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Milwaukee’s Creative Sandbox: If You Don’t See It, Make It w/ Michael Lagerman
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Michael Lagerman recently joined Imagine MKE as Development Coordinator, but he’s also an accomplished artist, collaborator, and programmer within Milwaukee's art scene. Lagerman has a background in photography and infused his “thinking about images” with a study of philosophy in college. He went on to obtain his MFA at UWM’s Peck School of the Arts, which provided catalyzing opportunities for professionalizing his artistic practice, including running the photo documentation lab.
In his studies at PSOA, he noticed how filmmakers’ application of theory to moving images was in alignment with his artistic interests, and Milwaukee's vibrant community of filmmakers drew him in. But Lagerman is wary of the limitations of categorization within his practice. In his decade plus living in Milwaukee, he's built a sense of belonging within the film and art communities, experienced working in several different studio spaces, put on solo and group exhibitions of his work and contributed to diverse arts programming. With a sense of dedication, Lagerman has translated his artistic impulses into a multidisciplinary creative practice that has earned him residencies—including a current residency at the Charles Allis Art Museum—and grants, including a recent gener8tor X Sherman Phoenix grant.
In the conversation, Lagerman delights in the “creative sandbox” of Milwaukee—a place where artists can dream and build. He speaks about Underscore, his experimental, collaborative artist run space, co-run with artist Grace Mitchell. Together, they’ve built a high degree of trust at a level that Lagerman describes as "telepathic." Through Underscore, they seek to invite artists to reset and “do something that they haven’t done before.”
Lagerman also reflects on the liminal space between emergent and established artist. He has experienced a requirement to self-identify his career stage, as well as his medium: an external pressure that he feels “leads to a kind of homogeny.” Today as an artist, he wrestles with how to best express his ethos and inspiration within these structures. As Lagerman says “It can be strange to know your own ambition... and what you might be capable of...” in relation to how organizations might label you.
To him, Milwaukee feels like it’s in a state of perpetual renaissance, always pushing forward, but not quite resulting in shared returns on creatives’ efforts. But he sees potential in an artist-empowered future. From DIY arts spaces, to a new wave of community arts resources—he sees the scene building to a brighter, more diverse cityscape, one that includes an art market that supports more artists, and results in more public art and events to energize the whole community.
Learn more about Michael Lagerman’s artistic practice, and Underscore.
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