Local organizations are looking to change the way people view the city of Milwaukee through the “Milwaukee Image and Perception Task Force.”
The task force is led by Paul Upchurch, president and CEO of Visit Milwaukee — the leading organization behind the effort — and plans to assess Milwaukee’s image while recommending developmental ideas for a new “brand” identity.
The organization already has programs in place to bring visitors to the city, making funding the task force more feasible.
Although there are already programs in the works, Upchurch said the task force is still looking to Milwaukee organizations and businesses to help reach its broader goals. He said he also hopes to get Marquette and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee involved in the project.
“Milwaukee is kind of a college town,” he said. “The impact the task force has on the image of Milwaukee will in turn impact the universities in the form of donors and people wanting to go to school here.”
If prospective students view Milwaukee as a vibrant place to live, they will see it as a vibrant place to go to school, Upchurch said.
He said Milwaukee’s problem is not that it has a poor image, but that there is simply a lack of awareness of the city.
“It is not hard to find good things going on in Milwaukee,” he said. “The issue is getting the national and international media outlets here in the first place.”
Alderman Terry Witkowski of the 13th District echoed this problem. Nationally, Milwaukee’s image is neither good nor bad, Witkowski said. Rather, the city has no image.
“It is hard to get businesses to come here if they don’t know where Milwaukee is,” Witkowski said. “From an economic and tourism standpoint it is important to establish our image.”
He said people’s feelings about Milwaukee — especially those who have never been to the city — are largely shaped by the opinions of family, friends and media coverage. He said those opinions may not be accurate representations of the city.
Just as people who are not from the city do not know what the city has to offer, current and prospective Marquette students might not know either.
Kristen Strem, a sophomore in the College of Communication and San Francisco native, said she did not know anything about Milwaukee prior to attending Marquette.
“I visited Marquette once after I got in and didn’t really explore Milwaukee,” Strem said.
Prior to the creation of the task force, Witkowski said multiple organizations had been working individually to create an image for Milwaukee, but there was no collaboration between them.
The task force combines many of these organizations, which include Visit Milwaukee and Milwaukee Downtown BID 21 and Milwaukee 7, according to the Final Report of the Milwaukee Image and Perception Task Force.
Milwaukee Downtown BID 21 is an organization established to support the interests of the downtown Milwaukee business community. Milwaukee 7 is a cooperative economic development platform formed by the seven counties of southeastern Wisconsin.
According to the report, the task force will maintain a crisis communications team to respond to negative publicity, while promoting positive media attention. It will also develop a coordinated program to assist news sources visiting the region during major events.
The team will also attempt to revitalize the “Milwaukee Mark” as the official symbol for the region.
The mark is an image of the Milwaukee Art Museum’s distinctive sunscreen wings addition, which was designed by architect Santiago Calatrava.
Although it was originally introduced in 2009, the mark did not catch on as the symbol of the city. By reintroducing it on city stationary, official documents and eventually city vehicles, the task force hopes to establish it as the image of Milwaukee, similar to how St. Louis is recognized by its Gateway Arch.