Placemaking

Start your morning off right with sunrise salutations paired with a unique blend of Starbucks Coffee each Thursday in September at Red Arrow Park.

Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21 teamed up with the Milwaukee Bucks to commission a new mural of Giannis Antetokounmpo by artist Mauricio Ramirez at 600 E. Wisconsin Avenue. A celebration of the mural's completion was held on May 13, during the 2022 playoff run. 

Big family fun rolls into Red Arrow Park on Saturday, May 21 from 11 AM - 2 PM. In celebration of National Public Works Week, the City of Milwaukee's Department of Public Works and Milwaukee Fire Department will host a fleet of vehicles around the park, allowing kids an up-close look at various City equipment and occupations. 

Let Milwaukee's best talent sing, strum, and drum over your lunch break! Grab your sunglasses and lunch to-go and catch live local performances in the courtyard at 411 East Wisconsin Center every Thursday from June 2 to September 1, 2022. 

Reimagine Red Arrow Park is a multi-year, public-private partnership to foster programming and civic life in the heart of the community, 365 days of the year. 

Celebrate Mardi Gras and march through the downtown skywalk on Fat Tuesday, March 1, 2022, featuring the Extra Crispy Brass Band, local drag queens, and beads, beads, and more beads!

To keep downtown's thriving street art scene alive during the winter, Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21 partnered with The Avenue and ASQ Center for two gravity-defying murals in January 2022. 

Lace up your skates and join your favorite superheroes to battle the winter blues on Saturday, February 12, from 11 AM – 2 PM. Bring your own skates or enjoy free ice skate rentals sponsored by WaterStone Bank.

Learn about plans to build a new dog park amenity on a centrally located site under I-794, between the Milwaukee River and Plankinton Avenue, along Clybourn Street.

Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21 is proud to introduce Jumpst(ART) Downtown, a new arts and culture initiative to spread joy in our community this summer. New murals, temporary art installations, and performances will pop up in unexpected places, offering safe and exciting ways to experience everything downtown has to offer. 

Internationally-acclaimed street art Kelsey Montague brought her "What Lifts You" mural project to the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena in July 2021. Learn more about how local artists were involved in the project. 

Completed in 2021, "You Are Beautiful," at 834 N. Plankinton Avenue, is part of a global art project to spread positivity and joy. 

Just in time to celebrate Pride Month, "Massimals MKE" by artist Jason Scroggin of Scroggin Studio, returned to Cathedral Square Park for the summer in an all-new, colorful sequence. 

Adding color to enliven the pedestrian experience underneath the freeway, four artists, each with a Milwaukee connection, transformed the Broadway freeway piers into Milwaukee's newest outdoor art gallery.

To commemorate the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21 commissioned three local artists for the "Road of Democracy," a public art installation near City Hall featuring former Artists of the Year Della Wells and Dasha Kelly Hamilton, and award-winning filmmaker Brad Pruitt. 

In the summer of 2020, artists Jaime Brown and Karim Jabbari completed a new mural above 2nd Street, as part of The Avenue's redevelopment and a new focal point for a reinvigorated public realm. 

In the summer of 2020, Milwaukee artist Ken Brown completed "The Hero in You," to celebrate the essential workers and frontline heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about this community mural, and the people who inspired his artistic masterpiece. 

In the summer of 2019, Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21 prototyped a summer pop-up, complete with moveable tables and chairs, a book cart, and concert series. Learn more about our continued improvements to this neighborhood gem, in partnership with the City of Milwaukee. 

"Heart & Sol" by local artist Mauricio Ramirez portrays the optimism for the city's future through its illustration of youth. Featuring a colorful background and symbols, this site-specific mural reflects Milwaukee's four seasons and the work of Community Advocates, Inc.

In July 2019, local artist Emma Daisy Gertel illustrated the revitalization taking place along West Wisconsin Avenue with an 80-foot by 50-foot mural at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and James Lovell Street. Titled "Westown in Bloom," the high-impact  mural is positioned at Downtown's gateway where more than 11,000 vehicles pass each day. 

"Migration" is a floor-to-ceiling mural by CERA Street Art and Katie Batten in the Jefferson Street pedestrian tunnel. Spanning 50 feet in length, the mural strengthens pedestrian connectivity between the central business district and Historic Third Ward neighborhoods. 

In celebration of the Year of Wisconsin Avenue in 2017, Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21, with support from the Downtown Placemaking Task Force and Wisconsin Avenue stakeholders, commissioned Mauricio Ramirez to transform ten utility boxes into artistic masterpieces. 

From the lakefront to Wisconsin Center District, Milwaukee's main street, Wisconsin Avenue, comes to life seasonally, between June and October, with 22 world-class sculptures. For the third consecutive year, Sculpture Milwaukee returns in 2019, with all-new public art in the heart of the city. 

In partnership with Milwaukee County Housing Division, Milwaukee Police Department, and the District Attorney's Office, Key to Change assists chronically homeless individuals within our community. Key-shaped meters build awareness of our community's quality of life programs and collect donations for both short and long-term assistance. 

In 2020, Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21 partnered with VISIT Milwaukee and the City of Milwaukee for a rapid refresh of downtown's wayfinding system.