Speaker Series: From the Ground Up - Lonnie G. Bunch III
2026-09-16 17:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Lubar Auditorium, Milwaukee Art Museum, 700 N Art Museum Dr, Milwaukee, WI, 53202, United States
Presented by the Bronzeville Center for the Arts in collaboration with the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Chipstone Foundation, From the Ground Up is a flagship, recurring platform connecting BCA’s own journey to the broader story of what it takes to build lasting cultural institutions.

Lonnie G. Bunch III
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution — in conversation with Ra Joy, Executive Director, BCA

Join us for a rare opportunity to hear Lonnie G. Bunch III, the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, reflect on the challenges of building a museum widely considered a national masterpiece and stewarding the Smithsonian Institution. The evening includes a discussion of his book, A Fool’s Errand.
Seating is limited. View event details to learn how to RSVP.
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Building Bronzeville: Milwaukee’s Black Arts Movement
2026-09-24 - 2027-02-27 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Building Bronzeville celebrates the bold generation of artists, activists, and cultural workers who made Milwaukee an important regional center of the global Black Arts Movement. Featuring paintings and screenprints, alongside magazines, flyers, and printed archival materials, this exhibition introduces visitors to Bronzeville’s vibrant art scene as it developed between 1967 and 1981.
Many Bronzeville artists drew inspiration from the global Black Arts Movement. Spanning the African diaspora, the movement called on Black artists to develop new forms of cultural representation and to build autonomous institutions for Black art. In Milwaukee’s North Side, visual artists gave these ideas shape through artmaking and community arts organizing. Artists were also administrators, educators, and volunteers, and moved nimbly between artistic production and civic engagement. They published writing in local magazines, formed collectives and institutions, and organized exhibitions in storefront galleries, public libraries, and municipal cultural centers. Their work raised enduring questions about art, community, and social power.
Bronzeville is still building, and its art history mirrors our present moment. While surveying the past, Building Bronzeville affirms that community-based arts organizing has long been central to Milwaukee’s North Side. As Bronzeville Center for the Arts builds upon this legacy, this exhibition reflects a dynamic moment when artists made themselves into a force for community life.
Bronzeville Center for the Arts extends its thanks to Milwaukee County Historical Society, Milwaukee Public Library, South Side Community Art Center Chicago, Frieda High Wasikhongo Tesfagiorgis, Mutópe J. Johnson, and Evelyn Terry for loaning art objects and archival materials integral to this project. Building Bronzeville is co-curated by Phoenix Brown (Bronzeville Center for the Arts) and Christopher Dingwall, PhD (Washington University in St. Louis).

Martine Syms Bronzeville Public Art Collection
2025-11-01 - 2026-11-30 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Martine Syms combines conceptual grit, comedy, and social commentary to respond to her immediate reality, outside of traditional methods of documenting life experiences. Animated by the “problems of truth” her practice questions image and language systems and their relationship to power. She is internationally known for a nuanced practice that spans across writing, performance, moving image, and installation.
Syms created four new works for the new collaboration between Bronzeville Center for the Arts and Sculpture Milwaukee. This presentation—Find A Way, A Short Meditation, Belief Strategy XIII, and an untitled photograph—includes photography, mantra, and visual patterns, offering a meditative prompt for viewers moving through the day-to-day.

Ck Ledesma: If you put your ear to it, you can hear the waves
2026-06-11 - 2027-06-13 | Site of Future African American Art Museum, 2312 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, MIlwaukee, 53212, United States
Water carries us. Milwaukee artist Ck Ledesma honors Yemayá — deity of the ocean — with a living outdoor altar rooted in Santería, diaspora, and devotion.
See the year-long outdoor sculpture installation by Milwaukee-based interdisciplinary artist Ck Ledesma. Drawing from the spiritual tradition of Santería, Ledesma builds an evolving altar dedicated to Yemayá, the Orisha of the oceans – bridging the Caribbean Sea and Lake Michigan as an act of devotion, cultural preservation and the ebb and flow of creation.
Curatorial Statement:
Ck Ledesma: If you put your ear to it, you can hear the waves
If you put your ear to it, you can hear the waves is a temporary outdoor sculpture installation by Milwaukee-based interdisciplinary artist Ck Ledesma. Using clay, mirrors, tiles, and other materials, Ledesma reimagines an outdoor altar influenced by the spiritual tradition of Santería. Commonly practiced in home settings rather than temples, Santería is an African diasporic religion that blends Catholicism with West African spiritual traditions in the Caribbean, especially in Puerto Rico. The tradition was developed as a path for African-descended communities to maintain their beliefs and protect their culture under Spanish colonization which began in the early 16th century.
Ledesma’s altar is dedicated to Yemayá, the Orisha (or deity) of the ocean and the Mother of all things. Throughout the duration of the exhibition, the artist will continue to add and shape the altar, reflecting their devotion to cultural preservation, stewardship, and the creative ebb and flow of artmaking.
Although Wisconsin is not bordered by an ocean, the artist draws conceptual parallels between the Caribbean Sea and the vast, often turbulent nature of Lake Michigan. Both bodies of water hold deep histories and invite us to gather along their shores. They nourish us and remind us of our humanity in the face of nature’s immense power.
Because water has been one of the primary forces carrying people of the African diaspora to the Americas, and continues to shape the landscapes we occupy, Ledesma’s installation honors the long tradition of spiritual practices that honor the natural forces greater than ourselves. It also acknowledges that shores offer respite and reflection for the Bronzeville community and for Milwaukee as a whole.

About Ck Ledesma
Ck Ledesma Borrero is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and curator originally from
San Juan, Puerto Rico, now living and working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for nearly two
decades. Their artwork is rooted in community engagement and social practice, using
performance, sculpture, and multimedia to create experiences that expand the
definition of art beyond the object and into the realm of dialogue and collective
meaning.
Read: Saltborn, a poem by Ck Ledesma

Brush-it-Off – Artist Fishbowl Discussion Workshop
2025-05-29 17:30 - 19:30 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Staring at a blank canvas? Join the Bronzeville Center for the Arts (BCA) for ‘Brush it Off,’ a dynamic workshop hosted by BCA Director of Creative Engagement & Partnerships Mutòpe Johnson. This workshop is designed to reignite your artistic spark. We’ll dive into the frustrations of artist’s block, share practical techniques, and rediscover the joy of creating together! Plus, engage in an open dialogue about the 10 principles of how to become unstuck.

How The Blues Put Us in A Funk – Blk Music & the Creative Economy
2025-06-27 05:30 - 07:30 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Hosted by Brad Anthony Bernard, Milwaukee-based artist and founder of the Community Arts & Funk Festival, “How the Blues Put Us into a Funk” will feature a presentation about the evolution of blues and funk music, including the conditions, historical events and genres in which composers created Black music. After the presentation, guests will participate in an interactive workshop to learn how to create and design your own album cover.
African-American music has a profound impact on the larger musical landscape. Each song has a unique purpose – to uplift, mobilize, tell a story, unite, educate, entertain, bear witness, or send a message.

BCA Talkback Session 1 – Gallery 507
2025-07-10 17:30 - 19:30 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
The vacant building at the corner of North Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive (the former DNR building) is being demolished this summer to make way for Milwaukee’s future African American Art Museum. While we develop plans for the new museum, we want your ideas on how we might use this space in the meantime.
Your participation will help shape decisions and generate fresh ideas for interim site uses, BCA program initiatives, and the art museum’s plans. We aim to gather valuable feedback, inspire arts and cultural engagement, and foster collaboration for this project.

Chalk-R-Lot – Sidewalk Chalk Art
2025-07-18 15:00 - 18:30 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Chalk-R-Lot is a fun-filled twist on a classic outdoor activity, celebrating African American art and culture through the use of sidewalk chalk. BCA will provide color chalk supplies and art references while Milwaukee-based visual artists assist kids and families with making chalk-art on the Gallery 507 parking lot. Drawing with sidewalk chalk is the perfect activity for a long summer day and fun for the whole family!

Bronzeville Week – Bronzeville Week Festival
2025-08-02 - 2025-08-09 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Bronzeville Center for the Arts participated throughout Bronzeville Week, opening Gallery 507 for those enjoying community events.

Black Defined: Ceramics 1 – Art Exhibition
2025-08-07 17:30 - 2026-01-14 19:30 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
EXTENDED ONE MORE WEEK TO JANUARY 14!
In partnership with Chipstone Foundation, Black Defined 1: Ceramics examines the rich history and contemporary significance of ceramics as a storytelling medium. Featuring a diverse range of early colonial and contemporary objects, this exhibition showcases the contributions of ceramicists from the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions, as well as historic objects from the Southeast, emphasizing how ideas, traditions, and craft practices are passed down through generations.
Featured contemporary Midwest-based artists include Alisa Drakes, Sydnie Jimenez, Janiece Maddox; Mid-Atlantic Artists include Michelle Erickson, David Drake, also known as “Dave the Potter,” and Roberto Lugo.

BCA Talkback Session 2 – ThriveOn King
2025-08-18 12:00 - 14:00 | ThriveOn King, 2153 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States

Fruit Art Workshop – Art Made with Fruit
2025-09-19 17:30 - 19:30 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Learn how to design, carve, and style fruits into stunning creations while learning about nutrition, creativity, and cultural connections. Create your own fruit art masterpiece, from carved melons to fruit sculptures, using safe fruit handling and carving techniques.

Open Doors Milwaukee – Gallery 507
2025-09-27 11:00 - 16:30 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Open Doors Milwaukee gives Gallery 507 the opportunity to explore the gallery and its exhibitions, such as “Black Defined 1: Ceramics“.

BCA Talkback Session 3 – Bader Philanthropies
2025-09-30 17:30 - 19:30 | Bader Philanthropies, 3300 N. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr., Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States

Gallery 507 Artist Talk – Janiece Maddox
2025-10-10 18:00 - 19:30 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Meet one of the featured artists of Gallery 507’s current exhibition, Black Defined 1: Ceramics! Join us for an intimate artist talk with Janiece Maddox, who created the works Ca$h AF1’s and Wilson’s. After the talk, experience an evening viewing of the exhibition and chat with the artist onsite in the gallery.

Gallery Night MKE
2025-10-17 17:00 - 19:00 | Gallery 507, 507 North Ave., Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Gallery Night MKE – Milwaukee’s original gallery hop event – unites the city through art. Experience the vast creative culture in MKE while you discover local galleries, art, and artists. This free, quarterly event offers you the opportunity to buy original art, dine in outstanding restaurants, and shop in unique boutiques.
Join us at Gallery 507 on Friday, October 17!
RSVP

Gallery 507 – Gallery Night MKE
2025-10-17 17:30 - 19:30 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Gallery Night MKE — Milwaukee’s original gallery hop event — has been uniting the city through art for nearly 40 years. Experience the vast creative culture in Milwaukee while you discover local galleries, art and artists.

Bronzeville Restaurant Crawl & Bash
2025-11-07 17:00 - 22:00 | No Studios, 1037 W McKinley Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53205, United States
To RSVP, please email info@mlkedcmke.org, call (414) 264-5000. or visit their Eventbrite.

Black Defined Session 2: Foundations & Vision
2025-11-20 18:00 - 19:30 | Dandy, 5020 W Vliet St, Milwaukee, WI, 53208, United States
Join us for Black Defined Lecture Series Session 2: Foundations & Vision! Hear from a expert panel about the importance and process of legacy preservation and honoring senior artists, as well as what role museums play in art documentation and interpretation. A Q&A session with panelists will follow.

RSVP

Warm Hearts Community Coat Drive
2025-11-28 07:00 - 12:00 | Lakefront Brewery, 1872 N Commerce St, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Coat Drive Supporting George Washington Carver Academy: Bring a children’s coat in new or gently-used condition for a bottle or can of a retro Black Friday beer (maximum of 2).
Organized by the HBHA’s Community Outreach Committee, Carver Academy, and Lakefront Brewery.

RSVP

Black Defined Lecture Series: Sustaining & Building Black Cultural Collections
2025-12-11 18:00 - 20:00 | Dandy, 5020 W Vliet St, Milwaukee, WI, 53208, United States
Join us for a moderated discussion and Q&A that will highlight approaches to keeping historical collections relevant, developing new collections for long-term impact, and engaging communities through exhibitions and programs.

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City on a Hill Health Outreach
2025-12-13 12:00 - 15:00 | City on a Hill, 2224 W. Kilbourn Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53233, United States
Offered this month:

Community Health Outreach COVID-19 Vaccine – 1st, 2nd doses + booster vaccines available -appointment preferred
Free bag of groceries & Hygiene items
To-Go Nutritious hot lunch
To-Go Prayer
Limited Doctor Visits for the uninsured

RSVP

Kwanzaafest At ABHM
2025-12-28 12:00 - 20:00 | America’s Black Holocaust Museum, 401 W. North Ave., Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
In collaboration with Papyrus & Charms, ABHM presents Kwanzaafest – a community event featuring local creatives.
Attendees can enjoy shopping with local entrepreneurs, live poetry, raffle prizes, a children’s activity corner, museum tours and more! Stop by Sunday, December 28th from Noon – 5pm.
Enjoy a curated market of local merchandise and food vendors, as well as a children’s educational craft corner.

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Generational Artistry
2026-03-12 18:00 - 20:30 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
BCA’s Gallery 507 will host a live conversation between artistic family members, ensuring that a family members’ life’s artistic work is not forgotten. Daughters and sons who continue to promote the legacy of loved ones such that their works can be appreciated for generations to come, while continuing to grow as artists themselves. This program serves as a cultural record while holding lasting emotional and aesthetic resonance to inspire and influence the next generation of artists.
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Above, Below, Within
2026-03-26 - 2026-08-14 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Experience the transformative solo exhibition of Maryland-based artist Ciarra K. Walters. Through performance and video, Walters transforms her body into temporary sculptures, embedding herself in natural and architectural environments across the U.S. and internationally. Her ritualistic, intuitive movement films explore the reclamation of self, power, and the body’s deep connection to place.
READ: Black Performance Art as Cultural Preservation & Self Reconnection by Phoenix S. Brown, BCA Curator
Curatorial Statement
Above, Below, Within is a solo presentation of performance-based work by interdisciplinary artist Ciarra K. Walters. Based in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Walters embeds her body within natural landscapes, interpreting the influence of her surroundings as she shifts, flows, and shapes herself into living movement sculptures. Often dressed in color-coded uniforms representing one of the seven Chakras, she centers each performance on the spiritual strengths they embody. Outstretched arms echo horizon lines; legs tilt toward cardinal directions as scenes cut between waterfalls, deserts, and human-made monuments. Captured intuitively on video, Walters invites viewers to witness her spirit in communion with the skies above and the earth below.
Stunning vistas serve as familiar entry points into Walters’ meditative practice where she confronts grief, emotional vulnerability, and endurance. While she is typically the sole figure within the frame, she is rarely alone. In Me the Tree, Like My Mother Eileen (2024), Walters, dressed in brown, roots herself in an autumnal mountain forest in Maryland. Surrounded by hibernating trees, she embodies a poem addressed to her late mother as lines of yellow text briefly appear above her crown. In Blue Like Some Part of the Ocean (2020), her performance is interrupted by tourists passing through the sandy seascape behind her. Despite the disruption, Walters completes her movement cycle, then rushes forward to stop the camera, asserting presence, persistence, and control within an ever-changing environment.
Across these works and more, Walters positions the body as a strong vessel and instrument, where inner transformation meets external force. Landscape, weather, memory, and interruption become collaborators, revealing movement as care, resistance, and spiritual return. As you move through the space and approach the performance platform in the center of the room, consider how breath, movement, and repetition might open new ways of being, above, below, and within.

Above, Below, Within - Opening Reception
2026-03-26 18:00 - 20:00 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Above, Below, Within: Ciarra K. Walters will be on display from March 26-August 14. Please join us for a free opening reception for an artist talk, refreshments and a look at the exhibition!
Parking: Free parking is available at the former Big Load Laundry next door to Gallery 507.
About the Exhibition: Experience the transformative solo exhibition of Maryland-based artist Ciarra K. Walters. Through performance and video, Walters transforms her body into temporary sculptures, embedding herself in natural and architectural environments across the U.S. and internationally. Her ritualistic, intuitive movement films explore the reclamation of self, power and the body’s deep connection to place.
RSVP

Ck Ledesma: Opening Reception, Artist Talk & Exhibition Tour
2026-06-18 17:00 - 20:00 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Meet Milwaukee artist Ck Ledesma, creator of the latest exhibition, Ck Ledesma: If you put your ear to it, you can hear the ocean, during our artist talk, then join us for a short walk (3 blocks) through Bronzeville for a tour of the exhibition on the corner of West North Avenue and 2nd Street.
5 pm – 6pm: Meet the Artists (refreshments and beverages served)
6 pm – 7pm: Artist Talk
6pm – 8pm: Site Tour
RSVP

Bronzeville Week Celebration
2026-08-02 09:00 - 17:00 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
BCA is proud to join the Bronzeville community in this exciting celebration. Stop by our booth at Gallery 507 on W. North Ave to enjoy fun activities, refreshments, and free giveaways. Our doors will be open from 9 am to 5 pm, so step inside to explore our facility, meet our staff, and experience our current exhibition “Above, Below, Within” by Ciarra K. Walters.
As you make your way through Bronzeville, you’ll discover delicious food, live music from talented local artists, and the vibrant spirit that makes this community and culture so special. This is what Bronzeville looks like when it comes together. We can’t wait to celebrate with you—see you there!

Artist Talk + Movement Workshop with Ciarra K. Walters
2026-08-14 18:00 - 20:00 | BCA Gallery 507, 507 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53212, United States
Join us for the closing program of the Above, Below, Within: Ciarra K. Walters exhibition. This artist talk and workshop invites participants to slow down, breathe, and reconnect with their bodies through guided movement. Drawing from Ciarra’s practice of using movement as a form of meditation, she will lead participants through a series of shapes, flows, and rhythms designed to cultivate presence and ease. The session will conclude with a freestyle movement exercise, offering space to explore movement in a way that feels natural and personal. Before the workshop, Ciarra will present a brief introduction to her artistic practice, sharing the ideas, experiences, and inspirations that inform her work in the studio.

RSVP
