visual representation of Wisconsin’s history and art.

The exhibition includes works from indigenous authors and people of color. A passage written by Guadalupe Solis Jr. is displayed in the exhibit. It reads:

"He, the street, tells his story to me. Not rumors—Truth. I sit on the steps of our small house. Across the street, the houses are dead—windows boarded up with wood and memories no one wants."

Brooks says his initial decision to remove the artwork wasn’t about its quality or content. He says among the perspectives he’s heard, it’s the accusations of censorship that have bothered him the most.

"Accusing me of being influenced by the Republican National Convention coming to Milwaukee, and as a condition having to remove these," he says. "That I had an issue with Indigenous writers and was looking to negate 400 years of Wisconsin history — all which was giving me way too much credit for thinking of reasons why the art should come down when none of them was a factor as to why it should come down."

The artwork was installed in 1998 with guidance from the Woodland Pattern Book Center. The Wisconsin Center District is contributing up to $35,000 for Woodland Pattern to choose where to relocate the art installations inside the Wisconsin Center.

Eddie is a WUWM news reporter.
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