- Art can be creatively used to explore our past and our future.

In a city and state where native American heritage is prevalent, there is no meaningful public art representing the indigenous people of Southeastern Wisconsin.

One local man is on a mission to change that.

A Navajo photographer uses a century old method combined with modern technology to capture the pride of his people.

We take a deep dive to an aquatic art exhibit intended to inspire action to help our oceans, visit author Ernest Hemingway's historic home and find out how you could write exactly where he did, "The Arts Page" starts right now.

(upbeat music) Welcome to "The Arts Page."

I'm Sandy Maxx.

The name of our city, Milwaukee, came from native Americans hundreds of years ago and could be loosely translated as the Goodland.

Our city and state is rich with native American history but for decades, there have been strong efforts to eliminate and even erase this culture, teaching assimilation to mainstream society instead of appreciation for one's heritage.

Now, one local man has a plan to change that.

A sculpture is being proposed on Milwaukee's lakefront.

One that would celebrate the culture of the many tribes that once flourished here.

Perry Muckerheide is leading this creative project and shared his inspiration and motivation with "The Arts Page" producer, Adam Lilley.

- So tell us about where we are and what is proposed for this site.

- This is the original location of the McKinley Coast Guard Station.

We are here because this is the proposed site for the Lakeshore Indian Tribute Sculpture.

- [Adam] What happened at that station 50 years ago?

And why is it relevant to the sculpture itself?

- Well, on the dark of the early morning of Saturday August 14th, 1971, a handful of Milwaukee's urban Indians which represented a number of Wisconsin's tribes came down here and tore the plywood off the doors of the abandoned coast guard station and began a decade long occupation.

They cited the treaty of Fort Laramie which gave Indians the right to all abandoned federal structures because they were built on their lands.

They were also clever enough to negotiate with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and had this coast guard station declared an Indian cultural educational and civic center.

- We want to highlight the drastic need of our people.

There are funding agencies, government, state, et cetera that have monies to help and are helping other people but they've neglected us, the First Americans.

- And they soon moved a number of Indian social services in here.

They moved the Indian community school in here while it was in its infancy.

And over the next nine years, it grew into a respectable secondary native American educational organization.

- [Adam] Tell us a little bit about the sculpture and the artist.

- Well, the sculptor is a gentleman named Alex Pentek he's from Ireland.

He won a commission to honor the spirit of the Choctaw Indians who in the depths of their poverty reached out and sent scarce funds to feed Irish families during the great potato famine of 1847.

The original sculpture is called Kindred Spirits and it is a circle of 20 foot stainless steel feathers that dance on their quills.

He has made an offer to us to replicate that sculpture here on this site, as a tribute to Wisconsin's Indians.

- Yes, it reflects the history and yes it responds to our shared heritage, the sort of the native Choctaw bonds, but that also it speaks to humanity and standing together against adversity.

And that's a message that continues on to the future to have as much meaning today as it did back then.

- And it's because of these things that we are looking and the artist is offered to replicate his sculpture here, to bring attention to the unity of Wisconsin's Indians.

- [Adam] How important is this to have native representation like this in Milwaukee?

- The great lakes inter tribal council has endorsed the project and they represent Wisconsin's tribes.

And also the Oneida ESC Group, which is a global engineering and construction company owned by the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin has agreed to be the general contractor.

So what's significant here is that this will be an indigenous project.

However, I think it is important that the non-native community come together and see to it that this offer from the artist is accepted.

I grew up here and I think it's significant that there isn't a substantial piece of public art dedicated to the native American history that is so prominent.

And here we are on this incredible shoreline and these historic rivers and all of the land that this beautiful community is built upon are all indigenous lands.

They Indians consider them sacred and lived here, hunted here for thousands of years before the European explorers.

We think that this should be celebrated.

- So Perry you've already put a lot of time and effort into this project.

You've done a lot of the legwork but what still has to be done to get this accomplished?

- Well, the sculptor has told me that he won't begin fabricating the feathers for this sculpture until we've confirmed that Milwaukee county has accepted his offer and that there's approval to place the sculpture here in McKinley Park.

And that we have raised the necessary funds to secure the implementation.

I will point out that he's already identified a number of metalwork companies here in Milwaukee that are capable of fabricating the sculptor.

So it will be a product made in Milwaukee.

I'm hoping that once the sculptor is in place, that when the public sees it, when the world sees it, that they will be reminded or in many cases perhaps taught for the first time that for 130 years from the 1860s all the way up to the 1990s, the United States government maintained and sponsored 350 Indian boarding schools, 11 of which were in Wisconsin.

And one was in Milwaukee in fact, all of this was done in the name of assimilating generation after generation of Indian children into American society.

In fact, though, it was really Indian cultural genocide.

And giving back the heritage to the Indian community one generation at a time.

This is the mission of the lakes shore, Indian tribute sculpture.

(upbeat music) - Learn more about this project and contribute to its creation by going to fundthesculpture.com.

That'll take you to its GoFundMe page.

Now meet Navajo Nation citizen and New Mexico artist Will Wilson.

He created a project 10 years ago called the Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange similar to what the Milwaukee Lakeshore tribute sculpture is hoping to accomplish to create dialogue and acknowledge history.

Wilson encourages his subjects to bring items of cultural significance for his photo shoots.

He blends tin type photography techniques with technology to tell his stories.

Here, Wilson shares his process and his purpose.

(upbeat music) - Well, I'm an artist and a photographer.

I'm the program head of photography at the Santa Fe Community College.

I grew up between San Francisco, California and Tuba City, Arizona, which is on the Navajo Nation.

And my dad was Irish and Welsh.

And my mom was Navajo.

I think one of the reasons I was so drawn to photography because when I found photography, it was like this language that enabled me to kind of express myself in a way that I couldn't, linguistically.

Some of the kind of early forms of photography that I was involved in, traditional black and white.

I was really drawn to that kind of documentary, kind of style, you know, 36 shots to a roll.

It was a different, different time.

Now I use a digital camera all the time, but I am drawn to historic process.

So in particular, some of the images you're seeing in this show were made with a process called wet plate, a wet plate collodion, it was developed in 1851 and was kind of the photographic process until about 1880.

So first step of the process is to take this plastic off.

With the wet plate process, it's a bit labor intensive.

You're essentially making your own film.

They call it wet plate because it has to stay wet throughout the process.

Otherwise you don't get an image.

Step one is you get a plate, either glass or black metal and you pour this stuff called collodion on that plate.

Collodion pretty much sticks to anything.

And it also has some chemistries in it that when it's combined with silver nitrate and this happens in a dark room, right?

So you pour the collodion on the plate.

You take that plate to a bath of silver nitrate.

You drop it in there.

Three minutes later, emulsion has formed, a light sensitive emulsion.

And so at that point you have to use a safe light or do this in the dark, right?

And so you load that plate into a film holder carry that film holder to the camera.

And you've already kind of set up your subject and they're kind of waiting.

You make the exposure.

And then with this process, one of the great things is you can take the subject with you back to the dark room and they get to experience the actual kind of magic of analog photography, right?

And so you have that exposed negative.

You take it out of the film holder, you pour a developer on there and negative image starts to form.

And so you kind of judge that and then you stop it with water.

And then when you put it in the fixer, this amazing thing happens.

And at that point you can actually turn the light on.

So it kind of does this transition, this magic transition from a negative image to a positive image.

So it kind of becomes this foggy kind of, it's not something that you can read.

And then out of that emerges this like beautiful, positive image.

And people are, I think really moved and fascinated and every time I see it I'm just like, re-energized, I'm like, yeah let's go make some more.

So with the CIPX project or the critical indigenous photographic exchange, which is what it stands for, I'm using a historic photographic process to kind of investigate portraiture, kind of thinking about what photography would be if indigenous people invented it, would there be a different kind of set of ideas, kind of protocols in relation to making someone's image, it's a fairly kind of intimate process.

I think there's a certain level of vulnerability that you kind of extend or offer.

When I use wet plate, it enables me to kind of slow things down.

It takes about 30 minutes to make one portrait.

So I can have kind of a slower engagement with an individual and kind of deciding how they want to be represented.

- Okay, years ago, you served the people in the Pueblo Revolt in 1680.

- I was also incorporating another technology, a 21st century technology called augmented reality with this historic photographic process through the augmented reality technology.

I have been able to bridge like this historic photographic image of her with her performance as a dancer.

And I've called these talking tintypes.

(violin music) Swil Kanim is a violinist.

And he did a rendition of "Ten Little Indians."

And he talks about like that song, that nursery rhymes relationship to kind of the history of genocide.

So you're kind of, I guess, moved by this nursery rhyme almost, but then like can hit over the back of the head with like what it's really about and his kind of reframing of it, I think is, it's a pretty powerful kind of expression of indigeneity today.

I hope that people are really drawn in to a kind of different way of looking at portraiture.

It's kind of unusual.

There's a certain level of uncertainty with this portraiture, there's these strange chemical, like aberrations that occurs in terms of the indigenous folks.

Hopefully, people like our moved by like the diversity, the agency of the people.

Yeah and I mean, I think on a broader level I hope that it makes people think about what it means to share the portraiture process with someone, slowing things down and you thinking about what it means to make yourself vulnerable, to make yourself like available to this kind of engagement.

I mean, every time I have one of these kind of engagements or work with people in this way, I think it excites me to make more and it just kind of propels the project forward.

- Enjoy more of Wilson's portfolio of artwork at his website willwilson.photoshelter.com from wet plate photography to simply wet photography.

We saw how Will Wilson uses photography to preserve history.

Photographer Andreas Franke uses his photography and hopes to save the future.

Franke is an avid ocean diver who regularly sees the effects of plastic waste on the environment.

He displayed his plastic ocean portraits underwater in Key West Florida on the side of a shipwreck to draw awareness to the problem, encourage action, plus add a layer of creativity to his art.

(upbeat music) - This super cool thing with artwork on the water is that at first it's just photography, but after this, the sea helps me to make these images unique.

And I have no influence during this three months.

My name is Andreas Franke.

I'm a photographer and I love diving.

I'm very concerned about plastic in the ocean.

For my plastic ocean images, I collected real plastic trash from the ocean from the Mediterranean Sea, very close to Venice, Italy.

So four of us went down there, collected only one hour on the beach, and we had more than enough plastic to do all these 24 images.

Then I had a pool like a tank.

I placed girls as well as kids in this plastic and made like a still life, like a old classic still life and surrounded in the water in the tank the plastic pieces we collected around the talents.

So the reason why I came to Key West and hang the artwork in Key West on the Vandenberg is of course it's an outstanding shipwreck and also a wonderful dive destination.

And for me, I really see it as a gallery.

All right, let's bring you down.

We are almost done.

We brought them down all the 24 images and hang them with magnets on the side of the shipwreck.

So during this three months, while this exhibition was on the water on the Vandenberg, more than 10,000 divers had the possibility to see this project.

After three months, I came back and we brought this artwork up.

We brought them on land.

We clear coat them that all the sea life get stable and will not crumble.

Now, after these images are clear coated we will show it again.

And we will show it in a gallery.

During these three months, these images changed because the good thing of the sea, the sea life become a part of my artwork and converted them.

So I do 50%, the other 50% is doing the sea.

After this three months, when I bring them up, there is a lot of growth of microorganism and it changed these images and make them unique.

Also, if I would do it a second time, it never ever would look similar.

And that is fantastic.

And here you can see how the artwork looks before and here you can see the difference.

So what you see here and why I love this so much to hang the artwork on the water.

It's like the water drips in these images and change the colors and creates frames.

Like in the old times, when we had Polaroids I call it awareness campaign.

And the reason why I came up with this, it's really such a one of our biggest problems.

And I left the ocean and I had really the feeling I have to do something, you could cry.

You see every year, how the sea gets worse and worse the nature dies and you find plastic everywhere.

But I feel the more often the people hear about this and see this, I feel, I hope it will help a little bit.

(upbeat music) - For more information go to the website, plasticocean.gallery/po while Andreas Franke displayed his art just off the coast of Key West Florida.

If we go on land into town, we'll find a literary landmark.

We now visit a house that used to belong to the great American writer, Ernest Hemingway.

At the Hemingway House and Museum, visitors have the opportunity to explore the property, learn about the author, pet six toed cats and even work in Hemingway's own studio.

(upbeat music) - My name is Alexa Morgan, and I am the director of public relations here at the Hemingway Home and Museum.

So when visitors come and enjoy the property, they're already taking a step in time because we've tried our best to preserve when he was here in the 1930s.

So they still get a sense of Hemingway when they're visiting with us.

Our visitors are from every end of the spectrum.

They're history buffs, love Hemingway, read many of his books, or they've heard about all our cats.

Hemingway and Pauline, which was his second wife traveled to Key West to pick up a Ford Roadster that her uncle Gus, purchased for them.

During that time, they stayed on the island and after a few weeks fell in love, and decided to purchase a home of their own.

In that time, he had finished a Farewell to Arms and with that inspiration wanted to continue writing and being here.

So they found this property here.

It was not in the best shape, so they had to renovate.

Pauline, being a employee of Vogue was very into fashion and high end details.

And when they were working on the renovation, she kind of took the lead on that and imported many glassy chandeliers that she installed in the home, along with retiling the bathrooms and things like that, all those extra details.

This originally was the hay loft of the property.

And he had a catwalk from his bedroom that extended right here to this floor.

He turned this into his writing studio and would every morning come, write, work.

And then in the afternoon enjoyed the island life.

Even in this writing studio, we have one of his typewriters.

He had multiple typewriters.

This is just one of many of his.

While here in the writing studio, he completed "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", "To Have and To Have Not", "The Green Hills of Africa" and many other of his short stories and other works.

With his writings, I know like "To Have and To Have Not," was more heavy of like Key West characters, more inspired of what he would see and who he would interact with while here on the island.

When he wrote, "The Old Man and the Sea" he was no longer living here but it was a lot of like the deep sea fishing that he was introduced to while living here.

So I think as throughout his travels and the people he meets and where he has lived has all been an inspiration for his work.

(upbeat music) So right now, we are offering a writing experience where guests can come on property and enjoy the writing studio, the home and the gardens privately, and maybe get sparked with some kind of inspiration to write their future novel or any kind of writing piece.

Well, it's something we've never offered before and going to other museums and visiting, there's always some kind of behind the scenes or some kind of experience you can enjoy.

And everyone is always drawn to our writing studio.

So we thought, why not open it up for other writers?

We are opening the experience throughout the weekdays.

So they just have to inquire and make sure the day is available.

And we can book that for them.

Our first booking, it was actually a husband booking it for his wife as a birthday gift.

She is a up and coming author.

So he wanted to give her a spark of inspiration while they visit in the Keys.

- You can learn a lot more about the interesting life and writings of Ernest Hemingway when you watch the recent Ken Burns' six part documentary simply titled "Hemingway."

The documentary is available to watch online on PBS Passport.

PBS Passport is a benefit of Milwaukee PBS membership.

Learn more at our website, Milwaukeepbs.org or call the number at the bottom of your screen.

Thank you for watching "The Arts Page."

I'm Sandy Maxx, please join us the first Thursday of every month for a half hour full of art on "The Arts Page."

(upbeat music)