Milwaukee is fortunate to have a wide array of galleries and programs that allow aspiring and established professional artists to access the wider community.
For those with lesser means, however, this network isn't always so readily available.
That's where Guildess comes in. Since 2009, this all-female artists guild has sought to expand arts programming to women and children who wouldn't otherwise have access to creative outlets. To do this, Guildess combines awareness of its members' work through exhibitions with hands-on community outreach projects and volunteer work in the community.
Local artists Brittany Parker and Miranda Levy started Guildess as a way for recent UW-Milwaukee fine arts graduates to stay connected through their art.
"They wanted a place for us to be able to hang out, talk and critique our art after we graduated, because you don't really have that community after you graduate," said April Heding, who currently co-runs Guildess' board of directors with fellow member Ashley Gustafson.
"As more people started getting into it and brought on board, they changed the goal to a more active role, so it transitioned into having shows of all females, and we would donate a percentage of the profits to a local charity."
Now, Heding and Gustafson head up the board and they're looking to re-evaluate and re-establish the group's mission once again.
"By summer, we'd like to re-launch the new Guildess as we bring it through its transition and add elements that we thought were really important to us to the ones we thought were really strong in the past," said Heding. "As we're rebuilding it, we're kind of taking a step back to focus on the core values of the group and proceed from there."
One of Guildess' core elements is its community-based programming, which both Heding and Gustafson have been involved in through their work with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee.
"We're bringing more outreach into what we're doing and more workshops for women who are underprivileged," said Gustafson. "It's really important for women in the community to have the opportunity to experience the arts and get the opportunity to create."
Coupled with its service work, the duo is looking to expand Guildess' exposure and awareness of its mission through more member exhibitions and collaboration with the art community.
"The shows that we've had in the past have been very successful," said Heding. "We had one at the Live Artists Studio, and we had 20 to 25 showing artists. I think maybe 300 people showed up and saw the work, and we donated a bunch of money to Great Lakes Water Institute at UWM."
Gustafson added that Guildess also holds artist workshops, like an upcoming zine workshop in honor of International Women's Day, to increase involvement with the organization.
"We're working to bring more people on. The workshops are pretty open," she said. "In the future we have plans for creating a more detailed process, but if people want to be a member, they can just become a fan on Facebook or follow our Twitter."
"When we do shows, people always ask if they can become a member and how they can join," added Heding. "I think just letting people know they can be a member would generate more people that would be interested."
Both Gustafson and Heding agree that building Guildess will take time, but they're confident that the mission will succeed.
"We've got a lot of far-reaching goals for where we want to be in the next three to five years," said Gustafson. "People sometimes shove art aside and think, 'Who needs art?' But it's important for women to realize that they can use art as a vehicle to share their story and express what they have to say. We're trying to give something to Milwaukee that Milwaukee doesn't really have."
"And that females don't really have," added Heding. "For us to go into local organizations and actually volunteer, for us to go in and involve these women and children in the arts, it's such a core value to us, so that's where our motivation comes from.
"Things like this don't happen overnight. You need to just keep working at it little by little. As long as you have a clear goal and a clear vision of where you want it to be, that's one of the most important things, but with little baby steps along the way, that'll come."
Contrary to her natural state of being, Renee Lorenz is a total optimist when it comes to Milwaukee. Since beginning her career with OnMilwaukee.com, her occasional forays into the awesomeness that is the Brew City have turned into an overwhelming desire to discover anything and everything that's new, fun or just ... "different."
Expect her random musings to cover both the new and "new-to-her" aspects of Miltown goings-on, in addition to periodically straying completely off-topic, which usually manifests itself in the form of an obscure movie reference.
