How the Milwaukee Art Museum snagged the big China show

JSOnline:
Staging the exhibit was also a way to familiarize Milwaukeeans with a culture that has become so important to the local economy. This is the first time the museum has done a major exhibit of Asian art.

With the money lining up and Ng convinced and talking up Milwaukee back at the Palace Museum, it would now be up to the Chinese. A delegation was sent here on a “vetting trip” last year. They’d go to a baseball game, to Bradford Beach and Discovery World. They’d meet the mayor and local politicians. They’d have a few good meals. And they’d tour places like Bucyrus.

But it was Santiago Calatrava who closed the deal.

“They came and saw what is the most beautiful museum in all of America” and the deal was done, said Berliner, who repeated this phrase publicly at opening celebrations this week.

“It’s not even overselling to describe a city that has a Saarinen and a Calatrava on the lake, side by side, as extraordinary,” said Ng, of the Eero Saarinen War Memorial complex and the art museum’s extension.

“This is just the kind of architecture that modern China envies. A Calatrava? This kind of high-art pushing of the building form? They were totally impressed.”