As the mural boom continues apace all across Milwaukee, the Villard Avenue Business Improvement District #19 today announced a new large-scale five-mural art project to be installed along Historic Villard Avenue in the former North Milwaukee.
The five mural sites are the Carter Christian Academy on 35th Street; Oasis (nightclub) on Villard Avenue; the former CCA Wellness and Fitness Center on 35th Street; The ArtHaus (theater) on 35th; and MotorKings Auto (formerly P’s Automotive), on Villard Avenue.
Artists can submit proposals based on the theme of "Cultural Pride" to the BID, which will then name the selected projects around the week of Aug. 10-15 and artists will be notified the next week.
Painting dates will be scheduled between Labor Day weekend and Saturday, Sept. 19.
The BID says that the murals, "aim to celebrate the creativity, talent and pride of the Villard community."
"There was a lot of feedback about supporting the culture of the people that live in the area with regard to recruiting and supporting black owned businesses," says BID director Angelique Sharpe.
"They want to see Sherman Phoenix-like models of business, which we know is predominately black owned. So this is the thought process behind having a cultural mural theme – to give a nod and some respect to the culture of the people that have been surviving through the last several decades of economic disinvestment in the area."
This project is funded by BID #19 and organized by Wallpapered City, which has worked to to create many mural projects in the Milwaukee area, including Black Cat Alley on the East Side, a series of murals this summer in West Allis and the mural project installed in East Tosa last summer.
Support for the project has also come from Havenwoods Economic Development Corporation, the City of Milwaukee's Environmental Collaboration Office, Milwaukee City Development's NIDC Community Improvement Program and a $25,000 anonymous gift.
For details on submissions, please contact Angelique Sharpe or Stacey Williams-Ng.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
