Sarah Davitt is Milwaukee’s first Public Artist in Residence, a position created by the city in 2023 to address civic challenges in Milwaukee with creative, artistic ideas.
Davitt is in the midst of designing an “Art Car,” a truck rescued from a municipal tow lot that will feature carvings of Milwaukee landmarks, traffic cones and messages about traffic safety. The “Art Car” is scheduled to debut this summer, popping up at locations around the Milwaukee area to spark discussions about reckless driving.
Davitt and the “Art Car” were featured in this month’s Milwaukee Magazine.
The idea for the "Art Car" came from Davitt's work with the Burning Man community, where artistic cars are how people get around. This experience planted the idea in her head that mobile problems, like reckless driving, need mobile solutions.
"So, I started with the idea of just covering this car in traffic cones and have later moved into carving the buildings of Milwaukee and the landmarks of Milwaukee onto these cones," says Davitt. "So, we have North Point Tower, we have the Basilica [of Saint Josaphat], we have the 'Bronze Fonz,'" explains Davitt.
The intent of the piece is to bring more awareness to the issue of reckless driving in the city in a new way. "You are driving a giant machine and that is a skill ... that requires awareness. It requires engagement. It requires attention."
Davitt has big plans for her piece this summer. "Hopefully, it will attend block parties, or even just kind of casual conversations, just parked down by the lake and will let people come to those conversations and engage with the piece and find all the Easter eggs and the secrets that I've been buried into the whole project."
_
