Milwaukee (Greenamyer)

An addition to the Golda Meir Library in 1988 qualified UW-Milwaukee for the Percent for Art program created in 1980. The Wisconsin Arts Board administers Percent for Art and a gubernatorial-appointed committee reviews the artists' applications. In examining proposals for the Golda Meir Library site, the committee considered the works of fifty-six artists before selecting George Mossman Greenamyer.^[1]

Milwaukee has been located at the Golda Meir Library, 2311 East Hartford Avenue, since 1989.

The state of Wisconsin granted commission of $21,400 to the artist for the design, fabrication, and transportation of the work to the site.^[1] It was dedicated on May 2, 1989.^[2]

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Greenamyer received his BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art and his MFA in sculpture from the University of Kansas. First and foremost, Greenamyer considers himself a straightforward narrative sculptor.^[3] The public sculptures Greenamyer creates usually contain specific references to a community's history, architecture, and industry. He visits each site to talk with local people about the history and social background of the area. Then Greenamyer works the forge, hammering the steel into the ribbed structures on which the narrative portion rests. The pieces are welded, assembled, ground down, sandblasted, primed and painted. The buildings and figures were forged at the Carswell Sculpture & Ironworks in Marshfield, Massachusetts, before he trucked the pieces to Milwaukee. The Cardinal Fabricating Corporation in Milwaukee created the large black steel pedestal to the artist's specifications.^[4]