Milwaukee’s arts and culture sector reached 4,550,717 in-person attendees and generated $334,577,488 in total economic activity in FY2022. More recent 2023 and 2024 reports show a broad network of grants, museum visitors, concert audiences, film programs, and arts education initiatives.
Contents
- Economic impact and attendance
- Audience spending and community value
- Milwaukee Arts Board grants
- Milwaukee Art Museum
- Music and arts education
- Film programs and participation
Economic impact and attendance
The Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 study, summarized by the City of Milwaukee, measured Milwaukee nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences in FY2022. The study identified 364 eligible nonprofit arts and culture organizations, with 93 providing financial and attendance information. These figures describe the study’s defined nonprofit arts and culture activity, rather than every creative business or informal arts event in the city.
The FY2022 activity produced $334,577,488 in total industry expenditures. Organizations accounted for $191,808,940 in direct organizational expenditures, while audiences accounted for $142,768,548 in direct audience expenditures. The same activity supported 4,550 total jobs: 2,938 associated with arts and culture organizations and 1,612 associated with audience spending.
Personal income paid to Milwaukee residents totaled $227,266,863. Organizations generated $165,864,399 of that amount, and audiences generated $61,402,464. The study also recorded $7,147,769 in local tax revenue for the city and county combined, including $3,001,988 from organizations and $4,145,781 from audiences.
Tax effects extended beyond local government. Milwaukee arts and culture activity generated $8,924,353 in state tax revenue, divided between $4,409,307 from organizations and $4,515,046 from audiences. It generated $41,727,926 in federal tax revenue, including $31,379,484 from organizations and $10,348,442 from audiences. These are FY2022 study results reported in the Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 City of Milwaukee summary.
Attendance was also divided between residents and visitors. Milwaukee arts events drew 2,757,735 local attendees and 1,792,982 nonlocal attendees, for 4,550,717 total in-person attendees. Local attendees represented 60.6% of attendance, while nonlocal attendees represented 39.4%.
| FY2022 Milwaukee arts measure | Organizations | Audiences | Total or reported total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct expenditures | $191,808,940 | $142,768,548 | $334,577,488 |
| Supported jobs | 2,938 | 1,612 | 4,550 |
| Personal income | $165,864,399 | $61,402,464 | $227,266,863 |
| Local tax revenue | $3,001,988 | $4,145,781 | $7,147,769 |
| State tax revenue | $4,409,307 | $4,515,046 | $8,924,353 |
| Federal tax revenue | $31,379,484 | $10,348,442 | $41,727,926 |
Audience spending and community value
The Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 City of Milwaukee summary reported average audience spending of $31.37 per person per event. Local attendees averaged $27.22, while nonlocal attendees averaged $37.76. The figures are per-person, per-event averages for the FY2022 study and should not be read as ticket prices alone.
The reported spending categories included $15.51 per attendee for food and drink, $4.76 for local transportation, and $3.87 for retail shopping. Average spending also included $2.60 for overnight lodging, $1.61 for clothing and accessories, $1.47 for groceries and supplies, $0.72 for childcare, and $0.83 in other or miscellaneous spending.
Audience responses in the same study point to civic and neighborhood value alongside spending. Among respondents, 81.0% said a venue or facility is an important pillar for their community. Another 86.4% said they would feel a great sense of loss if the activity or venue were no longer available. A total of 86.1% said the activity or venue inspires pride in their neighborhood or community, and 84.6% said attending is their way of helping preserve the activity or venue for future generations.
Those percentages describe survey responses, not the entire Milwaukee population. They nevertheless show how the study’s audience connected arts attendance with community identity and continuity.
Milwaukee Arts Board grants
The City of Milwaukee Department of City Development’s 2024 Annual Report states that the Milwaukee Arts Board is a 17-member board. In 2024, it sustained 47 Milwaukee-based arts organizations with $272,000 in grants. The 2024 art celebration honored the 47 grant recipients plus four annual awardees at one June ceremony.
The 2024 sustaining grants generally provided $6,000 awards, with selected organizations receiving $3,000 or $5,000, according to the 2024 Milwaukee Arts Board Sustaining Grant Recipients list. Organizations listed with $6,000 awards included Art Start, Inc.; Artists Working in Education, Inc.; Arts @ Large; ArtWorks for Milwaukee; Bembé Drum & Dance; Black Arts MKE, Inc.; Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Art Museums; Danceworks, Inc.; Ex Fabula; First Stage; Florentine Opera Company; Historic Milwaukee, Inc.; Jewish Museum Milwaukee; Kids From Wisconsin Ltd.; Ko-Thi, Inc.; Latino Arts, Inc.; LocoMotion Dance Co; Marcus Performing Arts Center; Milwaukee Art Museum; Milwaukee Ballet Company, Inc.; Milwaukee Chamber Theatre; Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Inc.; Milwaukee Opera Theatre; Milwaukee Repertory Theater; Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra; Milwaukee Youth Theatre, Inc.; Next Act Theatre; Optimist Theatre; Pink Umbrella Theater Company; Present Music; Radio Milwaukee, Inc.; Renaissance Theaterworks; RUACH, Inc.; Signature Dance Company; TBEY Arts Center, Inc.; The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra; The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music; TRUE Skool; Walker’s Point Center for the Arts; West Side Arts Un Limited; Wild Space Dance Company; and Woodland Pattern.
The $3,000 recipients listed for 2024 were Girls Rock MKE, Studio K Flamenco, Inc., and Washington Park Neighbors. The Haggerty Museum of Art received $5,000. The grant list shows the board’s support spanning museums, orchestras, theater companies, dance groups, youth programs, cultural organizations, and neighborhood arts work.
The 2024 annual awards included two Artist of the Year honorees, Fatima Laster and Justin Goodrum, and two Friends of the Arts honorees, Jacobo Lovo and Jessica Meuninck-Ganger. The Public Artist in Residence pilot ended in 2024 after one pilot artist, Sarah Davitt, completed the program. These details come from the City of Milwaukee Department of City Development 2024 Annual Report.
Milwaukee Art Museum
The Milwaukee Art Museum reports more than 34,000 artworks in its collection, ranging from antiquity to today. Its downtown Milwaukee campus covers 24 acres beside the lake, and the museum describes itself as Wisconsin’s largest art institution. These institutional figures are from the museum’s Museum Info.
The Milwaukee Art Museum’s 2024 annual report said it welcomed more than 225,000 visitors. A December 2024 museum pressroom announcement said children age 12 and under receive free admission in perpetuity following a donor gift. The museum’s September 2024 pressroom reported that the 2024 Art:Forward Gala drew more than 250 guests and raised $1.2 million to support the museum’s contemporary art program. The gala also supported acquisition of two drawings from Robert Longo’s exhibition.
The museum’s 2024 special exhibition Art, Life, Legacy featured 75 paintings from the Baders’ collection, according to Experience the Museum Online. An older museum pressroom item reported that the 2009 Art in Bloom event featured more than 40 floral designers. Because that Art in Bloom figure is from 2009, it should be treated as a historical event statistic rather than a current measure.
Music and arts education
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra presented over 135 Classical, Pops, and Family concerts each year, according to its individual giving page. The orchestra also reported engaging over 30,000 children each year through its Concerts for Schools and ACE programs.
The MSO’s 2023.24 annual report provides a more specific season snapshot. Nearly 30,000 students came to the Bradley Symphony Center, including 20,684 students from 209 schools who attended Allen-Bradley Hall programs. Those students came from 97 zip codes and 72 cities. The ACE program served 21 schools and 5,817 students, adding three new schools during the 2023.24 season. The orchestra also delivered nearly 300 in-school Artist Ensemble visits.
Accessibility programming was quantified in the same report. A sensory-friendly concert event issued 570 tickets, including 300 complimentary tickets used by nine local social service organizations. The report’s context stated that one in four people experience a sensory sensitivity. That ratio is presented here as the MSO report’s cited context for the program, not as a separate Milwaukee population estimate.
The orchestra’s broadcast series reaches over 3.8 million listeners each year, runs for 13 weeks each season, and has 183 subscriber stations across 32 states, according to MSO On Stage. These broadcast figures describe the series’ wider reach beyond in-person Milwaukee attendance.
Film programs and participation
Milwaukee Film’s Winter 2023/24 Impact Report recorded eight Education Screenings for more than 7,000 students in grades 1 through 12. Milwaukee Film spent over $22,000 on bus transportation costs for student access in that quarter. Its Take 1 teen filmmaking lab engaged 38 students during the fall semester.
The 2023 Forward Fund awarded over $100,000 in cash and film production resources and supported 11 local film projects. Milwaukee Film’s 16th annual festival was scheduled for April 11 to 25, 2024, a 15-day span. Its 2023 Cultures & Communities Festival included 40 cultural events and programs and screened 13 films at the Oriental Theatre.
The same report recorded a $160,000 fundraiser, a 69% membership renewal rate in 2023, and on-site sales at the Oriental Theatre that were 87% higher than in 2022. Total attendance for member screenings increased 66% year over year. More than 6,100 members and guests attended member screenings, while Milwaukee Film ended 2023 with a 21% increase in total members. The report also listed membership-screening attendance as over 6,100 in 2023; that repeated measure is counted once here.
Together, these film figures cover education access, teen production, local project support, festival programming, fundraising, and membership activity. They come from Milwaukee Film’s Winter 2023/24 Impact Report, and the comparisons retain the report’s stated periods rather than treating them as a single-year series.