Throughout the city’s history, women have shaped Milwaukee in ways seen and unseen.
This week, we'll hear from the Black women who shaped Milwaukee’s arts scene for a generation — many without the recognition locally that they’ve received nationally.
First up: Evelyn Patricia Terry. She’s a full-time professional visual artist, and a 2026 Nohl Fellowship recipient, whose work has been featured across the nation in museums and galleries.
Here's what Terry says about her journey as an artist in Milwaukee.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
On getting started
"I know when I first felt like I was an artist totally. I was in UWM, doing terribly in school, hated life and my mother told me to go to home economics because she wanted me to get a good job. She said you could get a job cooking somewhere in an institution, and I could get a job quicker if I had a degree in that.
So eventually I saw this class called ‘Related Art’ in the Curriculum in Home Economics. So I take this class and I'm just having a little ball in there not knowing this is art. I just said, ‘Oh, this is fun.’ The teacher at the end of the semester said, ‘I think you're an artist.’ And I said, ‘What is that? I gotta get a degree. I can't sit around and do art. I have to get a degree.’ So she said, ‘You can get a degree in drawing.’ I said, ‘Where?!’
She said, ‘Over there in Mitchell Hall.’ So I go [to Mitchell Hall] and the first thing I see is a man pulling a print off of a printing press. And I was like, whoa, that's so great, whatever that is you're doing. So I said, ‘Could I have one?’ And I didn't even talk back then. He looked at me and said, ‘I don't know you.’ And I said, 'Oh, maybe you have to know people to get that, you know.' Then I went down the hall and I could see people doing pottery, painting and drawing. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven."
On her process
"In the beginning, I had three things that I focused on: race, religion and relationships. I used the three Rs so that I could remember it, because at first I wanted to say race, religion and sex, but it didn’t flow. When I did religion, I did watermelons, red things and that was after the blood of Christ because I had been taught about Christ. So I drew watermelons from like 1981 to 1990. And I really wanted to keep doing them, but I'll draw things then all of a sudden my hand won't do it anymore. So I just stop and say, ‘Okay, that's over.’
One thing everybody told me was because I was Black and a woman, I wouldn't really have a chance in art, but all I knew is that I am going to have a chance because I wanted a chance and I have to do this. I always tell people the minute I start creating something, I feel amazing, happy and peaceful."
On Milwaukee’s Black arts scene
"What I would like to see for the future for Black artists and Black art in Milwaukee, I would say is freedom. This is what I want for Black artists and everybody.
I would love it if all people can find a way to express themselves freely without having to think about it. I love Black, I think it's amazing. But I think that all people are amazing, also if they have the same spirit that I have and they don't try to stab me in the back."
