Every January, Var Gallery in Walker’s Point gives artists across the country a challenge: make 30 small pieces in 30 days. “Try to think to yourself, ‘What do I do every day, or even five days, consecutively? How hard is it to do that?’” owner Josh Hintz says.
The gauntlet is meant for artists to kick-start their creativity for the new year. After the challenge ends, the gallery will display the pieces during its 10th annual “30x30x30 Exhibition,” which opens April 19. Mediums usually include painting, photography and even sculpture, and approaches range from serious to playful.
Milwaukee oil painter David Najib Kasir, who participated in 2020, says the process taught him endurance. “The challenge is to maintain that same aggressiveness and attention to detail that you were trying to capture at the beginning.”
The process begins in November, when interested artists submit their initial idea and, if selected by the jurors, make preparations in December for the month ahead. But Hintz encourages deviation, as oftentimes something clicks for artists in the middle of the process and they change their approach. “It’s meant to creatively open yourself up,” he says.
Kasir recommends that artists use the challenge to try something new. And stick to the schedule, he says, instead of only striking when the iron’s hot. “I think artists can find out a lot about themselves when they force themselves to work when they don’t want to.”
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Fall Out Boy
APRIL 2 | FISERV FORUM
See Menomonee Falls native and drummer Andy Hurley return to our area on the band’s So Much For (2our) Dust tour. The band always brings high-octane energy to their Milwaukee shows and draws a multigenerational crowd. Jimmy Eat World, Hot Mulligan and CARR are opening.
Andrea Bocelli
APRIL 6 | FISERV FORUM
This tour marks the 30-year point in the Italian tenor’s high-powered career. Bocelli will be supported by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Steven Mercurio. Expect songs from Bocelli’s entire repertoire including his most recent album, Believe.
The Blue Hour
APRIL 11 | MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM
NPR put this concert-length song cycle on its top 10 albums list across all genres last year. Present Music brings us this work, created by five women composers: Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw and Sarah Kirkland Snider. Deanna Tham of the Oregon Symphony will guest-conduct a string orchestra.
Milwaukee Film Festival
APRIL 11-25 | ORIENTAL THEATRE, OTHER VENUES
The whole city comes alive for the two-week festival, which presents the best in new films hot off Sundance and SXSW. It’s “international films, fiction, documentary, films for kids, everything together all at once for people who like to party by going into a dark theater and watch great films,” says artistic director Cara Ogburn.
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical
APRIL 23-28 | MARCUS CENTER
Reminisce on the Queen of Rock a year after her death with this telling of her comeback story, set to her hits. The touring musical is written by Pulitzer Prize winner Katori Hall and directed by Phyllida Lloyd.
