UWM will offer behind the scenes tours and activities Sunday, Sept. 24, as part of the seventh-annual Doors Open Milwaukee. Events and tours will be held on campus from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Doors Open Milwaukee is a two-day public celebration of Milwaukee’s art, architecture, culture and history. On Sept. 23-24, the public will be able to visit and tour more than 150 Milwaukee buildings, businesses, institutions and other community centers, including many places not usually open to the public.
Here’s a look at — and here’s a map of — what is being offered at UWM (most are offered on Sept. 24 only, unless otherwise indicated):
Campus tour
Take a guided tour of UWM with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, based out of historic Vogel Hall. See gargoyles, fountains, historic architecture and state-of-the art buildings. Tours will be led by current students and alumni, who will share their past and present UWM experiences.
Biological Sciences greenhouse
The Biological Sciences Department maintains a 9,200-square-foot greenhouse on the Northwest Quadrant complex’s roof, which has a classroom, growing spaces, labs and outdoor planting beds. A collection of 672 plant species representing over 110 plant families helps students learn and furthers academic research. Many specimens are rare in cultivation or endangered in the wild. Take a self-guided tour or try the greenhouse’s botany scavenger hunt.
3 collections in the UWM Golda Meir Library
The American Geographical Society Library contains over 1.3 million items, including maps, atlases, globes, books, periodicals and photographs. The library will display a number of its cartographic treasures, some of which date back as far as 1452.
UWM Archives preserves the Milwaukee area’s history with a special focus on the city’s social justice movements, underrepresented populations and political activity. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Milwaukee’s fair housing marches, the archives will showcase the papers of Milwaukee civil rights leaders.
Special Collections holds over 70,000 printed materials from the 15th century to the present, and will exhibit early printed books, fine press, artist’s books, comic books, zines and more.
UWM School of Architecture & Urban Planning
Students will guide studio tours in the Architecture & Urban Planning building. Drawings and models of student work will also be displayed, and local urban planning organizations will give presentations on transportation, racial segregation in Wisconsin, affordable housing and neighborhood-based economic, environmental and social sustainability. There will be activities for all ages.
UWM Manfred Olson Planetarium
The planetarium will be giving 45-minute shows every hour. The last show will start at 4 p.m. Visitors will see a short presentation on a variety of science topics, and then the planetarium will offer a sky show with its original, 50-year-old Spitz A3P projector.
The planetarium will offer the same program on Saturday, Sept. 23, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
UWM’s School of Freshwater Sciences
UWM’s facility in Milwaukee’s Harbor District will participate in Doors Open Milwaukee on Saturday, Sept. 23, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The building has state-of-the-art quarantine labs for studying aquatic species, a pathogen testing facility and the first DNA sequencing lab in the United States dedicated to water and environmental issues. The school’s researchers and collaborators will be presenting their work and giving tours of their research vessel, the Neeskay.
