The Milwaukee Vortex, DIY culture, & The Power of “Yes, and...”
- Elisabeth Gasparka
- Apr 22, 2024
- 1 min read
In this special episode of Creative MKE, we’re sharing conversations from a special event Imagine MKE hosted at Washington Park Media Center earlier this year. The event was a gathering of arts, culture and creative industry leaders brought together to discuss the strengths and opportunities of Milwaukee’s creative culture. In the discussion, guests touch on: the waterways, walkability and park system in Milwaukee, the ease of DIY creation and collaborations and the simultaneous challenge of scarcity mindsets, and the magnetic power (or sports franchise potential?) of the “the Milwaukee Vortex.”
This conversation features Linda Edelstein, Chief Executive Officer of Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra; Kim Miller, artist and the chair of MIAD’s fine Art Dept.; Darius Smith, Program Director, Gener8tor Art, also an artist, mental health advocate; Kantara Souffrant, Curator of Community Dialogue, Milwaukee Art Museum; Maureen Ragalie, Managing Director of Gener8tor Art; Jason Yi, professor at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, artist and gallerist at Hawthorn Contemporary; Xela Garcia, Executive Director of Walkers Point Center for the Arts, also an artist and writer; and Joe Poeschl, Director of Engagement at Milwaukee Tech Hub Coalition.
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Full Interview Transcript (Click to Expand):
Note: the following podcast dialogue has been auto-transcribed, and accordingly, may contain some minor spelling or formatting errors.
Joe Poeschl:
Even though I grew up in Milwaukee and went to school in Milwaukee, I lived in a couple of cities afterwards. Minneapolis, Boulder, Colorado. I was in Hamburg, Germany for a while. I came back here and this place was, as I described it, not done those other communities. You come with a new idea. You say, I want to, I wanna try this, I wanna build this. And people would often be like, oh yeah, they're, they're doing that over there. That's already been tried a couple years ago. It didn't really work out or it did here it was that yes and mentality. It was like, let's go ahead and do that. Let me connect you with somebody else. Like that was, there was that support and that welcoming that pulled me in. That was love.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Welcome to Creative MKE, a podcast production from Imagine MKE. I'm your host, Elisabeth Gasparka. Each episode, we feature conversations with arts leaders in Milwaukee and beyond, who are impacting Milwaukee's arts culture, and creative industries. We explore the cultural assets that make our community so special, and opportunities to help Milwaukee become a more vibrant city for all. Join us as we delve into topics, including the urgent need for funding for the arts in Wisconsin and Milwaukee. How arts organizations and creative entrepreneurs are fueling our economy, public art projects, and much more. In this special episode of Creative MKE, Imagine MKE is proud to present Milwaukee Arts Leader conversations. The event was held at Washington Park Media Center back in January. The purpose of the event was to convene figures from across the arts and culture sector in order to reflect on Milwaukee at this moment in time and articulate the strengths and opportunities they see within our arts culture and creative industries. In attendance, we had representatives from large and small arts organizations, artists, gallerists, teachers, as well as civic leaders. The result was a truly special event, the kind of event with a lot of hugging where relationships were genuinely deepened and new relationships were sparked. The format was as follows. Attendees enjoyed snacks, beverages, and networking within the Washington Park Media Center ideation room, a space with a giant whiteboard wall on which we had scrawled a few conversation prompts in the background. We had a sneak peek of footage from Imagine MKE's 2024 Milwaukee Day video. And as folks mingled, Sara and I selected groups of guests to pull together for peer-to-peer interviews. Next, we ushered them into what's called the blanket fort, where Westhead built out a fabulous set with couches, chairs, and unique artistic touches, including a backdrop by the artist Christina Lander, perhaps most well-known locally for her iconic black and white mural behind the stage at Cactus Club. Once in the blanket fort, our guests would introduce themselves and then draw from a glowing bowl of prompts. No, really, the bowl actually did glow. The prompts included questions like, what is Milwaukee's greatest cultural asset? And discuss the Milwaukee vortex. The conversations were expansive, specific, often funny, and really helped us at imagine MKE to form a much more nuanced understanding of the synchronicity within the concerns, experiences, hopes, and values held by leaders within the arts and culture space. Anyway, throughout these conversations, you will hear my voice chiming in from time to time from the sidelines as we captured these peer-to-peer interviews unfolding. Please note that the audio does get a little warbly at moments as voices within the space were competing at times. I hope you'll enjoy the first portion of these conversations featuring leaders from Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, generator Art, and the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Linda Edelstein:
I am Linda Edelstein. I'm the Chief Executive Officer of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Kim Miller:
Hi, I'm Kim Miller. I'm an artist and also the chair of MIAD's Fine Art Department.
Darius Smith:
My name is Dar Smith. I am the program director for Gener8tor Art at Sherman Phoenix, and I am also an artist and a mental health advocate.
Kantara Souffrant:
I'm Kantara Souffrant and I am the curator of Community Dialogue at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Does anyone feel a desire to pull a prompt?
Various Speakers:
Yeah, let's all grab one. Alright, I'll go for it. I'll go for it.
Kantara Souffrant:
Ooh, Ooh. I liked this one actually. Easy to answer. What cultural asset make us special? I feel like I can answer this as someone who's not from Milwaukee and then left Milwaukee and came back. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. I have to say I missed Lake Michigan and the rivers and like the, the access to them because I, I lived in other areas in the Midwest, Illinois, Ohio, and it felt like access to that body of water was so dependent on class, which is sometimes similar in Milwaukee too. But I felt like whatever neighborhood I was in, whether I'm in Ronay or Bronzeville or downtown, like I felt like I always knew where the, the nearest body of water was. And I, I really do feel like water is healing and I, I truly miss that in Milwaukee. So I think that's to our benefit, the waterways and all the ways that we try to activate the waterways and get people access to water in our park system. Oh, definitely. Yeah.
Darius Smith:
But I would just say the walkability of Milwaukee. I, I think as Wisconsinites, I think we take for granted that the city of Milwaukee is very walkable. I think more people should probably walk because if you are able to walk, you can go through different communities and get like different fields of how certain communities are shaped. And I didn't realize this for myself until start bringing folks into the city of Milwaukee, but I know a lot of history about Milwaukee and it's a proudful thing to actually know about like a hundred years ago what was here, all these different things just to see like the evolution of the city growing and growing and growing. So I would just say I think it's the outside of the walkability, it's the growth of the city. I think we can actively see this city growing in a variety of different ways. If it's broke funding, new things being built, just different things that's going on in the city different from larger cities that's like, they're at their point where they can't grow anymore. But with Milwaukee seems like it's a active thing that is constantly growing. So it's the growth and the walkability of the city. Hmm.
Linda Edelstein:
I agree. I think the other, some of the other really great assets of the city include the investment in art, in public art that I've seen. Having grown up here, I see a, a very different attention to art murals sculpture design elements that we had never seen before. And in the last few years, we've really seen a huge influx of intentional use of art making our neighborhoods Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> and making the, the downtown space, but especially out in the neighborhoods, a place where people can find their voice and express themselves through the visual art as well as sculpture. And we start to see more music on the streets. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And that is making such a vibrancy in the city. There's a liveliness here. Yeah. Today that I think is a huge asset. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>.
Kim Miller:
And I think building on that, maybe in the reverse order, I think our size can be to an advantage in, especially at the community level, whatever that could mean. People are willing to do stuff and willing to do stuff, not necessarily just for money or status, but it's this kind of do it yourself spirit except that we're willing to pitch in and do a project together, be here together and work on things for the purpose of working together. And I think there's this kind of intangible community spirit that of course is not always present in the ways we want it to, but I think in the arts in particular, you can find that. And for me that's really generative. Yeah.
Kantara Souffrant:
When I was living outside of Milwaukee and people would say, oh, well what do you miss about Milwaukee? Or like, describe it. I would say something about the size rules that I felt like if I needed to connect with someone or needed to know who was doing what, it's sort of easy to like figure out or get to know them. Like there's always, people call it small walkie. And I do feel like what you're saying is very true. Like you can connect to whomever you wanna connect to, to work on a project or build out an idea
Kim Miller:
And people are sort of willing to Yeah. Like do build those connections in a more organic way without necessarily like let's say in New York, there's a very careerist Yeah. What's in it for me approach? Where here I think we just have the spirit of collaboration.
Kantara Souffrant:
I was gonna say, I do sometimes feel like we get a little territorial Oh, without a doubt. Which can limit we, which can be a hindrance to our growth and our work, but I think that sometimes it starts really beautifully. Yeah.
Kim Miller:
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. And I think that is something I hear people call like fighting work with the crop <laugh>, you know, so sometimes we have a sort of scarcity mindset, which I think is not to our advantage, and like really encouraging us all to try to think in a more expansive, generative community minded way when we're starting to feel like, what about me? Yeah.
Linda Edelstein:
And I think that, you know, in the, in the community we're, several of us are involved in various educational endeavors and the opportunity for us to watch whether we're working with young, young adults or in our case, young children through young adults, and seeing how the work that we do generates their, not only their love and their, their desire to be creative and to nurture them into becoming the best that they can be, but then watching them become community leaders. And we see throughout the community, so many of the young people that have come through the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra and are now leading, whether they're artists or they're lawyers or doctors or running major corporations, they've had a connection to the arts. And sometimes it was visual arts, and sometimes it was the musical arts. But watching how that attention to teaching the art and giving young people the opportunity, in our case ensemble work, how they learn together to be the best that they can be, how they can learn about teamwork and cooperation is, is the way that they then become great citizens and great community members.
Kim Miller:
Can I selfishly ask you all a question, <laugh>? Can I take control? Yeah. That's well, since we're all working in the arts in different ways, something I'm sure we're all challenged with is like measuring our success or defining success. And I think the question I often think about is like, what is the value of the arts, performing arts, visual arts network building? And I wonder if you all have thoughts on that based on Milwaukee versus somewhere else, or if that leads in a productive direction.
Linda Edelstein:
Well, I can tell you in our case at Misa, we actually have quantitative research. We actually did six years worth of research on the involvement of participating in ensemble music and its development of social, emotional and cognitive skills. And what we've found is that unlike all the other disciplines, and there's a ton of other arts research about this, because the discipline of actually playing an instrument connects both hemispheres of the brain that there is enormous capacity to grow young people, even in a nine month period in their social, emotional and cognitive skills. So there's a lot of research about what is the benefit. And we're in the process right now of working with Marquette to research our work in positive youth development. We're working with Strive 365 on mental health. And because we know that if we give our young people the chance to express themselves, whether it's through visual art or performance art or spoken word or music or theater arts, they will find a way to express that which they need to express in the way they need to express it. So I think there's enormous value in what we do, but you know, my own personal experience as a professional musician taught me that as well. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. So I think there's huge benefit to that, and there's huge benefit to have documented research for, for individuals that need something a little more concrete than the anecdotal and testimonial stories that we all know from our own experience.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
In this second portion of the conversation, we brought together leaders from Hawthorne Contemporary Art Gallery, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design Walker's Point Center for the Arts, generator Art, and Milwaukee Tech Hub. Once again, you will hear them responding to the conversation prompts selected at random from the Glowing Bowl. Enjoy.
Xela Garcia:
Hello. my name is Xela Garcia. I am a artist, writer and serve as executive director at Walker's Point Center for the Arts.
Maureen Ragalie:
And, hi, I'm Maureen Ragalie. I'm the managing director of Gener8tor Art.
Jason Yi:
And I'm Jason, Jason Yi and I teach at MIAD, I'm a teacher of professor at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and visual artist. And also I run a gallery in Milwaukee called Hawthorne Contemporary.
Joe Poeschl:
Can you all know one another? You're all like, introducing yourselves to me. I'm like, <laugh>, how are you? I'm the oddball out. Got it. I'm Joe Poeschl and I have interestingly connective tissue with, with everyone. I lived down in Bayview and work at Walker's Point all the time, and I love the, the art center over there generator. I background in entrepreneurship, innovation and run used to run the commons. And so we would help students and professionals kind of get into that innovation and creativity space. And I am a, a pseudo MIAD alumni. Yeah, I did the Marquette MIAD thing, so I was officially at Marquette setting advertising, but I was at my doing design thing, but now I'm the director of engagement over at the Milwaukee Tech Hub Coalition. <Inaudible> barely did it. Yes. That is not public news. Yeah. That, that just happened. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. No, we'll just go with no, yeah, no. At the end of the month is when we'll actually announce that, but
Jason Yi:
Formerly known as,
Joe Poeschl:
Yeah. I'm gonna start going by Simple.
Kantara Souffrant:
Shall we rate 'em and then select which one we won't like? All right. So mine is, what message do you have for any creatives who are considering moving back to Milwaukee? That actually speaks to me because I was living in New York and met a whole bunch of creatives in Milwaukee, and they encouraged me to move to Milwaukee saying that there was a really cool art scene here and that I could make a difference so
Joe Poeschl:
I can pull it down. Yeah. <laugh>.
Kantara Souffrant:
So but oh, my prompt was what cultural assets make us special.
Jason Yi:
Mine is, what's your favorite thing about Milwaukee?
Joe Poeschl:
Mine just says discuss the Milwaukee vortex, but that sounds like a soccer team. I don't know what that is. Ooh. Is it a soccer team? I don't know.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
The Milwaukee vortex as I understand it, is the concept that once you've identified Milwaukee as your home, it's always your home. So you will come back, you might leave, you might try to go to la, New York, Chicago, but you will get pulled back in.
Joe Poeschl:
Sounds kind of similar to the one that you were that, that you had Right. With coming back. What would you say to
Kantara Souffrant:
Yeah, like what, what message do you have for creatives who are considering moving back to Milwaukee? This one, although I think it would be really funny if we all had to discuss sports teams or something.
Joe Poeschl:
<Laugh>, we make up a sport around the Vortex <laugh>, in what ways is the Milwaukee creative community on the rise?
Jason Yi:
I think they're all like these questions always. Yeah. It's all connected, right.
Kantara Souffrant:
You know, running an art center and you know, it's the art center that I attended when I was growing up. So to me, you know, this idea of, of community, this idea of, you know, just all of these grade things that have been built by community members and that are being sustained by community I have reaped so many benefits. So I feel like it is my duty to continue to pour into those spaces that have greatly contributed to my formation, you know, at all levels. Professionally, spiritually intellectually, all of the above.
Jason Yi:
Yeah. I mean, I feel like, you know, talk about Vortex. I really never, like, I never had to come back because when I came to Milwaukee, I'm a transplant, moved here about 28 years ago and it just sucked me in <laugh>. And this was the move from where I was living before in the East coast to here was such a, a culture shock. I have never been to the Midwest before. I moved to Milwaukee, and I thought, well, you know, I'd be here for maybe three or four years and maybe go somewhere else. I thought it was only going to be a two or three year living in Milwaukee. Then it just started to like grab a hold of me and I started to see the support system. I started to see the sort of a genuine quality of people, especially in the creative community. So I stuck around for 28 years and it's, it's been really humbling, great experience. And this is something that I tell my students all the time, like community in Milwaukee, this, especially the art community, a creative community is such a supportive community that you don't see this often in cities. That it's, it's, yes, there's com competition, but there's also very, very supportive nature and generosity to the creatives in Milwaukee. So yeah, that's also, that's my favorite thing about Milwaukee.
Kantara Souffrant:
And now we're not gonna let you go. You're stuck
Jason Yi:
Here. Yeah. I mean, I, yeah. I don't, I don't going anywhere.
Joe Poeschl:
<Laugh>, we got 'em. Yes, sir.
Kantara Souffrant:
I mean, I, I also I guess have a Milwaukee vortex story of, I'm from the Milwaukee area originally, but I was living and working in New York for almost a decade in the art world there. And I slowly started connecting with some Milwaukee creatives every time I came back to visit my parents, et cetera. And I started kind of hearing about the cool stuff that they were doing here. And eventually a couple of them convinced me to give Milwaukee a try with kind of, they made this argument of I would have a bigger impact on the Milwaukee art world than I would ever have in New York. And also there was kind of this idea of you can try kind of cooler crazy things in the Milwaukee area as opposed to when you're living in a bigger city and it's people will just kind of take a chance on you here. And, and I've always just really appreciated that that I've been able to kind of settle into the Milwaukee art community and people have made a space for me and I was able to make, I am able to make a bigger difference here than I was ever able to working at a New York art gallery.
Joe Poeschl:
Yeah. That, that really resonates with me. I, I will often tell people that even though I grew up in Milwaukee and went to school in Milwaukee, I lived in a couple of cities afterwards. Minneapolis, Boulder, Colorado. I was in Hamburg, Germany for a while. I came back here and this place was, as I described it, not done those other communities. You come with a new idea. You say, I wanna, I wanna try this, I wanna build this. And people would often be like, oh yeah, they're, they're doing that over there. That's already been tried a couple years ago. It didn't really work out or it did here. It was that yes and mentality. It was like, let's go ahead and do that. Let me connect you with somebody else. Like that was, there was that support and that welcoming that, that pulled me in. It was that, that was love <laugh> it a great place.
Kantara Souffrant:
Yeah. And I guess we're all stuck here now forever. <Laugh> the Milwaukee vortex.
Joe Poeschl:
I just like throwing away the vortex question. We've all said the word now and so yeah, it is sticky.
Kantara Souffrant:
But I it's not a soccer team, right? Yeah, no, I, I yet, yeah. Yeah. I, I think really what this meeting is actually about is we get to ideate on the Milwaukee vortex as a sports team. Could it could be a wrestling team maybe rather than soccer.
Joe Poeschl:
It could be swim teams,
Kantara Souffrant:
Hockey,
Joe Poeschl:
It could be
Kantara Souffrant:
Col Bowling Cold Punch. Ooh, bowling. A bowling league League. What about a curling league? Curling's a sport
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Elizabeth chiming in here. I wanna thank our guests once more from this session. Linda Edelstein, chief Executive Officer at Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra. Kim Miller, artist and chair of Milwaukee Institute of Art and Designs Fine Art Department. Darius Smith, program Director at Gener8tor Art, also an artist and mental health advocate. Kantara Souffrant, the Curator of Community Dialogue at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Maureen Ragalie, managing Director of Generator Art. Jason Yi, professor at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. Also an artist and gallerist at Hawthorne Contemporary Xela Garcia, executive director of Walker's Point Center for the Arts. Also an artist and writer. And Joe Poeschl, director of Engagement at Milwaukee Tech Hub and serving as a board member at Imagine MKE. The last question that all participants were asked and what we will leave you with today. The invitation to describe Milwaukee's arts and culture in one word or phrase:
Various Speakers:
Vibrant, growing, entrepreneurial, generative, ever-evolving, opportunities. Do it yourself. D-I-Y-D-I-Y. Three letters. Thanks for the reminder. What if we.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
I wanna say thank you so much to Wes Tank and Sara Daleiden, the owners and operators of Washington Park Media Center for hosting us in their space, what they have built and continue building. There is truly a remarkable community space and cultural asset in and of itself, and I highly encourage you all to check out their work and offerings and a big thank you to the whole crew who made the event so smooth and such a warm, positive vibe, including of course, all of our fabulous guests. The team at Imagine MKE, and Kelly Michael Anderson, Teddy Rotan, Manny Vibes, and Josh Evert. Tune in next week, same time and place, or wherever you stream podcasts, whenever you like to listen to podcasts. To catch the next episode of Creative MKE, featuring a continuation of our Arts Leader conversations from our event at Washington Park Media Center. The next edition features leaders including Angela Damani, CEO of Newaukee, Peggy Williams Smith, CEO of VISIT Milwaukee, Joe Poeschl, director of Engagement of Milwaukee Tech Hub Coalition, and Kevin Giglinto, president and CEO of the Marcus Performing Arts Center. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend, like subscribe or leave a reading and review. Follow Imagine MKE on socials to hear and see more Milwaukee Arts stories, learn about arts events and opportunities, and to receive arts, advocacy, news and alerts. To get involved or learn more about the work of Imagine MKE, visit us on the web.
Creative MKE is produced and edited by me, Elisabeth Gasparka with support from Adam Braatz. The Season's episodes were recorded in downtown Milwaukee and in Washington Heights, with support from the good folks at PodCamp Media and the Washington Park Media Center. Our show's music is by Bobby Drake. Additional audio support provided by Think Tank and Silver City Studios. Thank you to WUWM for the opportunity to broadcast creative MKE on the radio. And thanks to the Shepherd Express for their ongoing partnership. For more than 40 years, Shepherd Express has proudly advocated for arts and culture in the Milwaukee area. You can hear more podcasts like this one at shepherdexpress.com.
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Additional episode music: Tiger Technique "Oakvale of Albion"; Headspace Torus "Main Version 01"
