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Kenilworth Open Studios

Name: Kenilworth Open Studios
Start: 2025-09-28T11:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-09-28T14:00:00-05:00
Location: Kenilworth Square East

September 28, 2025 @ 11:00 am – 2:00 pm

Geometric blocks and staircase representing 6 floors of art and 100+ artists at Kenilworth Open Studios

Date & Time
Sunday, September 28, 2025 (11 a.m.–2 p.m.)

Ages
All Ages

Location
Kenilworth Square East

Immerse yourself in creativity when Peck School of the Arts student and faculty artists open their studios to the public during Doors Open Milwaukee. From exhibitions and studio visits to live performances and family-friendly art activities, you’ll find something to excite you at Kenilworth Open Studios.

Located in the heart of Milwaukee’s East Side neighborhood, Kenilworth Square East is the Peck School of the Arts’ creative research facility. Formerly a Ford Model T factory, you’ll now find artist studios along with research, instruction, performance and production spaces.

Architecture Tour: Professor James Shields, one of the architects behind the building’s major renovation, will lead a personal tour at 11 a.m.
Open Studios: Step inside faculty studios to learn about their creative research and latest work, including opportunities to watch them create in real time
Live Demonstrations: Experience firsthand what goes into documentary filmmaking, foley sound, paper maker’s gardens, and the performing arts
Hands-on Activities: Try out digital fabrication, stop motion animation, puppetry, printmaking, and make-and-take projects with art education students
Art Exhibitions & Film Screenings: Explore Sum Total faculty exhibition, Woven Images student exhibition, and recent films by students and faculty

Parking: Street parking is available in the surrounding blocks. Be mindful of signage and restrictions. Good news: many spots are free on Sundays.
Public Transit: Kenilworth Square East is located near several bus lines. Visit the Milwaukee County Transit System to view route maps.
Wear comfortable shoes. You’ll want to explore multiple floors.
Come early. Start with the architecture tour and leave plenty of time to explore the entire building. There is a lot to see!
Bring your curiosity. Many demonstrations and activities let you participate.

Located in the heart of Milwaukee’s East Side neighborhood, UWM’s six-floor, 500,000 square foot Kenilworth Square East building serves as the creative research facility for the Peck School of the Arts. Originally built in 1915 by the Ford Motor Company, the building once housed an automobile assembly plant for the Model T. The building was purchased by the federal government in the 1940s before being acquired by UWM to house the university motor pool, mailroom, and print shop, among other auxiliary uses. A major renovation in 2006 transformed the building for use by the Peck School of the Arts, including student and faculty studios, performance and production spaces, public galleries, a screening room and various instructional facilities. In 2016, the building’s sixth floor was renovated to become the popular performance and event venue Jan Serr Studio, complete with stunning views of Lake Michigan and the city skyline.

Kenilworth Open Studios stop motion animation

Kenilworth Open Studios Dancers in window

Kenilworth Open Studios Dance exploration

Kenilworth Open Studios Animation and Puppets

2025 Schedule of Events

Here’s what we have planned for you at Kenilworth Open Studios. Schedule subject to change.

Architect-led Tour

Location	Description
1^st Floor – Prospect Avenue entrance	Professor James Shields, AIA, was one of the architects behind the major renovation that ushered in a new era for Kenilworth Square East. Professor Shields will offer firsthand insights into what went into its transformation. Gather at 11 a.m. for the tour.

Art & Design

Location	Description
1^st Floor – Gallery	Faculty Exhibition: Sum Total 2025
3^rd Floor – Gallery	Fibers Exhibition: Woven Images 2025
3^rd Floor – Commons	Pop-up Sale & Display with OBJECT Student Organization
3^rd Floor – DVC Adream Lab (339)	Senior Design & Visual Communication students will be working on projects using the equipment, including risograph printing, laser cutting, vinyl cutting and more.
3^rd Floor – Digital Fabrication Lab (368, 375)	Hands-on Activity with DigiFab Student Organization
3^rd Floor – Patio	Paper Maker’s Garden, a paper making farm and interdisciplinary research collaboration with Electra Quinney Institute.
4th Floor – Commons	Hands-on Activity with Print Club
5^th Floor – Commons	Family-friendly, Hands-on Art Activity with Art Education Faculty and Students
Various Floors – Studios	Get an inside look at various faculty, staff, and student studios

Film & Animation

Location	Description
1^st Floor – Screening Room	Screening: Recent Student & Faculty Work
4^th Floor – Room 408	Lighting & Cinematography Display
4^th Floor – Room 416	Demonstration of Live, Interactive Foley Performance: Falling in Terms of Silent with Associate Professor Kelly Kirshtner
4^th Floor – Room 420	Screening: Works-in-Progress by Graduate Students
4^th Floor – Room 445	doc\|UWM creates documentaries that connect communities and spark dialogue around social issues. Guests are invited to experience our studio, meet director Sean Kafer and students, and join us for a screening of Brady Street: Portrait of a Neighborhood.
4^th Floor – Room 468	Spooky Candy Jam: Make your own animation out of candy using animation cameras with help from Animation Club members. Come play with your food!
4^th Floor – Room 485	Animation Demonstration: Destructive animation and painting under the camera with Assistant Professor and experimental animator Laura Harrison
4^th Floor – Room 491	VR Film Experience with Assistant Professor Joel Benjamin
4^th Floor – Commons	Handmade Film Workshop: Direct Animation, Scratch Film, “Film Destroy” Techniques and Loop Making
Various Floors – Studios	Get an inside look at various faculty, staff, and student studios

Music, Theatre & Dance

Location	Description
5^th Floor – Commons	Pop-up Classical Guitar Performances
5^th Floor – Commons	Music Historian Research Display
5^th Floor – Kenilworth Five-0-Eight Theatre	Musical Theatre Show Tunes Tune-Up
6^th Floor – Jan Serr Studio	Pop-up Performances by UWM Jazz’s “Jane’s Combo”
6^th Floor – Classroom (660)	11 a.m. \| Winterdances Open Rehearsal with Dawn Springer 11:30 a.m. \| Care Open Rehearsal with Maria Gillespie 12:00 p.m. \| The Canvas and the Cage Research project with Maria Gillespie 12:30 p.m. \| Dance 412: Composition 1 Showing with Maria Gillespie 1:00 p.m. \| Wild Space Dance Company Rehearsal with Dan Schuchart 1:30 p.m. \| Winterdances Open Rehearsal with Ishmael Konney

Artist Studios

Collage of various drawings and stickers on a wall, including abstract shapes and a cartoon figure on torn paper.

Cam

308

I’m a printmaker and photographer who works across multiple mediums, creating art that combines traditional graffiti and digital.

An open fabric book stitched with drawings, showing a cartoon figure with heart-shaped eyes on one page and a snack bag illustration on the other.

Neb Berry

308

Printmaker and fibers artist using fabric, medical imagery, and food to dissect the fat body and experience. Currently focusing on food packaging and the way we speak about food and its effect on our bodies, both emotionally and physically.

A person stands beside a projected classroom slide showing a QR code, text about Art 501/601 & 505, and a scanned document on a large screen.

Dawn Ellen Van Kley-Imes

308

Fiber Artist who is doing research in plant dyeing on fabric to use in quiltmaking and fabric collage. Plants gift us with many things which include color, medicine and food. They also share nutrition with each other through an underground network.

Mixed‑media page with a centered circle framing a beige oval stamped with the word 'Obscure' and surrounded by geometric lines.

Josie Osborne

325

Josie Osborne is a print, collage and assemblage artist who is also a member of the Art Build Workers collective. Osborne’s personal work is informed by poetry, written word and personal experience.

A smooth, rounded wooden bowl with a recessed center holding several textured, dark brown stones.

Aaron Kia Napunako Boyd

331

Sculptor and metalworker of Kanaka ‘Oiwi and mixed heritage. Diasporic relationships of knowledge based on place/linking the passing of knowledge within indigenous communities and plant communities, senescence structures, and stewardship.

Clustered clear gemstones set in smooth white rounded forms against a dark background.

Jacob Alba

337

Jeweler whose creative research interests revolve around the use of modern Digital Fabrication technology alongside traditional bench jewelry practices. Currently working on sculptural/architectural pieces exploring the skill of stone setting.

Close-up of a tool with a long metal blade and a curved wooden handle against a plain background

Arthur Gibson

342

Metalsmith whose research focuses on tool making both functional and sculptural. Inspired by the mishmashed dialectical objects of the surrealist movement. Current work involves combining various tools in an inventive and humourous way.

Gallery display of sculptural pieces on wooden stands, including organic, insect‑like forms and mixed‑media objects arranged across the room.

Lily Wilkie-Jones

343

A sculpture and print maker, I use found objects and photos to create metal objects and the environments around them.

Joel Butler

349

Anti-fascist intermedia artist who explores altered states of consciousness through automatism and flow. Grounded in the tradition of surrealism, playing with themes of queerness/othering, the grotesque, and the visual language of comics.

A soft, pink‑tinted close‑up of an upper torso and shoulder, shown in gentle light with blurred details.

Jorge Ariel Escobar

349

Queer/Latinx image-maker exploring the ephemeral nature of analog photography as a metaphor for the fleeting, intimate connections within queer relationships.

A painted streetscape featuring a corner building with a large red "Gruber" sign, trees, and crosswalk markings under a bright sky.

Amy O’Neill

355

Observational painter interested in intersections and balances between community and isolation, and the collaborative effort to build and maintain shared commonalities. Currently working on small landscapes painted from direct observation.

Light shining through a wrinkled, thin, pink fabric in a dark room.

Jeremy Plunkett

367

Hyperrealist Painter and Printmaker interested in how mundane subjects and cast light further insight metaphor for life and death, human and artifice, or use and waste.

Black‑and‑white drawing of an abstract creature-like form with textured central mass and long branching tendrils extending outward.

Cynthia Brinich-Langlois

371

Even when we think we’re being subtle and unobtrusive, animals are aware and regard us with caution. They step aside, they recede and give us space. But they still watch us. So in these works, animals stare back at us. Their gaze meets ours.

A person stands at a table with a large white bowl, utensils, and objects, with a projected image of a similar table scene in the background.

Kelly Kirshtner

416

Kelly Kirshtner is an artist and sound designer whose work takes a speculative approach to storytelling through sound, moving image, and intermedia practices.

Black‑and‑white photo of a hand placed beside a rectangular brick on a wooden surface, shown in a high‑contrast layout.

Alex Witteman

424

Photographer and sculptor whose work seeks to combine and amplify these two mediums through experimentation and documentation. Mostly explores themes of isolation and commodification of necessities in the modern world.

A large pile of white stones with a yellow shovel standing upright in it, displayed in a bright gallery space near tall windows.

kathryn e. martin – meurer

435

An enthusiastic (and happy) maker who works to find inherent, potential connections between materials and meaning as a way to cite sculptures in space.

A small house‑shaped sculpture with a grid of triangular cutouts and a textured, weathered surface.

Daniel Atkinson

436

Exploring various processes in printmaking and brick sculpture.

Layered mixed‑media artwork with folded white paper shapes, stained paper, and red thread stitched in geometric lines.

Liya Du

437

As a visual artist and mother of two, my work explores the reconciliation of art and mothering life through themes of time, memory, domestic labor, and the mother–child relationship by using painting & drawing, book art and mix-media.

Two people stand in a grassy field near bare trees, looking out toward a hazy landscape.

Ethan Sorge

442

Photographer who is interested in seeking out community narratives in Milwaukee. My current work is focused on the indigenous people and history of the area, two big topics that are often overlooked. I am also interested in making films.

Dried yellow flowers hanging inside a tall red glass vase near a softly lit window.

Shirine Shah

449

Filmmaker, writer.

A telescope on a tripod stands alone in a dim studio space, casting a long shadow on the floor.

Alessandro Streccioni

449

If I close my eyes and see an image, where does that image come from? This is one of the questions that Alessandro Streccioni, filmmaker and artist, asks himself every day.

Soft, abstract scene with scattered dark rock-like shapes over a pale background and warm light glowing through blinds.

Lin Chen

455

Lin Chen is a experimental and documentary filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist exploring memory and everyday life.

Grainy black‑and‑white view of an industrial riverside scene with tall smokestacks, a bridge, and surrounding buildings.

Isaac Brooks

459

Filmmaker and sound recordist editing a current short work.

Abstract painting of a blurred blue-and-white vehicle moving across a dark road with streaks of yellow and vertical paint drips.

Steve Wetzel

465

In addition to my work as the head of school for Peck, I am an artist and filmmaker. For this event I will be wandering the halls, but please feel free to walk through my studio.

Close-up of a spiky plant stem with large green leaves glowing with red and pink light along the edges.

Jesse McLean

467

I’m primarily a filmmaker, making experimental nonfiction films. I’ve dedicated my creative research and art practice to exploring what it means to be human in relation to what is not.

Illustrated lower legs in patterned socks and brown shoes standing on a colorful, abstract floor with swirling shapes.

Laura Harrison

485

I am a filmmaker whose creative practice incorporates painting, writing and all forms of animation to create experimental hybrid narrative films. Currently I am working on a new film entitled Partial Love Objects.

Faded imprint of a single pale leaf with a thin stem on a light background.

Joseph Mougel

494

Joseph Mougel’s site-responsive work spanning photography, video, & performance. His current explorations bridge historical photograpic processes with current technologies. Visitors can print an AI image as a cyanotype, to be toned with botanicals.

Translucent white sculptural form made of layered, shredded material rising from a wooden block against a gray background.

Geornica Daniels

524

In my sculptures and installations, I navigate the tension between preservation and loss. My works often undergo a metamorphosis during their creation, transitioning from pliable and moist states to structured and rigid forms.

Person standing in front of a sculptural installation made of broken white electronics and tangled wires.

Nathaniel Stern

535

Artist, poet, and engineer whose art explores the co-evolution of humans and technology – from fire and language to the Internet and AI. Recent exhibition of installations opened in Michigan, covered in Forbes, coming to Milwaukee and Kansas.

Pattern of many circular optical illusion designs in blue, yellow, black, and white that appear to rotate when viewed.

Winifred Elysse Newman

539

I am a researcher in neuroscience and architecture, and I also serve as the Dean of the College and Schools. For this event, please stop by for coffee and talk.

Breakfast setting with two fried eggs, sliced tomatoes, utensils, a patterned placemat, cloth napkin, and a cup seen from above.

Mer Garcia

542

Printmaker and 3D artist whose explores the ties between memory, identity, and tradition. Rooted in storytelling, it seeks to preserve fragments of my heritage and family history, capturing memories to keep them alive.

Black-and-white artwork of two overlapping hands reaching upward on a textured, speckled background.

Jack Lehtinen

543

My art practice looks to critique what is lost because of AI technologies by contrasting automated machine-made processes with tactile, human-centered practices like print and papermaking.

A vibrant abstract artwork made of layered colorful shapes, textures, and patterns forming a dense, organic composition.

Angela Piehl

549

My collages, paintings, and drawings explore tensions found in accumulations.

Three small handheld brushes with wooden handles and stiff bristles arranged on a light background.

Jamie Bertsch

553

The process is the point of it. Jamie Bertsch works in wood, paper, textiles + the poetics of color. Always learning about how things are made— and listening intently to the intuitive process of it all.

Colorful painting of a child in a bright costume standing beside a large yellow cartoon character and vibrant candy‑like decorations.

Cynthia Hayes

553

A painter whose recent work is inspired by observations made during her travels throughout China while visiting PSOA’s partner institution, Hubei University of Technology in Wuhan. Colorful contemporary and historical imagery coincide in her work.

New in 2025! Kenilworth Open Studios is taking place during Doors Open Milwaukee.

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