Welcome to the Milwaukee Domes Art Festival

Join us August 17, 18, and 19, 2012!

We look forward to seeing you in August!

The Milwaukee Domes Art Festival is a juried art show on the grounds of Milwaukee's beloved Mitchell Park featuring plein air painters, live music and performances, an art auction benefiting the Milwaukee Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservancy Domes, and a variety of food, drink, and fun for the whole family.

View our 2011 winners and auction items here!

View our 2010 winners and auction items here!

The Most Exciting Festival Experience in Milwaukee

The Milwaukee Domes Art Festival is a cultural extravaganza August 17th through the 19th in and around the historic Milwaukee landmark, the Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory Domes. The Mitchell Park Domes are the world’s only conoidal glass houses. The first dome opened to the public in a dedication by Ladybird Johnson in 1964. The last dome to open was the arid dome in 1967. Nearly fifty years later, The Domes are part of a considerable cultural revival. If you haven’t been to the Domes lately, you haven't been to the Domes! Major renovations are improving just about everything you remember from your childhood field trip.

The Milwaukee Domes Art Festival offers an opportunity to visit one of the most interesting horticultural conservatories anywhere while devouring a feast fit to satisfy every aspect of your cultural palette. In 2011, the Milwaukee Domes Art Festival featured incredible music featuring, among others, Spanglish and Brew City Big Band, as well as the finest festival food by award winning Maxie’s Southern Comfort, Blue’s Egg and Lake Country’s best new restaurant, Burke’s Lakeside, AND incredible food/music for your soul; fine art! The future artist pavilion where children can create their own masterworks also makes the MDAF a family friendly event.

2011 jurors, including highly acclaimed Milwaukee artist Shelby Keefe, Catherine Davidson of Milwaukee’s C.R. Davidson Art Gallery and Graeme Reid, assistant director at the Wisconsin Art Museum, through blind jury process, selected approximately 70 artists to create and display their art work live at Mitchell Park. The MDAF is a stroll through a Gold Medal Winning Milwaukee County Park and a contemporary art gallery at the same time. As a juried art show, the 2011 Milwaukee Domes Art Festival boasts 70 fine artists displaying the fruits of their creative genius in and around the Domes. Shelby Keefe, Pfister Artist in Residence 2011 and every juried artist were present for you to meet and get to know. Fifteen fine art painters competed for the $2000 first place plein air (open air) competition with a handsome $500 2nd place honorable mention. The MDAF commitment to $10,500 in artist awards has led to some of this region’s and America’s finest contemporary artists attending.

The Milwaukee Domes Art Festival is the opportunity to find one of a kind affordable fine art gifts for yourself or loved ones and/or investment quality art. Watch as painters create masterworks live in Mitchell Park, then bid online to win the actual artwork you watched being created! If you’re talking to a painting artist, you may actually become part of the inspiration or meaning of the artwork.

Put on by the Friends of the Domes, the Milwaukee Domes Art Festival is entirely for the support of the community through the preservation and improvement of the bright shining jewels of Milwaukee's southern skyline: The Domes.

The 3rd Annual Milwaukee Domes Art Festival is sure to hold wonderful things, and we're looking forward to inviting fine artists to join us again! Keep checking back for new details!

Milwaukee Domes Art Festival Pricing:

An $8 ticket includes admission to the festival, admission to the Domes (normally $6.50), as well as parking. (Children under 5 admitted free)

Great food, great music, incredible art, stunning architecture and open access to one of the most wonderful horticultural collections anywhere is the Milwaukee Domes Art Festival. See what it is all about at www.milwaukeedomesartfestival.com! We can't wait to see you there!

Sponsor the Milwaukee Domes Art Festival

Now is your chance to get in on the ground floor with what is sure to become one of Wisconsin's premiere festival events, and help support one of Milwaukee's best known and loved landmarks, our Mitchell Park Domes, the largest glass conoidal structures on earth and home of world class botanical gardens and horticultural conservancy. Learn more at our Art Festival Sponsor page.

Be An Art Festival Volunteer

Help support the Milwaukee Domes and get free admission for the weekend, free beverages and other goodies at the most exciting art & music festival in Wisconsin. Learn more at the Art Festival Volunteer Page.