The Urban Ecology Center is seeking artists interested in showing their work in our Menomonee Valley branch’s Valley Room. Submission deadline is October 31st.

Criteria for exhibits: To enhance the UEC’s educational mission, artwork must have one of the following as its theme: nature-related subjects, the natural sciences, natural products used as art or the relationship of the urban environment to nature. As a neighborhood-based organization in a diverse neighborhood, we hope to host artists whose art reflects that diversity and resonates with our community. Artists with connections to the neighborhoods surrounding the Menomonee Valley branch (3700 W. Pierce St.) are encouraged to apply!

Details: Selected artwork will be displayed in one of four shows at the Menomonee Valley branch in 2020. The exhibit space has approximately 40 linear feet (approx. 6 ft. high) of wall display area. Our exhibit spaces also serve as meeting rooms and classrooms that are used daily.

For more information, review this Call for Artists or contact Glenna Holstein, Menomonee Valley Branch Manager at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Click here to submit your application

LUNA Art Collective | HOOPS

September - November 2019

Opening Reception: Thursday, September 12, 5 - 7 p.m. Artists will speak at 6 p.m.

Latinas Unidas en las Artes (LUNA) is a loose collection of diverse Latina artists with unique viewpoints from the Milwaukee metropolitan area that create art and offer each other support. Through exhibitions we activate spaces that amplify the broad voices within the collective.

HOOPS: We were born into them, a marker of our identities, a symbol of where we came from, and they became gifts celebrating our womxnhood. We adorn our ears with hoops so our identities are visible. We are proud of our boldness, power and resilience.

This HOOPS show is a collective representation of our various Latinx roots, our rituals and spirituality. From chunky to dainty, bodega purchased or passed onto us from our familias; see how we deconstruct stigmas and reclaim our HOOPS journeys.

THE UEC is delighted to be hosting the LUNA collective, and we asked several of the artists to share their thoughts about how HOOPS connects with the mission of the Urban Ecology Center of connecting people in cities to nature and each other. Their beautiful responses are below:

Everything is connected— just how trees are connected to soil, and how bees are connected to flowers, my hoops are connected to my culture. -Araceli Ramirez Contreras

To me, hoops are arcane. Like the sacred spaces we find in nature and form in our communities, hoop earrings are circles of protection and magic. -Gabriela Riveros

Hoops are a symbol of both strength and femininity. The act of adorning ourselves with ornamentation is a political act, connecting ourselves to our communities thus connecting ourselves to the world. -Yesenia Corona

Changing Our World Through Art: The Work of Escuela Verde's Youth Artivists

December 2019 - February 2020

In Escuela Verde's Art Club, we use our artistic skills and voices to work for change in our community. The work in this show speaks out about issues ranging from climate change and environmental racism to immigration reform and gender inequality.