La Familia de Arte continues to grow and create artwork that uplifts and connects with members of the community year-round. Here’s just a small sampling of some of the projects our family of artists have completed.
For a map of La Familia de Arte’s Community Artwork: https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1WPhE7PWG1GSXl8qG8rxZ81K1GHrs7GfR
The Unity Bridge Art Project, “Unity: Honoring the Past, Facing the Present, Envisioning the Future.” (Year I, 2026) - Beauty becomes transformative when it offers a path of encouragement and inspiration for our city. The history of the Open Housing Marchers is an invitation to reflect on the solidarity of the past and envision a united future.
In 2025, we began a three-year project to call on diverse groups from across the North and South Side to learn about the 60-year-old history, and help create ceramic murals that reflect their visions of unity today.
These murals will stretch across the fencing on the James E. Groppi Unity Bridge and breathe new life into our community, helping us hear the call for “Unity: Honoring the Past, Facing the Present, Envisioning the Future.” Click here to learn more about this project!
Sixteenth Street Business Improvement District #38 (November 2025) - If you are going down S 16th St., you may notice a new addition to some storefronts! La Familia installed five planters, one for each of five special businesses. Many times, small shops get overshadowed and overlooked, so we wanted to highlight their force as pillars in our neighborhood. Each planter is filled with vibrant colors and the store’s logo. Their presence will bring beauty to the community and highlight the stores.
A special thank you to Sixteenth Street Business Improvement District #38 and Sinai Mendoza-Zarate for their support and for being the driving force for this vision.
Mitchell Public Library (November 2025) - Public libraries have provided services to Milwaukee for over a century, and the Mitchell Street Branch is one of its shining examples. When the staff asked us to install artwork along the pedestrian walkway bordering the west side of the library, we explored with multiple groups of patrons and neighbors what the library meant to them.
From learning new skills like cooking or music production to being a safe space for families and friends alike, the rich ways the Mitchell Library has served the community are represented in the 10 ceramic murals.
Creative Commons at 5th & Washington (October 2025) - La Familia along with other amazing artists have finalized installations at the Creative Commons. In addition to the vibrant ceramic mosaics on the bioswale, we have installed three benches under the freeway to be a part of the area. We encourage everyone to check out how alive the area has become. We are proud of the fact that this space is made by the community for all – a celebration of the life giving beauty of water.
Slip Lane (merging lane) at Layton Blvd and Pierce St. (September 2025) - Reckless driving can have a demoralizing effect on the whole community. Conversely, taking active measures that make our streets safer with strong concrete structures empowers the community, and doing this in ways that add color to the neighborhood is a definite plus. The City of Milwaukee has been supporting ways to make these closed lanes welcoming spaces for the community. For this space, we mortared bollards and planters with tiles that portray the homes, businesses, and organizations of the community. This has given this installation a very personal feel!
Mitchell Park Domes Benches (Summer 2024 & August 2025) - The Mitchell Park Domes and the surrounding area is a favorite space for our neighborhood to meet. We were invited by Artists Working in Education (AWE) to collaborate on creating seating that expands gathering spaces in the park. We decided to create benches that reflect the beauty and breadth of the plant life in the Domes. If you look closely, you can read the messages of hope inscribed by youth from the AWE summer parks program.
Arts@Large Bioswale (August 2025) - Natural beauty exists all around us and when cared for, also creates a sustainable environment for our community. When we were asked to partner with Arts@Large and their summer youth camp to create tiles on the new bioswale, we were delighted to work together blending art and nature. Through this project, our artists guided students to listen, learn, and then depict images of the natural life along the rivers. Their images honor the gift of nature and are located at the corner of S 5th and W Washington Streets.
German Immersion (June 2025) - For the second year graduating fifth graders completed a tiled bollard as a permanent gift to the school. This is becoming a legacy among the students and new fifth graders now ask their art teacher about this spring project.
Acosta Middle School Mural (June 2025) - At Acosta Middle School, La Familia and Latino Arts worked with the students and their teacher to create images of what was beautiful to them: the flora and fauna of the Caribbean islands, the historical Afro-Caribbean art of the ancestors, and the gift of education itself. The installation is found on the side of the building with the fitting title, “¡Gracias a Nuestros Antecedentes – Somos el Futuro!”
Open Door Café / Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist (April 2025 & September 2025) - If you visit the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, tucked in on N Jackson St. you’ll find vibrant planters, benches, and a waste receptacle (which the patrons dubbed, “the prettiest garbage bin in the city.”) Here is where hundreds line up Sunday through Friday for a warm meal at the Open Door Café.
The leaders of the Café reached out to La Familia asking them to create a space where patrons could have something beautiful to look at and places to rest. Our favorite part of the installation are tiles where patrons inscribed messaged of hope.
Running Rebels Sunflower Tribute (September 2024) - We finalized our installation with Running Rebels, creating a beautiful wave of sunflowers adorning the cyclone fence. This sweet backdrop honors the Peace Post and pays tribute to community members lost to gun violence. We hope that peace prevail on earth, and unity thrive in our community.
Running Rebels Benches (September 2024) - In recognition of the valuable impact that Running Rebels has had for the community for 40 years, we created these benches with the help of their summer interns – a beautiful collaborative summer project.
Silver Spring Neighborhood Butterflies (September 2024) - Our delightful first installation project with Silver Spring Neighborhood Center created a vibrant display of beautiful butterflies decorating their surrounding fence, featuring inspirational messages created by the youth and the community.
Edison School Apartments Phase III (October 2024) - Second Floor: “Education Changes Lives” shows waves of color that serve as a backdrop highlighting the wisdom of the ages with quotes on the power of learning and the art of teaching. These waves draw hues from the whole spectrum of light, illustrate the full world of possibilities that learning opens up to us. Quotes are from thinkers of different cultures and walks of life sharing and honoring the priceless gift of knowledge.
Edison School Apartments Phase II (October 2024) - First Floor: “Education Open Worlds" depicts how ordinary school subjects can open up into ever growing fields of discovery. Wave forms are used throughout the three floors. Sound waves, water waves, brains waves, electromagnetic waves; all symbolize the connection of the world around us to our own perceptions, understanding, and creativity, with a special nod to Thomas Edison.
Edison School Apartments Phase I (October 2024) - The art at Edison School Apartments highlights the power and vitality of lifelong learning. It salutes the teachers, coaches, families, and mentors who have encouraged us never to stop learning. Each floor had a particular focus: Ground Floor: “Education Works” portrays how education has worked to benefit the community. We created waves of clean water and healthy fish - a tribute to the accomplishments of environmental education like UWM’s School of Fresh Water Science. Lastly, two large murals recognize the rich and complex learning involved in building, restoring green spaces, and filling the city with lighting and a small nod to Thomas Edison, whom the school was named after.
Thrive On King (September 2024) - We created two installations for the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s new home on MLK Dr. Two large planters capture moments of Bronzeville's cultural legacy, and three hexagons hold ceramic circles portraying everyday life in Bronzeville. Months of interviewing elders and current residents opened up a world of personal stories, and discussions with youth across the north side captured their dreams for renewal. These tell the story of “Bronzeville: Remembering the Past, Honoring the Present, Envisioning the Future.”
Milwaukee German Immersion School (June 2024) - Hooray! The graduating 5th grade class at the Milwaukee German Immersion School designed this bollard as a graduation gift to the school. Filled with magical creatures and natural images inspired by German folk art, they left their permanent contribution to the school as they move on to their next milestone.
New State Benches (May 2024) - This late spring we had our installation at The New State - West Side Arts Music Park. These vibrant benches draw inspiration from the stunning mural at the new outdoor music venue and the iconic stained glass windows in local buildings. We hope this creates a space where the community can foster the arts and promote local musical talent.
PHASE III: Here We Make Our Home (October 2023) - Phase 3 of our bollard project on S. 16th St. continued the theme of celebrating people who made Milwaukee their home. Artists researched each country of origin as well as learned about and received guidance from members of the countries represented.
Muskego Way (August 2023) - We partner with Muskego way to install bollards along a green space adjoining a senior center, park, and health center. The neighbors had asked us to install a barricade against vehicles illegally driving on the green space, but wanted it to be an artistic installation as well. These neighbors were able to help with the design, inscribe, and glaze the tiles used for the project.
Old McKinley School / NEW Veterans Affordable Housing (2022-2023) - What began as an idea of renovating an old vacant school and turn it into affordable housing for veteran families, became a huge canvas for us when asked by the contractor to create art for the building. Our work started in Fall 2022 with concept ideas for several areas of the building, designing and glazing the tiles to make those ideas reality, creating standing art pieces, and asking community members to engrave words of love and hope on stars that we hung.
PHASE II: Here We Make Our Home/2022 Reflections on the Pandemic Bollards (Oct, 2022) - Phase 2 of our bollards created for S. 16th St. in the Clarke Square Neighborhood was celebrated with music, refreshments, and community. Several bollards were tiled with positive messages and reflections of things learned or enjoyed by members of the community during the pandemic, and the remaining bollards were created to celebrate our diverse Milwaukee community-those who originally were here, and those who came as immigrants up through 1920. Those featured in this installment include the 12 Nations of Wisconsin, the African diaspora, and the Polish, German, and Irish immigrant communities. Members representing each of these communities spoke to our artists about important symbols, colors, and patterns that should be represented on the respective bollard. A continuation of bollards representing Milwaukee’s diverse immigrant community is planned for later in 2023.
Prince of Peace (Summer 2022) - This incredible mural is a true example of community artwork. Our neighbor, Prince of Peace Parish, asked us to create a large outdoor mural that reflects what is important to them and celebrates the wonderful diversity of our Milwaukee neighborhood. Using their input, and with the artistic help of over 950 artists which included our 40 artists, and the students of Prince of Peace, Bruce Guadalupe, and Cristo Rey schools, tiles were inscribed with messages of hope, encouragement and other positive messages, and then images were drawn onto the tiles and glazed by our artists. This beautiful installation was completed in August, and blessed after Mass on August 14th.
Escuela Verde (June 2022) - We partnered with Escuela Verde to create three benches in a green space across the street. Each bench focuses on one of the elements (Earth, Water, or Air) and showcases animals and plants native to Wisconsin as researched by the students at Escuela Verde. Students were taught how to work with ceramic tiles, and helped in the glazing of over 301 tiles per bench. Creation of these colorful pieces was the product of 6 months of collaboration.
La Placita (Fall 2021) - This community plaza (placita) in the Clarke Square neighborhood pays homage to the National Farmworkers Movement and the life and legacy of these courageous workers. Dolores Huerta coined the phrase “Si, Se Puede,” “Yes, you can!”- a rallying cry of hope and power for people everywhere working to right injustice and build a better life for all. Community members were invited by our artists to inscribe tiles with how the farmworkers movement inspires them, what “Si, Se Puede” means to them today, and messages of love, courage, and hope. Tiles were then glazed and installed at La Placita, located at El Rey, 901 S. 16th St.
Thanks to Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative, the Zilber Family Foundation, S. 16th St. Business Improvement District, & El Rey.
See La Placita in the news: https://www.tmj4.com/news/hispanic-heritage/new-plaza-and-art-installation-unveiled-on-milwaukees-south-side
Pandemic Memorial (Fall 2021) - We worked with Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative and the City of Milwaukee to install 12 tiled bollards along S. 16th St., just south of National Ave. These colorfully tiled pillars include inscriptions made by 1,800 community residents in the summer of 2021. The six pillars on the east side of the street are filled with those they think of as “Everyday Heroes of the Pandemic”, and the six pillars on the west side of the street are inscribed with the names of their loved ones, the “Fallecidos” who died during the pandemic.
For the installation celebration in the news, please click on the links below:
https://www.fox6now.com/news/milwaukee-covid-memorial-victims-heroes-represented-by-1800-tiles
Voices of the City (2019 & Oct. 2021) - Our Voices of the City Project, sponsored in 2019 by Near West Side Partners, City of Milwaukee Arts Board, and private funders, experienced a rebirth in 2021, thanks to the wonderful support and advocacy of NWSP and support from HUD. The temporary installation was taken down and now has a new permanent home at “Fats Triangle”, a green space at N. 35th and State St. This project has always been especially dear to our hearts as it included 1,500 residents from the near northwest side inscribing messages of courage, love, and hope on tiles that were then glazed by our artists and wired to cyclone fencing at N. 27th and Wisconsin Avenue. Today, these same messages continue to inspire the community as three colorful post installations.
We Are One (2020) - Our major project in 2020 was the installation of our “We Are One” series. With the help of private donations and Bader Philanthropies, we were able to create and install 60 ceramic posts and murals throughout our neighborhood. We had decided last winter/early spring that in these difficult times, we wanted to fill our community with beautiful art, giving hope and comfort to our residents. These were installed in any neighbor's yard for free, with the only proviso being that they needed to be placed where passers-by could see and enjoy them. Whenever possible, we worked with our neighborhood “hosts” to design pieces that were meaningful to them.
Vecinos Unidos (2020) - Another rewarding installation we did this summer came from a collaborative effort with a ‘sister’ grassroots group: Vecinos Unidos, United Neighbors. These neighbors, just 5 blocks east of us, have been doing wonderful work with a small green space to help neighbors grow healthy foods, and together study all manner of important topics relevant to the community and the world around them. Supported by the City of Milwaukee and private funders, we created some beautiful sturdy seating at the front of the garden, especially for youth waiting for rides. In the back of the garden, we installed 4 pillars made of tiles inscribed by the neighbors with messages of hope and love and then glazed with beautiful paintings by our artists.
Northbrook Valentines (2020) - For Valentine’s Day, we decided to focus on a message of universal love and hope, so we took our studio to our neighbors at Northbrook Church in Richfield to show our commitment to bridging the gap. We partnered with the church to provide over 2,000 ceramic heart magnets, each with the message “You Are Loved” inscribed on the back, to over 800 families attending service that weekend. Each family was invited to take three hearts: one for yourself, one for someone special, and one for someone who needs a reminder.
5th Street School Residence Ceramic Murals (2019) - Our studio was commissioned by the Gorman Company to create four stories of ceramic murals in a newly renovated affordable housing complex for the elderly and disabled located in the Harambee neighborhood. These murals brought color and life to the apartments while directly including the residents in the creative process.
Maddonas in the Ally - We partnered with Prince of Peace School at S. 25th St. and Scott to create a memorial dedicated to the multicultural faces of the Madonna, including Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Egypt, the Black Madonna, and Our Lady of Czestahova. 450 students inscribed tiles with their own messages of love, courage, and hope.
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-WHITEWATER - We partnered with UW-W to create pillars with tiles inscribed by students with messages of positivity, encouragement and community.
