We're all connected 24/7 to computers, tablets, phones and television. But there's more to life than being online – even for a digital media company – so this week we're excited to show you ways to connect with family and friends, even when there's no signal. Steinhafels presents OnMilwaukee Unplugged Week, a celebration of all things analog. Sit back, log into these stories and then log into the real world.
We’re celebrating unplugged week here at OnMilwaukee – ironic, I know – but it’s a perfect reminder that there is plenty to get out and do in this town if you’d just put the damn phone down for a minute (yes, guilty as charged).
Here are six museums and shows worth checking out right now...
1. Haggerty Museum of Art
The Haggerty, located on the Marquette University campus, still seems like a secret in Milwaukee. And for no good reason. The museum, which is typically nearly, if not entirely, empty, stages great exhibitions of contemporary, international and Renaissance art. At the moment there are four linked shows: "Carrie Schneider: Reading Women," "Page Turners: Women and Letters," "Bijinga: Picturing Women in Japanese Prints" and "Joan of Arc: Highlights from the Permanent Collection." Oh, and admission is free.
2. Discovery World
This place on the lake is, of course, no secret at all. But did you know that a new exhibition focusing on the human genome opened on Jan. 23? "Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code" is a traveling show that explores DNA, from what it is to how it works to how it is revolutionizing medicine. The show inaugurates a new exhibit area the museum carved out of previously underutilized space.
3. The Streets of Old Milwaukee
Sure, you think you know it, and surely you do. But for the 50th anniversary of this most Milwaukee of all local exhibits, the Milwaukee Public Museum expanded and polished up The Streets and you simply have to go and check it out. Tell Granny I said howdy.
4. "Sam Francis: Master Printmaker"
This show at Milwaukee Art Museum runs through March 20 and if you go see it, you’ll not only get a peek at a show that OnMilwaukee called a "superlative show cherry picks about 50 prints from the 2009 Sam Francis Foundation gift to MAM of more than 500 prints, now the largest museum repository of the artist's works on paper." You’ll also get a look at the newly expanded, rehung and reopened galleries at the museum.
5. Chudnow Museum
Opened in 2012, the Chudnow Museum opens a window into Milwaukee’s past in a renovated old Downtown residence. As good as the exhibits is the gift shop which sells some vintage gems.
6. "Brew City MKE: Craft, Culture, Community"
Milwaukee County Historical Society has given over nearly its entire building to this landmark exhibition exploring brewing history in Brew City. Don’t miss it.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
