Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Milwaukee Recreation works to ensure all young people have access to showcase their talents, skills, and passions. Through the Creative Allies program, Milwaukee Recreation supports after-school sites within Milwaukee Public Schools by providing additional arts opportunities for students.
Created in partnership between Milwaukee Recreation and the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), this program connects with MIAD's advanced art and design students, as well as students from UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts, to share their creative expertise with MPS students and bridge the gap at schools with limited art and music opportunities. Throughout the program, students engage with mentors from MIAD and UWM to learn about various art disciplines and explore new materials and techniques.
Since the launch of the Creative Allies program last year, Milwaukee Recreation has nearly doubled its reach for schools looking to expand their arts opportunities, giving more students in Milwaukee the opportunity to further explore extracurricular activities in the arts. This year, 11 art educators are working with 10 different after-school sites throughout the city.
Emily Camp, an illustration and animation student from MIAD and art educator at Cooper Elementary School, was initially introduced to the Creative Allies program as a new way to combine her passion for art with her curiosity for teaching. “I’ve always wanted to try teaching, that was always a career prospect for me,” Camp said. “My educational career has sort of just been balancing and strengthening my own private practice, and then when I can, also exploring what being a teacher is and how that feels. So Creative Allies was a good fit for me.”
MIAD and UWM art educators collaborate with after-school staff at their assigned site to align with site-specific needs and student interests. This collaboration is a vital component of the Creative Allies program, and allows both staff and participating artists to ensure students are always accommodated and considered throughout the process.
After talking with site staff about their need to provide students with new ways to grow their writing and reading comprehension skills, recent MIAD graduate and Thurston Woods School art educator Darienne Hood crafted a set of activities that encourage students to create their own narrative stories, accompanied by drawings. When asked about their favorite part of participating in the Creative Allies program after school, students at Thurston Woods emphasized they loved having a chance to free draw while also creating their own stories.
“The way that I help is through art,” Hood said. “I love having them do those projects so then they can have that outlet, that safe space, and just explore who they are as individuals.”
For many young people interested in the arts, opportunities created by this initiative serve as a way for students to express themselves or discover new passions. This program fosters a sense of community and belonging for students that aids in the development of skills such as teamwork, communication, and critical thinking.
“They just love making art and using their hands,” Camp said about her students at Cooper, “and I can tell that they need it after a long day of thinking with their ‘school brains.’ It’s really important, I think, for kids to have that outlet for themselves and to know that they can create something, and to be able to see that they have made something they can call their own.”
Participants at Cooper also emphasized their excitement to come to class each week and learn something new about art. Some students also went on to state that participating in Creative Allies gives them time to utilize materials they don’t have access to at home, fulfilling one of the program's goals to provide equal access to quality art-making experiences..
“I want them to have access to all of these things, and while teaching them how to use colored pencils or alcohol markers, I emphasize that they can invent their own techniques. This is the time to play and to explore and not to be held to a rigid expectation of themselves,” Camp said.
Like many of Milwaukee Recreation’s before- and after-school programs, the Creative Allies program gives students an engaging environment to socialize, learn, and develop their skills during after-school hours, while also offering a unique opportunity for mentorship. Thank you to all of our art educators, Izaiah Castillo (MIAD), Emily Camp (MIAD), Brittnie Reisinger (MIAD), Avery Aust (MIAD), Clementine Penner (MIAD), Ellee Spalding (MIAD), Darienne Hood (MIAD), Anna Mikula (MIAD), Connor Schuberth (UWM), Ashley Keegstra (UWM), and Olivia Brown (UWM) for your time and dedication to Milwaukee’s next generation of artists!
“I just really love doing this and seeing the kids open up about different things,” Hood said. “You never know what you’re gonna get with each student… It's really fun to break them out of their mold, break them out of their shell, and just see them through their art, and then slowly see them start to come alive and interact with other students.”