The Historic Third Ward has been nominated for USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice “Best Arts District” award for the third year in a row.
In 2022, the Third Ward placed third and in 2023 it placed seventh. Jordan Dechambre, marketing and communications director for the Historic Third Ward Association, is hoping it moves up the ranking this year.
“The Third Ward is such a unique place,” Dechambre said. “It is definitely where modern meets historic in a really unique way.”
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The Third Ward wasn’t always about art. What once was a warehouse and business district, was sold for commercial and residential lots. Originally, it was a mostly Irish neighborhood.
In 1892, the Third Ward suffered massive losses in a major fire. The Irish people moved out and Italian people moved in. Eventually, in the late 1970s, artists started to move into the area and the Third Ward became what it’s known as today.
“People generally think, you know, where artists move is generally the next ‘it’ place,” Dechambre said. “I think that’s what happened in the Third Ward. Twenty-five years ago, a lot of artists decided to call this neighborhood home.”
At the time, rent was cheap. The area is also close to downtown with easy on and off of the interstate.
“The Third Ward is just a really easy spot to live in from a logistic perspective,” Dechambre said. “So, when artists started gathering and realizing that there were all of these old warehouses kind of dotted throughout the landscape … they were really able to see the area as an open canvas.”
Dechambre describes the Third Ward as “created by artists,” and now the area is giving back by celebrating the artists every day.
“You know, you can take a neighborhood, it’s a blank canvas, [and] as soon as you start adding in art and artists and public art, an identity starts to form,” Dechambre said. “For us, that identity has really become creativity, culture, and cuisine, and we’ve kind of taken those three C’s and ran with that.”
It’s not just about the people though, it’s also the architecture of the area.
“It’s an artful neighborhood, even from a building perspective. The gorgeous cream city brick, everywhere you turn, it’s this kind of modern meets historic in a really great way,” Dechambre said.
Dechambre said that the midwest is “being discovered on a variety of levels” right now and art is one of them.
“Milwaukee was the ‘little Chicago’ you know, the younger sibling,” Dechambre said. “And we’ve really forged our own identity, and people are recognizing it.”
She credits some of that to landing on national lists like this one from USA Today.
“There’s something to be said for being the underdog,” Dechambre said. “I mean, that’s kind of the essence of art! You start creating because you feel something and often, you feel different, or maybe you feel lonely, or maybe you feel like you need to express yourself in a certain way.”
That’s the spirit of the Historic Third Ward, a place for people to come and express themselves through the living art that makes up the district.
You can vote for the Historic Third Ward here You can vote once per day until the polls close on Monday, Feb. 19. Winners will be announced on March 1.
