Docomomo Wisconsin, in partnership with AIA Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Public Library, the Wisconsin Architectural Archive, UWM Special Collections, and Frederick Avenue Gallery, proudly presents Mothers of Milwaukee Modernism: Building the Layton School of Art, a lecture and pop-up exhibition exploring the visionary work of Charlotte Partridge and Miriam Frink. The event will take place on Tuesday, April 22, at the Milwaukee Public Library Central Branch, Frank P. Zeidler Humanities Room.
Schedule
4:30 PM – Check-in and pop-up exhibition opens
5 00 PM – Lecture begins
6:30 PM – Post-event social at Stella’s Cocktail Dive
Charlotte Partridge and Miriam Frink—pioneering educators, designers, and life partners— transformed Milwaukee’s cultural landscape through their leadership of the Layton School of Art. Founded in 1921, the school emerged independently yet in parallel to the Bauhaus, championing a radical new model of interdisciplinary arts education that integrated creative practice with design, industry, and civic life.
In 1951, they moved Layton into a striking glass-block and poured-concrete structure on Prospect Avenue overlooking Lake Michigan. This relocation represented a shift in Milwaukee’s identity—from an industrial river city to a lakefront capital of modernist culture. Layton trained a generation of influential artists, designers, and architects, including Lillian Leenhouts, Wisconsin’s first licensed woman architect.
Partridge’s influence extended far beyond the school. She collaborated with Zonta International to develop Zonta Manor, an innovative housing project designed by Leenhouts for professional women. She also shaped the Milwaukee War Memorial alongside Ella Brandt and led Wisconsin’s Federal Art Project during the Great Depression, embedding art into public infrastructure across the state.
Their queerness—unspoken but foundational—was embedded in their leadership, vision, and radical inclusivity. Today, their legacy lives on through the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), Layton’s official successor. According to MIAD’s 2024 Campus Climate Survey, over 70% of students identify as LGBTQ+, reflecting the cultural impact of the experimental, welcoming community Partridge and Frink fostered nearly a century ago.
Featured Speaker
Seth Ter Haar (he/him) is an artist, curator, and Docomomo Wisconsin Fellow whose research focuses on queer histories in art and architecture. A 2023 MIAD graduate, he curated Predecessor: Works from the Layton School of Art, and is founder of Frederick Avenue Gallery, a collective dedicated to preserving queer cultural narratives in Milwaukee. Ter Haar is a 2023 recipient of the Gener8tor Art x Sherman Phoenix Accelerator grant, an Honorable Mention from the International Sculpture Center, and a 2025 Mary Nohl Fellowship finalist.
