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Current Exhibits

• Upcoming Exhibits
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Milwaukee Outdoors: A Century of the County Parks System

Explore how Milwaukeeans have enjoyed and used local parks over the last 100 years. Milwaukee Outdoors will look at how the outdoors builds the physical, mental, natural, and economic health of our community.

Look back to the early private beer gardens and amusement parks and how they set a standard for later public parks. The story of the city and county park systems are told through the parks themselves—Lake, Juneau, Riverside, Kosciuszko, Humboldt, Grant, Mitchell, Washington, Estabrook, Brown Deer, and Whitnall. Included are artifacts and photographs related to golfing, lawn bowling, skiing, skating, fishing, tennis, bird watching, baseball, and tobogganing.

The effects of major historical events, including the impact of the Great Depression, and the decision to transfer the parks to the county are all explored. Learn about the county’s extended use of federal works projects under the New Deal program helped shape the parks we enjoy today. Other stories include the building of a new baseball stadium, the zoo, and war memorial that all came as a result of the Post World War II economic boom and community feeling of optimism.

The turbulence of the 1960s race relations played out in Kosciuszko Park as part of Father Groppi’s open housing marches. Mitchell Park is today part of the current debate about immigration law as thousands of protestors rallied at this years’ “A Day Without Latinos” event.

Urban Wilderness: A Paradox

Eddee Daniel, a fine art photographer, writer, activist and arts educator, documents nature within the city of Milwaukee. His on-going project started in 1999, includes photography of area riversides and streams. Titled Urban Wilderness, this exhibit explores the paradox of wilderness in the city. Daniel’s mission is to celebrate the joy of experiencing nature in an urban environment and to infuse a sense of personal responsibility in viewers and the role they may play in the conservation of the land, water, and its creatures . You can learn more about Eddee Daniel at his website.