Best Free Museums In Milwaukee Near Me

4worldlovers: Exhibition In Honor of Kevin Fahey: Selections from the Fahey/Grzebielski Collection

Exhibition A Very Strong Likeness of Her: Portraiture and Identity in the British Colonial World

Start (or end) your journey at the iconic Mark di Suvero sculpture west of the Reiman Pedestrian Bridge.

See the best view of the Burke Brise Soleil (“wings”) from the footbridge that connects the Museum to downtown Milwaukee.

4worldlovers: Endlessly explore Discovery World with unlimited admission and members-only events. Now is the perfect time to become a Member!

4worldlovers: Home to the world’s most comprehensive art collection dedicated to the evolution of human work.

With more than 1,700 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper representing the evolution of human work, you’re sure to identify with several pieces in the collection. Here is a sample of some of the works you will see when you visit.

The Man at Work collection was donated by Dr. Eckhart Grohmann.

In addition to displaying the core collection, the museum hosts a number of special exhibitions and events.

The museum building is as unique as the collection housed within.

Explore and interact with a 3D virtual tour of the museum.

4worldlovers:
With two all-new retail stores, a greatly enhanced Experience Gallery and a year-round event building, the Harley-Davidson Museum has reshaped its campus!

When you visit, you will discover culture and history through stories and interactive exhibits that celebrate expression, camaraderie, and love for the sport. With an unrivaled collection of Harley-Davidson motorcycles and memorabilia on two floors of exhibits, a 20-acre, park-like campus, one-of-a-kind shopping and dining experiences and a full calendar of activities, the H-D Museum is one of Milwaukee’s top tourist destinations for visitors from around the globe. No matter how long your visit, a trip to the H-D Museum is an experience that will last a lifetime.

4worldlovers:
The Mercury Courtyard is a charming cloister now dominated by the statue of Mercury, the mythical messenger of the gods. It’s surrounded by a vaulted loggia with Tuscan columns and grilled Italian windows.

The Great Hall was the Smiths’ family room and was often used to entertain guests. The ceiling beams in the room are Georgia Pecky Cypress with white, blue and yellow stenciling.

Like that of the Great Hall, the dining room's ceiling is made from beamed Georgia Pecky Cypress.

The Queen Anne-style wood paneling in the library is walnut and was installed by the Matthew Brothers of Milwaukee.

The Cyril Colnik exhibition, located in the second-floor south-wing galleries, is a showcase of metal works made by Milwaukee ironsmith Cyril Colnik (1871–1958).

This sconce with three candleholders was constructed from a deer antler wrapped in iron.

Pictured is the centerpiece of a large grille that was Cyril Colnik’s “Masterpiece,” which demonstrated the mastery of metalworking techniques an apprentice was required to show to be named a master craftsman.

Lloyd Raymond Smith was born in 1883. He attended West Division High School in Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, before following his father into the family business — the A.O. Smith Corporation. Agnes Gram was born in 1893. Lloyd and Agnes married in 1915, two years after Lloyd had become president of A.O. Smith. It is said that Agnes wanted to build a unique house that reflected her love of architecture and design.

The Smiths hired the renowned architect and Milwaukee native David Adler (1883–1949) to build their dream home. The idea to build a home in the style of a sixteenth-century Northern Italian villa came on a trip to Italy after their marriage in 1915. Choosing between two Milwaukee sites, they settled on its present location, with Adler reportedly saying, “Let Lake Michigan be my Mediterranean.” Fittingly, the original name for the home was Sopra Mare (“above the sea” in Italian).

Rose Standish Nichols (1872–1960) was a landscape architect, writer, suffragist, and peace activist. She collaborated with Villa Terrace architect David Adler on the design of the Sopra Mare garden and its water stairway, which were probably adapted from the layout of the sixteenth-century Villa Cicogna-Mozzoni garden that she described in her book, Italian Pleasure Gardens, published in 1928.

Today Villa Terrace and its Renaissance Garden are zoned as Milwaukee County parkland. Together, they serve the citizens of Milwaukee through the creation and promotion of local, regional and international visual and decorative arts, and a wide range of intergenerational community arts programming that includes theater, music, arts and crafts, creative writing, poetry, and gardening.

The story of the A.O. Smith Corporation is one of experimentation, research, and innovation. From humble beginnings as a small machine shop located in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood, to its growth into a global corporation, A.O. Smith was one of the first to put significant resources into research and development, constantly seeking out new technologies and their practical application for new products and services.