Twice a year in Bay View, nearly every business becomes a gallery. On Friday, May 29, 72 restaurants, bars and stores will adorn their walls with local art for the spring edition of Bay View Gallery Night. The 15-year-old event gives artists a casual setting to showcase their work and makes art approachable.
“We’re planting seeds and trying to get people to be excited about the art scene,” says Jeff Redmon, co-organizer and co-owner of Scout Gallery.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
The neighborhood-spanning art crawl has become of one Milwaukee’s more prominent cultural events, but Redmon founded it, along with Chuck Watson, in 2011 as a simple way to support businesses and artists he thought were cool in Bay View. “It kind of came out of the idea of doing something a little different than the Third Ward Gallery Night,” he says. “In the past, (Gallery Night) was mainly all galleries showing gallery shows. But there wasn’t as much opportunity for a local artist to just hop in and show their stuff at a cool place.”
Even though the grassroots event has grown in size, Redmon and Watson still make up the core organizing team of volunteers. “In the beginning, we curated (who businesses show) a lot more,” Redmon says. “But we want people to have the freedom to do what they want. It makes it an authentic, cool, diverse event, when you just let everybody do their thing.”
Past years have seen Bay View Gallery Night mount special attractions, such as a mural competition at Colectivo Coffee and a spread-out group of abstracted, hole-covered statues by Wisconsin artist Manu Garay, which now reside on the Riverwalk by the Saint Kate.
The neighborhood also uses the event’s excitement for concurrent happenings. For example, Bay View Jazz Fest drops bands in six establishments for free concerts. Milwaukee Makers Market and Beth Eaton Pottery both hold outdoor markets. Six neighborhood breweries will participate in a craft beer crawl. And The Magnet Factory will throw a printmaking party featuring artists from across the Midwest showing and selling their work.
If you’d like a quick sample of your neighbors’ creativity, Redmon suggests touring the Lincoln Warehouse, Hide House or simply strolling down KK.
