Milwaukee Art Museum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM)

Milwaukee Art Museum
Established	1882
Location	700 N. Art Museum Drive Milwaukee, Wisconsin  United States
Type	Art museum
Visitors	400,000+
Public transit access	MCTS

The Milwaukee Art Museum (often called MAM) is a famous art museum located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It sits right on the shore of Lake Michigan. The museum is home to a huge collection of nearly 25,000 pieces of art. It's one of the biggest art museums in the United States.

Visiting the Museum

When you visit the Milwaukee Art Museum, you can explore many art galleries. There's also a cafe called Cafe Calatrava, where you can enjoy snacks and drinks with amazing views of Lake Michigan. Don't forget to check out the gift shop for souvenirs!

Museum Hours

The museum is open most days. You can visit Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. On Thursdays, the museum stays open later, from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Museum History

The idea for an art museum in Milwaukee started a long time ago, around 1872. At that time, Milwaukee was a growing port city, but it didn't have a proper place to show major art. Many attempts to build an art gallery failed for years.

How It Started

The Milwaukee Art Museum seen from the south

In 1888, a group of German artists and local business people created the Milwaukee Art Association. That same year, a British businessman named Frederick Layton built the Layton Art Gallery. He also gave it money and art. Later, in 1911, another building called the Milwaukee Art Institute was finished right next to the Layton Art Gallery. It was built to hold more art shows and collections.

The Layton Art Gallery and the Milwaukee Art Institute both claimed to be the first art gallery in Milwaukee. However, in 1957, they decided to combine their art collections. They formed the Milwaukee Art Center, which is now known as the Milwaukee Art Museum. They moved into a new building called the Milwaukee County War Memorial, designed by a famous architect named Eero Saarinen.

Amazing Architecture

The Milwaukee Art Museum is known for its incredible buildings. It has three main parts: the War Memorial Center, the Kahler Building, and the Quadracci Pavilion.

The Quadracci Pavilion

The Quadracci Pavilion is a very special part of the museum. It was designed by a Spanish architect named Santiago Calatrava. This building is huge, with many different areas for visitors. It has a big reception hall, an auditorium, and spaces for art shows and shops.

The way it was built, using concrete slabs with timber frames, was very new and exciting in architecture. Inside, there's a grand reception area called Windover Hall, which is 90 feet tall and has a glass roof. The building's design looks like a ship sailing on Lake Michigan. Calatrava said he wanted the building to look welcoming and become a symbol for the museum and the city.

One of the most famous parts of the Quadracci Pavilion is its movable, wing-like roof called the Burke brise soleil. These "wings" can open up to a width of 217 feet during the day, making the building look like a bird in flight. At night or when the weather is bad, the wings fold over the tall, arched structure. Sensors on the wings make sure they close if the wind gets too strong, like over 23 miles per hour. This amazing building won an award in 2004 for its design. People often call it "the Calatrava" because of its famous architect.

Shields Building

In 2015, the museum opened a new part called the Shields Building. This expansion added 30,000 square feet of space for art. It includes special areas for art that uses light, photography, and video. The Shields Building also has a new entrance facing the lake. It was designed to fit well with the existing Calatrava and Kahler buildings.

Cudahy Gardens

Outside the museum, you can find the beautiful Cudahy Gardens. These gardens were designed by landscape architect Dan Kiley. They are long and rectangular, divided into five grassy areas by tall hedges. In the center, there's a fountain that creates a 4-foot-tall water curtain. You can also see linden and crabapple trees throughout the gardens. The gardens were named after Michael Cudahy, who gave a lot of money to help build them.

Art Collection

The Milwaukee Art Museum has nearly 25,000 works of art spread across four floors. The collection includes art from ancient times all the way up to today. You can see European paintings from the 15th to 20th centuries and American paintings from the 17th to 20th centuries. There are also sculptures, prints, drawings, decorative arts, photographs, and folk art.

Some of the best parts of the collection are the American decorative arts, German Expressionism, folk art, Haitian art, and American art created after 1960.

The museum also has one of the largest collections of works by Georgia O'Keeffe, who was from Wisconsin. Other famous artists whose work you can see include Gustave Caillebotte, Winslow Homer, Auguste Rodin, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and many more!

Gallery

See Also

• Argo, a sculpture on the museum grounds
• The Calling, a sculpture in the museum's collection
• List of largest art museums