Bridging Milwaukee's Heart

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'Bridging Milwaukee's Heart' is a mural Tia completed in August of 2020 with six artist assistants and several volunteers, under the I-794 freeway located on N. Broadway.

In early 2020, Milwaukee Downtown BID #21 commissioned four murals painted by four different artists on the freeway piers of I-794. The murals are part of a bigger initiative called 'Brighten the Passage' which also includes streetscaping and improved lighting. Tia was inspired for her design after meeting with the project planning team to better understand the purpose behind their initiative, which is to strengthen the connection between two distinct parts of downtown separated by the freeway.

Check out the progress of the four murals and artists here:

At 2,600 sq. ft. this is Tia's largest mural to date and has a lot of details like buildings, landscapes and figures. She put together a crew of college student-artists for extra help, including several who'd worked with her during a mural training program she led for high school students through Milwaukee Christian Center's Youth Artists United program (Learn more about that here.).

This gave them the chance to work on a bigger scale and learn new skills. Their job was to paint the background areas by copying from her color sketches. Then Tia added her own touches of color and details throughout the mural, especially on figures and facial expressions.

Assistant Artists:

Isa Castro

Jessica Baskerville

Anna Menako

Emily Moore

Nia Twaddle

Austin Piszczek