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WaterMarks is a multi-partner initiative locally supported by UW-Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, the City of Milwaukee Department of City Development, the nonprofit Reflo, and many others. It is supported from afar by the New York City-based nonprofit City as Living Laboratory and its organizing principle was the brainchild of artist Mary Miss. Into 2025, funding is provided by an informal science learning National Science Foundation grant (NSF AISL #2115637). Learn more about the grant at informalscience.org.

WaterMarks serves to unite artists, scientists, and community members around the theme of water to empower education, engagement, and action.

Think: (Art + Science + Community) / Water = WaterMarks MKE!

Imagine the city as an atlas—a book of maps that reveals enriching stories rooted in specific places but unified by the organizing principle, in our case Milwaukeeans’ relationship with water. Zoom your imagination out and imagine those letters floating above but tethered to specific points of interest throughout our city—like pins on a map. The WaterMarker letters are all blue and all single alphanumeric characters, but they signify different emphases and perspectives—distinct places with unique stories.

New York artist Mary Miss thought that using letters like this would be a good idea for Milwaukee and this project was organized around that vision. As the project evolves under local control, it is possible that the vision embraced by the Milwaukee community will also evolve.

But so far, despite the artificiality of the conceit, this arrangement has yielded some interesting local engagement. Folks caucus together in community workshops to lobby for and ultimately vote for their letter of sufficient consensus. Not everyone agrees. There is debate and the invitation of wider input when folks realize a decision is going to have repercussions they may see or drive by every day. It’s a messy process, but so too is the practice of community. Letter selection distills a lot of passions, ideas, and stories into a single character that is elevated—literally and figuratively—in the public view. We are already bombarded with many glowing signs and screens selling us various messages. In a way, the simplicity and puzzlement induced by the single WaterMarker letters serves to cognitively disrupt an otherwise overwhelmed consciousness oversaturated with the promulgation of various impulses. If seeing a giant blue Ñ makes a passerby pause and decide to follow their curiosity to ask why this thing is there and what its purpose and function are, then we are contributing in a small but real way to a healthier relationship with our space and ourselves. Is hoisting a giant letter onto a 30-foot pole the only way to do this? No. But the relative permanence of these letters once physically established as “anchors” or “rally points” or “landmarks” has value. The WaterMarker letters reattach a humanity to our shared public spaces. The relative neutrality of choosing a single letter rather than a more politically volatile symbol reminds us we are all humans. We all share the desire to express ourselves and to be heard, to be present and to be recognized. So, too, we share in common the water, a need for it and an opportunity to better protect it. WaterMarker letters serve to signal that this relationship exists and remind us of the immeasurable value of something so fundamental as water that is all too often taken for granted—hidden in plain sight.

Up to 2024, letters chosen and reasons for them have varied widely (H was chosen twice, which was deemed okay!). Explore our site to discover how different community members winnowed down their options to select a letter that would become their symbol and landmark, adding another vital “page” to the “atlas.”

WaterMarks provides a resourced framework to pay artists, platform scientists, and empower community partners using the theme of water and how it connects us.

Local artists and scientists are invited and paired together to dialogue with each other and whoever shows up for themed walks co-organized by partner groups, often with missions tied to specific neighborhoods throughout parts of Milwaukee that have been underserved and whose people face intersectional challenges.

Supported by UW-Milwaukee’s extramural mission rooted in the Wisconsin Idea, university partners develop long-term relationships with community partner groups, non-governmental organizations, and motivated residents that create the vital ferment from which local artists can develop public art projects informed by water themes, community desires, but ultimately shaped by their creative strengths.

A community coordinator role is being hired. This position will be contracted through CALL but housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

The grant supporting WaterMarks is held by UW-Milwaukee through the Department of Geography. UWM hosts the Community-University Working Group, which meets quarterly to inform the project’s evolution.

UWM works with CALL to shape outreach activities, guided artist/scientist walks, and workshops to discuss community themes and select a WaterMarker letter. This team also administers the human elements of the multi-entity initiative and leads the NSF-funded project research.

CALL is located in New York City and, as the founding entity, has managed logistics including site selection and implementation of WaterMarkers themselves, procurement, contracting, web management, social media, external advisory input, site tours, partner convening, and more.

COSI’s Center for Research and Evaluation is located at a science center in Columbus, Ohio. This team leads evaluation and monitoring for NSF-funded WaterMarks activities and brings experience with informal science learning.

Reflo is a Milwaukee-based nonprofit with an office in Riverwest. Reflo supports the Green Schools Consortium of Milwaukee, which is seen as a future audience receptive to the valuable informal learning that teaming artists with scientists can materialize. Reflo’s Milwaukee Water Stories program supports WaterMarks Voices, in which artists, scientists, community partners, and ordinary residents are interviewed to share their stories and perspectives through web-hosted content linked to each WaterMarker as a “beacon” or “time capsule” accessible to anyone with their smartphone.

Century City Triangle, Garden Homes, Harambee/Riverwest, Kinnickinnic River-Pulaski Park, Lindsay Heights, Sherman Park, Walkers Point. Also see our Locations Map page to learn more about where the physical WaterMarkers are or will be installed in these neighhborhoods, as well as associated art projects, which are not always immediately proximate to WaterMarkers.

Prior WaterMarker locations have been selected opportunistically based on relationship development and available resources.

Moving forward there is keen awareness that a formal selection process for new WaterMarks partners is imperative.

Because WaterMarks is a multi-partner initiative constrained in scope by available funding, there are various processes and discussions taking place in 2024 to arrive at a publishable process that is equitable and actionable.

In the meantime, if you are interested in your organization or neighborhood group participating in WaterMarks, please contact us. We would love to learn more about what you think.

We also kindly invite you to subscribe to our newsletter or attend an upcoming event to chat in person.

The WaterMarks Toolkit describes the multiple phases of activity involved in the unique WaterMarks process.

The letter is selected during the Workshop phase by community members who show up at one or more workshops to vote.

Leading up to the workshop there are public walks that inform local artists on community themes and help to surface topics discussed at the workshop. Workshop participants are invited to discuss letters that represent or tie in to the themes important to them. A meeting facilitator writes these letters on a common board and the workshop discusses the relative merits and what’s missing from the conversation. This process typically iterates until there are a cluster of letters that appear to have plurality support of the room. These letters are then voted on, typically by a show of hands, and the selection whittles down the options to a final shortlist of options.

If there is clear consensus, a letter may be decided at this point as well as the cluster of keywords that it is intended to be associated with in the context of the community discussion.

If there is no clear consensus, the workshop typically adjourns to invite wider feedback from more community residents or stakeholders to ensure that a meaningful diversity of perspectives is involved in the process. Discussions with the artist can also shape the letter selection as they may desire to incorporate the letter, as well as the themes it represents, into their public art project.

It’s a messy process, but meaningful.

It yields a letter and associated cluster of keywords that will be used as the header for digital content annotating the WaterMarks “Site” related to the hosting community partner, which may be a neighborhood association or another group with a geographically constrained mission. This group often comprises a significant portion of a “Site’s” “Neighborhood Project Team, which is ad-hoc committee whose mission is to liaise with WaterMarks, inform the walks, workshops, artists project, voices, letter selection, and WaterMarker site selection and implementation, plus long-term programming, activation, and education around their WaterMarker beyond the initial phase of the involvement.

Check out ways to take action at our Get Involved page.

Visit a WaterMarker. Follow @watermarksmke. Sign up for MMSD's Water Drop Alert. Play our citywide passport puzzle game. Join the Community-University Working Group.