MPL Digital Collections

Milwaukee Black Arts Movement

This collection contains materials relating to the Black Arts Movement in Milwaukee from Milwaukee Public Library collections. It offers a unique window onto the artists, institutions, and vision.

Back to all Digital Collections

More Information

The Milwaukee Black Arts Movement Digital Collection contains materials relating to the Black Arts Movement in Milwaukee from across Milwaukee Public Library collections. The digital collection includes original artwork by Milwaukee-based artists of the Black Arts Movement, artist interviews, manuscript material and photographs documenting artists and activities of the movement, and more. Materials span from the 1960s to the early 2000s and are drawn from the Milwaukee Public Library Artwork Collection, the Art Reference Collection, and four archival collections: the Freewheelers Collection, 1974-2010 (Local History Manuscript Collection 378); the Gerald Duane Coleman Collection, 1975-2013 (Local History Manuscript Collection 377); the Irene Bishop Goggans Collection, 1930-2017 (Local History Manuscript Collection 394); and the Milwaukee Public Library Archival Collection. The collection offers a unique window onto the artists, institutions, and vision which grounded the Black Arts Movement in Milwaukee and enriched Wisconsin art.

Collection materials document institutional anchors for the Black Arts Movement in Milwaukee, including the Inner City Arts Council; two successive independent Black art galleries, the Gallery Toward the Black Aesthetic and De Gallery; the Central City Artists & Craftsmen Association ‘Freewheelers’; and the Milwaukee Public Library and Martin Luther King Branch. The Freewheelers were a group of local Black artists who met and exhibited at the Martin Luther King Branch of the Milwaukee Public Library throughout the 1970s and 80s; MPL holds organizational papers of the Freewheelers, original artwork by Freewheelers, and a collection of Gerald Duane Coleman’s artist papers as a result of its long-running association with the group. The digital collection also includes materials relating to significant programs, publications, events, and exhibitions which animated the Black Arts Movement in Milwaukee.

The digital collection also documents the activities of major figures in Milwaukee’s Black Arts Movement, including William J. Christian (1932-1994), Evelyn Patricia Terry (b. 1946), Gerald Duane Coleman (b. 1948), Edgar J. Jeter (1934-2004), Nancy A. Izard (1943-1997), Ronald J. Stewart (1950-2016), Frankie B. Cole (b. 1944), and others. Through interviews, original artwork, and manuscript material, luminaries of Milwaukee’s Black Arts Movement introduce themselves and their work in their own words, commenting on their process, methods, materials used, influences, themes, visions, and aspirations.

An art installation on the second floor of the Central Library, original artwork across the MPL System, and other Milwaukee Public Library collections continue the story.