Milwaukee Museum Mile: 5 museums offer free, reduced admission, folks visit spaces they don't see often

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- They're part of the "Milwaukee Museum Mile," and on Sunday, May 3rd, five art museums on Milwaukee's East Side offered free or reduced admission.

The home of Lloyd and Agnus Smith (the son of A.O. Smith) is now a museum, and on Sunday, its doors were opened to the public.

"Not too long ago Milwaukee was the machine shop to the world and we were exporting goods around the world and this was really like the flowering of all that labor and all that investment and all that creativity and so why not share that with the public," Villa Terrace Executive Director John Sterr said.

Five museums, part of the Milwaukee Museum Mile on Sunday offered free or reduced admission.

"These are museums that some people may know about because they`re on the East Side or they`re involved with the arts or something -- but many people really don`t," Kevin Walzak with the Northpoint Lighthouse said.

The five museums offering free or reduced admission Sunday included:

"We've been here for well over 100 and some odd years, but people still don`t know about us, so we use this opportunity to reintroduce everybody to the lighthouse," Walzak said.

Sunday gave museum visitors an opportunity to climb to the top of the North Point Lighthouse and get a 360-degree view of Milwaukee from above.

Museum directors hope the event helps to educate these museum visitors and inspire them to return.

 

"Oh I think it`s really great because we go to the art museum quite often. I just thought this would be nice to see some of the other ones I haven`t been to for many years," Gail Koneke said.

Also offered Sunday -- a free shuttle to all five museums to encourage families to make a day of it on the city's East Side.