More than 20 artists, many of them local, have been chosen to create intriguing works to display at the expanding Baird Center, Milwaukee’s convention complex.
Among those whose work will be featured is Marc Sijan, a Bay View artist known for his hyperrealistic sculptures. Sijan created the iconic security guard sculpture, Syl, which is named and modeled after his late father, Sylvester Sijan. Syl is positioned immediately inside the Baird Center’s south entrance off West Wisconsin Avenue and for several years has greeted visitors and convention attendees, many of whom have done double-takes when encountering the sculpture due to its life-like qualities.
Now, Syl will have a female counterpart, also created by Sijan, who will be stationed in the Baird Center’s new north building. Sijan is known for depicting everyday people in his artwork, including blue-collar workers and public servants.
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The counterpart to Syl is expected to be either a security guard or guest services member, said Sarah Maio, spokeswomen for the Wisconsin Center District, a state-created public agency that owns and operates the Baird Center, along with the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena and Miller High Life Theatre.
The new work by Sijan is expected to be a popular attraction for Baird Center visitors, just like Syl has been for the existing center, Maio said.
“There’s not a lot of opportunity to endear a convention center to a guest. You can do it through the guest services experience, which we have an enormous amount of dedication to,” Maio said. “But the other part are those memorable moments, like encountering Syl. It’s lighthearted and gives you a moment of joy. That’s the intent here, to make sure that we are finding opportunities to go above or beyond to give people an experience you won’t forget.”
Public art like Syl and his new companion will be an important aspect of the Baird Center, which is undergoing a $456 million expansion, Maio said. The fully expanded center, which is expected to open in May, will allow for the attraction of more and larger conventions and trade shows, which will lead to added spending by visitors.
In addition to Sijan, here’s a list of artists/artist teams selected to create original works at the Baird Center:
- Ben Butler
- Blueworld of Water
- Brandon Minga
- David Najib Kasir
- Ed Marquand, Tieton Mosaic
- FreelandBuck
- Greg Gossel
- Haddad|Drugan
- Jay Yan
- Jeffrey Swider-Peltz
- John Fleissner
- Kathryn Martin
- Kevin Miyazaki
- Mark Brautigam
- Nicolas Lampert
- Nova Czarnecki
- Reginald Baylor Studio
- Rosy Petri
- Tommy Sweeney
- Tuan Tran, Design Fugitives
“This is a choice. It wasn’t a mandate. Like many of the goals and objectives with this project, it’s because we should have public art,” Maio said. “The acknowledgement here is that some people, when they attend a convention, will fly into Mitchell International Airport, take an uber from the airport to their hotel, come to the convention center for two or three days. Go back and forth between the convention center and their hotel, and then fly out.”
A goal of the extensive display of public art planned for the Baird Center is to pique the interest of convention attendees and get them to explore the city beyond the walls of the convention hall, Maio said.
“Our objective here is to make sure that the art won’t just add to the aesthetic of the building. Our objective is to make sure, whether they are able to leave the venue or not during their time in their convention, that our guests will be able to leave with a sense of what a phenomenal city Milwaukee is,” Maio said.
The call given to artists whose work will be displayed at the Baird Center is to embrace and showcase the city, she added.
“That’s why there are so many local artists who have been identified,” Maio said. “It’s our opportunity to give the folks who may only come to the Baird Center a strong sense of what a cool city this is and that it’s a city on the rise and one that they’ll want to come back to as leisure visitors.”
The artists’ work will send a message to the visitors about Milwaukee, Milwaukee County and the entire state of Wisconsin, she said.
“Some of the artists dug more into the thematic concepts of the building itself,” Maio said. “Water is a huge focus. Seasonality is a big focus. You’ll see a lot of those stories being told throughout the building.”
The artwork planned for the Baird Center will come in a variety of forms, including oil on canvas, photographs, sculptures, textiles and more.
A diverse voting panel assembled by Denver area-based Public Art Services, the art consultant chosen to lead the project, chose most of the artists for the new works. The process began in April 2022 with the selection of panelists.
Public Art Services developed a request for qualifications, with guidance from Wisconsin Center District representatives, to identify artists and artist teams to create works that showcase the diverse culture and rich history of Milwaukee and Wisconsin. The RFQ was released in August 2022 and closed in September 2022.
Following the selection process, contracts were awarded to 16 artists and artist teams. Four additional artists were selected with the assistance of EUA, a Milwaukee architecture firm that has contributed to the design of the Baird Center expansion.
“Public Art Services did a tremendous job overseeing the artist selection process and the panel identified talented artists whose pieces represent our city and state’s vibrant culture,” Wisconsin Center District President and CEO Marty Brooks said. “I believe this incredible collection will engage and bring joy to Baird Center guests from across the globe for years to come.”
The group of artists selected includes a deep representation of Milwaukee-based and regional artists, Public Art Services Creative Design and Project Manager John Grant said. “It’s really what these arts projects are all about and it’s a way for Baird Center to support its community of creative artists.”
Grant noted that the plan has been to primarily to showcase as many Milwaukee and regional artists as possible while also opening the process to some artists from across the country, too.
“We wanted to make sure we were attracting the best artists,” Grant said, adding that more than 350 applications were received. “We have a really wonderful group of artists that are going to be contributing art to the new convention center.”
The diversity of the group selected stands out, Grant said. And the public art displays come with a desired outcome, he added.
“I think you do whatever you can to pique people’s interests to get them to maybe go out and visit a gallery or visit a neighborhood or open up Google to learn more about the city they are visiting,” he said. “The art talks about Milwaukee, the landscape, the lake, the physicality of the place, the people that live here, their struggle and the gains that individuals have made. We have some artists that have done some historic works not only about the industry in Milwaukee and the importance of the people that have worked so hard in those industries to build the city but also the ones that created a more civil place to live. As a collection, it has a lot to say about what happens outside the walls of that convention center.”
The ultimate goal is to have the artwork spur conference and convention attendees to get outside the Baird Center and discover the city around them.
“That’s the hope,” Grant said. “My home is in Denver. My hope is that when people come here to ski that they stay in Denver for a couple days and come to our museums, art galleries and restaurants and be good visitors. I’m want them to learn a little bit about Colorado and Denver when they come here. I think Milwaukee has the same desire and the convention center has a big role in that, to teach people more about the place and get them to walk outside those doors and check out how great the restaurants are and go see who’s being creative in Milwaukee. That’s a pretty simple thing that any city with its head screwed on straight wants. That’s certainly what we were tasked with, to create a body of work inside the convention center that begs you to go outside to find out who these artists are and what does this landscape really look like.”
Grant offered high praise for Milwaukee’s creative community.
“I’m blown away by it, in a similar way in which I was blown away by Pittsburgh,” Grant said. “Pittsburgh is a great example for how a city has been reborn into culture and education from industry and steel. Milwaukee has that same potential and it has such an amazing group of creative people working there. I think the next big step Milwaukee needs to take is to create that group of collectors, those people who are willing to start to look at and buy those works.”
Artists living and working in and around Milwaukee can offer great benefit to the region, Grant said.
“Milwaukee has an amazing group of artists. It has maker spaces that I haven’t seen in most cities,” he said. “As we visited these artists, we saw an incredible group that has all of the skills necessary if Milwaukee is willing to let them grow as a creative community. It’s going to give you another reason to live here. You aren’t going to move to a city that doesn’t have music or doesn’t have art. You want art in the schools and art in the streets. There’s got to be another reason to move to a city, not just because of a job. Milwaukee has everything it takes to build on that and now it’s up to the city to take that creative community’s lead and build upon it. To the people who live in Milwaukee, go out and take a look at what’s happening, because it’s a lot.”
Artists within Milwaukee and the region have also shown considerable support for each other, Maio said.
“It is unbelievable how much talent is right here in the city and just the pride that everyone felt for being selected for this project was palpable,” she said. “The other thing that came across is how much everyone is celebrating and supporting one another. The creative community here is tightly knit, and they embrace each other’s work. People want great things for each other and when they saw each other on the list of artists who will be represented in the building they were all so excited.”
Beyond the artwork installations, part of the expansion plan has focused on modernizing the existing south building. With that in mind, all of the carpeting and painting in the north building and south building will match. In addition, all the meeting rooms in the south building have been modernized to have the same wood tones and feel that will be in the north building.
“We are working really hard and with a laser focus to make sure that our guests don’t have any sense of an old building and a new building,” Maio said, adding that artwork will be spread throughout the north and south buildings.
There will also be other pieces on display that are outside the scope of the call for artists.
“There is a chandelier on the Baird Ballroom level that is five-layers thick and being done locally by Design Fugitives. There is a two-story water feature at the entrance that is being done by a group out of Orlando that is built to represent the proportions of each of the five Great Lakes. There is also a 3-D piece that stretches from the north entrance all the way up to the mezzanine level and will be viewable from every level of the building. It will really be a showstopper,” Maio said.
A cherished literary art installation created when the convention center opened in 1998 will remain part of the expanded facility. The exhibit is called “Portals and Writings Celebrating Wisconsin Authors” and showcases the works of nearly 50 writers with short passages and poems displayed on the center’s walls using raised or impressed lettering. Initial plans called for the exhibit to be decommissioned and dismantled but the Baird Center reversed course after a public outcry.
“Much of it is still around, some of it is being moved. It will still be in the venue but perhaps have a new home,” Maio said.
