The Countyist

31 Holiday Gems, lovingly presented ...

1. What is arte para todos?

Arte Para Todos (Art For Everyone) is a grassroots organization of artists and other community members who are concerned about the state of the arts in Milwaukee schools and want to support it. The name was inspired by a Josh MacPhee (of Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative) print, and used with permission.

2. Who came up with the idea?

Josh Evert of The Fatty Acids and Jaill and Chuck Watson of Made in Milwaukee came up with the idea of having a benefit festival for arts programs in Milwaukee schools. However, the concern and desire to support these programs is not new, and is held by many.

3. Who is running the show?

It takes a village! We are lucky to have many community members lend a hand and donate time and connections to make this work. Most of our organizers are active artists in the city.

4. How many bands are running there?

73 (including DJs)

5. What is band feedback?

We were so happy to see immediate positive response from nearly every band we approached with the idea.

6. How are they supporting you?

The bands are supporting by donating their time and performing for free, helping all proceeds go directly to the benefit. They are also supporting with a wave of promotion. We love our music community!

7. How does this benefit the art community?

At the time of writing this, we’ve already raised more than $5,000 dollars to be split evenly between La Escuela Fratney, Bay View High School, and Tamarack Waldorf High School art programs. We’re hoping to double that amount by the time the festival is over. This will provide supplies and hopefully teacher support to schools that have seen cuts to their arts programs in the past. It is an investment in the future of Milwaukee citizens and arts. Beyond funds, this festival celebrates the vibrant musical and visual art scene that we are lucky to have here. It also raises awareness of the fact that when schools are faced with budget cuts, the arts are often the first classes to go. (For shame!)

8. How does this benefit the latin community?

We are lucky to be working with La Escuela Fratney, a bilingual elementary school in Riverwest! They have been overly supportive of our cause, and the students there even designed some posters for us! We recently also had a band called New Age Narcissism perform for students at an assembly.

9. How does this benefit the MKE community?

At the most basic, supporting education in the arts has a direct impact in students lives and learning. At

its most general this is an exercise in community itself.

10. Is this a homegrown idea, or inspired by something? (NYC, Brazil, Mexico, etc.)

We have had plenty of inspiration, namely Riverwest Fest and Breadfest, similarly designed multi-venue events in the Riverwest neighborhood. People before us proved that bands/venues/spectators were capable of a festival of this magnitude, and we ran with that knowledge.

11. What other buzz have you heard about this?

We are so happy to be covered in most local publications and online media and radio. I also hear that APT is the cover story for the Wisconsin Gazette so that’s awesome!

12. Was this difficult to organize?

Yes! At last count we have sent over 4,397,432,812,968 emails in the 8 months that went into planning it!

13. What’s the structure of the event - will people pick neighborhoods or bands?

That’s up to the people, and that’s one of the things that is cool about our festival. It’s a ‘choose your own adventure,’ of sorts.

14. This event seems to speak to a higher purpose, why not profit driven?

Our lives revolve around profit, we needed a break from it.

15. How did you get so god damn awesome?

Years and years of failing at being awesome have led us to achieve new awesomeness levels. We are currently at Awesome Stage 6, hoping to get ot level 7 by the end of this weekend. Thank you Countyist!