MILWAUKEE – The Bronzeville Center for the Arts (BCA) today announced Building Bronzeville: Milwaukee’s Black Arts Movement (Building Bronzeville), a new exhibition at Gallery 507 celebrating the artists, activists and cultural workers who made Milwaukee an epicenter of the global Black Arts Movement. The exhibition, free and open to the public, will run from September 24, 2026 to February 26, 2027, and is co-curated by BCA Curator Phoenix S. Brown and Christopher Dingwall.

WHAT: Building Bronzeville: Milwaukee’s Black Arts Movement — paintings, screenprints, magazines, flyers and archival audio/video documenting Milwaukee’s role in the global Black Arts Movement (1967–1981)

WHEN: On view September 24, 2026 – February 26, 2027
Opening Reception on September 24: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

WHERE: Gallery 507, 507 W. North Ave, Milwaukee, WI

ADMISSION: Free and open to the public

MORE INFO: Visit www.bcamke.org for gallery hours and exhibition details

Featuring paintings and screenprints alongside magazines, flyers and archival materials, the exhibition immerses visitors in Bronzeville’s thriving art scene between 1967 and 1981, a period when Milwaukee creatives helped establish the Black Arts Movement’s presence throughout the Midwest. Visitors can also watch and listen to archived video and audio.

“Milwaukee has long been a cultural and artistic hub of the Midwest, and Building Bronzeville puts the city’s role in the Black Arts Movement front and center,” said Ra Joy, BCA executive director. “The exhibition connects generations of artists and community builders, illustrating how the work of the past continues to shape Milwaukee and the region today.”

The global Black Arts Movement emphasized self-determination through music, literature, performance and visual art. While Chicago is often credited as the movement’s Midwest center, Building Bronzeville makes the case for Milwaukee’s place in that history. Artists from Milwaukee’s North Side brought this ethos to life through artmaking, community organizing, artistic production and civic engagement. They published writing in local magazines, formed collectives and institutions and organized exhibitions in storefront galleries, public libraries and cultural centers.

Building Bronzeville traces how that history continues to shape Bronzeville’s growth today, connecting the community-based art organizing of the Black Arts Movement era to the neighborhood’s ongoing cultural revival. 

“We are honored to pay homage to the artists who solidified Milwaukee’s place in the Black Arts Movement,” said Brown. “The way artists created their work as a force for community life still influences how our community organizes, creates and grows today.”

To bring this history to life, BCA will celebrate the exhibition’s opening with a public reception on Sept. 24, 2026, from 6-8 p.m. at Gallery 507. The event will feature remarks from Brown and BCA Executive Director Ra Joy, music from DJ Don Black of Jammin’ 98.3, and the first public opportunity to view the exhibition. The reception is free and open to the public.

“It is an honor to participate in Building Bronzeville, especially since one of the first Black galleries, in the late 1960s, launched my art career two blocks south of this beautiful edifice,” said artist Evelyn Patricia Terry. Terry’s work is among more than 40 works on view within the exhibition.

BCA would like to thank the Milwaukee Public Library, Milwaukee County Historical Society, and South Side Community Art Center (Chicago) for serving as lending partners.

For more information about the exhibition and the Bronzeville Center for the Arts, please visit www.bcamke.org.