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Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee

March 16, 2012 by · Comments Off on Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee 

Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) is located on Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Beginning around 1872, multiple organizations were founded in order to bring an art gallery to Milwaukee, as the city was still a growing port town with little or no facilities to hold major art exhibitions.

Over the span of at least nine years, all attempts to build a major art gallery had failed. In 1881, exhibitions were held at Milwaukee’s Exposition Hall, which was Milwaukee’s primary event venue at the time. Shortly after that year, Alexander Mitchell donated all of her collection into constructing Milwaukee’s first permanent art gallery in the city’s history.

The art gallery, the Quadracci Pavilion, was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. The Reiman Bridge, also designed by Calatrava, connects to the pavilion and provides pedestrian access to and from downtown.

With the exception of the temporary exhibition gallery, the galleries are contained in both the Saarinen building and a 1975 addition designed by local architect David Kahler. This addition was commissioned in 1969 to make room for other exhibits and donations.

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