Imagine MKE is Milwaukee’s coalition of arts, culture, and civic leaders focused on making our city one of America’s most vibrant and thriving cities.
While many major American cities are utilizing an arts forward planning strategy to build a 21st century city, Milwaukee remains the largest American city without a cultural plan or a coordinating office for the arts, artists, and business sector.
Imagine MKE fills this gap.

We know that Milwaukee can become one of America’s most vibrant cities through the collective impact of the city’s remarkable talent, rich diversity, and inspiring culture.
Our city has incredible, divergent, diverse, and under-leveraged talent in the arts and across all sectors. Through collaboration and connection, the excellence of our individual artists and art institutions in our city will shine through.

Our coalition is a diverse and powerful group bringing together more than 100 artists from our city’s neighborhoods and leaders from our city’s cultural and business institutions.
This coalition has met and planned for over two years to develop a shared agenda for the arts in Milwaukee that will support artists and their work, lift up the artistic assets and talents in our neighborhoods, show the depth and breadth of the arts and culture sector, and begin to change the national and regional perception of our city.