Adam D.
Yelp
What a wonderful museum - it's so much bigger than it looks on the outside, and the campus that surrounds it is majestic and quintessential Milwaukee. I loved just about every aspect of this museum's collection and the exhibits, but the most memorable parts were the Kehinde Wiley painting (St. Dionysus), the furniture on view from the 20th and 21st century design, the Haitian art, and although European art is not what I get most excited about, the museum did an outstanding job of displaying the paintings, objects, and furniture. Over the past couple years as I've learned more about art and museums, I've started to pay more attention to lighting and how objects are displayed. The colors used on the walls perfectly highlighted the richness of the collection.
And the exhibitions on display were eclectic, timely, and alone worth the visit to the museum. In particular, I could have spent all day with the "On Site: Derrick Adams: Our Time Together" exhibit, learning about history and art together; the quilts of Pauline Parker (and in particular the quilt about Anita Hill); and "American Memory". Although many of the pieces in "American Memory" were impactful and thought-provoking, the photo, "Grand Entry - Fred Beebe's Rodeo - San Antonio, Texas. Jan. 25th, 1924" sucked the air out of the gallery. Eugene Omar Goldbeck's print of the KKK's drum and bugle corps was equally horrifying and mesmerizing. I think the museum's description of the scene perfectly describes why the photo is so important, "The image, in showing the KKK at the state-authorized family event, where the Klan banner was raised alongside the American flag, normalizes the KKK's presence and, by extension, its racist, terrorist activities."
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at this museum, and am thankful for the care and thought that was put into the environment, the collections, and the exhibitions on view.