Sculpture Milwaukee is a month away from wrapping up its second year of art installations along Wisconsin Avenue. This year, it was bracketed on one end by Robert Indiana’s iconic Love sculpture on the east and Ana Prvacka’s Stealing Shadows, Michelangelo to the west.
"Public art is all around us," says Sculpture Milwaukee project director Marilu Knode. "And I would hazard a guess that everything we see in our urban environment is designed by someone, so therefore everything is art in some ways."
Public sculpture is now a huge part of the art world, she says, with nearly every museum featuring an outdoor sculpture park. Knode says Sculpture Milwaukee takes pride in making the city streets a sculpture park for all residents and visitors of Milwaukee to partake in.
"This is really part of the educational role that we have, which is discussing the things that have been going on in the arts for the last 30, 40 years and bringing them to Milwaukee - and highlighting what exists here, too," Knode explains. "So I think it's a really great benefit and balance that we're trying to strike between really great, contemporary, global art, and then what's really unique to the City of Milwaukee."
The exhibition runs through Oct. 21, but planning is already underway for its third year, which will be installed next spring. Knode joins Lake Effect's Bonnie North in the studio to discuss the growth of Sculpture Milwaukee, and the lessons learned while curating such a project:
