This past Wednesday (November 18th) Milwaukee awoke to a surprise—nearly 20 various-sized large wooden crates had appeared throughout the city at public locations. Clearly marked as the “Property of the Milwaukee Art Museum” and mysteriously stenciled with uncrated.org and a unique crate number, the crates were obviously meant to get people excited about the Museum’s recent remodeling and upcoming reopening. But a couple of questions linger—who worked with the Milwaukee Art Museum to make this all happen? And why crates?
Well, it was us.
Uncrated. Unveiled. is the campaign we launched in partnership with our friends at Buzzmonkeys to help the Milwaukee Art Museum promote its grand reopening on November 24th. With most of the museum closed the past 14 months for expansion and remodeling, almost all the art had been packed away, along with thousands more pieces that had already been crated up in longterm storage—some of it for decades. Now that the Museum is reopening, the art is at last being uncrated—and a whole new Museum experience is being unveiled. We found the crating and uncrating of these gorgeous works to be a striking aspect of the Museum’s remodeling, and decided that strategically planting crates around Milwaukee would be a fun way to share this piece of the story, along with getting people talking about the upcoming reopening.
Of course, the crates and uncrated.org are just parts of a much larger campaign. You’ve probably already seen (or heard) some of our other efforts around the Milwaukee area. If not, stay tuned to this blog where we’ll be sharing more very soon. In the meantime, check out Mayfair Mall, Red Arrow Park, Colectivo on the Lake, the baggage claim at General Mitchell Airport—or any of the many other Milwaukee locations now boasting their very own crate to get yourself a sneak peek at some newly uncrated art. And don’t forget to mark your calendars for the Milwaukee Art Museum’s grand reopening on November 24th.
