The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Junk wars

In response to the Haggerty Museum of Art’s exhibition Agnes Denes: Projects for Public Spaces, students from selected Milwaukee school districts and local social justice organizations will create large-scale sculptures from discarded materials collected in Milwaukee neighborhoods designated by the city to be made into more desirable business and living areas, said Lynne Shumow, director of the project and curator of education and community outreach at the museum.

Participants in the first Respect project include Ralph H. Metcalfe School, Fitzsimonds Boys and Girls Club, Malcolm X Academy and Community Learning Center, Riverside High School, Hartford University School, Mary Ryan’s Boys and Girls Club and Open Gate — a local homeless shelter.

“The whole idea of this project is picking materials that are useless in the eyes of most people and turning them into something thought-provoking and interesting,” Shumow said. “It’s about giving back to the community and the statues’ placements will call attention to various areas in the Milwaukee community.”

According to Shumow, participants will work collaboratively with each school and organization creating one sculpture. The completed work will be placed in vacant, city-owned lots within the Metcalfe Park, Midtown Triangle, West State and Harambee/Riverwest neighborhoods where the materials were collected.

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“SEAC partnered with the Art Club to collect garbage and recyclables on campus to create our statue,” said senior Chris Petrauskis, SEAC president. “We’re slightly sheltered here on campus so the goal of doing this was to make students think about the environment and how much we consume from it in our daily lives.”

The Marquette sculpture — meant to resemble an tree — will be constructed at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Justice House at 1726 W. State St. and the Alumni Memorial Union, Petrauskis said.

Installation and finishing touches to the sculpture will be made Oct. 27 on the southeast grounds of the AMU, where it will remain through Oct. 31. In December, it will be placed in a vacant Milwaukee-owned lot. All sculptures will be on view from Dec. 2 through April 2, Shumow said.

“I love the idea of art as activism,” Petrauskis said. “Most people might not be inspired by reading pamphlets, but I hope that the visual effect of the sculpture will really force people to become more aware of the relationship that we have with our environment.”