ArtBlaze on the Beach, A New Series from Joy Engine

Even if you have never heard of Joy Engine, you may have heard about, or attended, one of their eccentric events around town. They organize the MKE River Roundup, a funkadelic concert series attended by kayaks on the Milwaukee River, and Nitelight, an immersive light show event on Historic Mitchell Street, prioritizing vibrant events that expose the public to free art, music, and activities. Joy Engine is also the driver behind ArtBlaze, a series of family-friendly events on Bradford Beach and South Shore Beach that blends together visual art, local music, children’s games, and family-oriented activities. All four ArtBlaze events are free to everyone. 

The events are full of surprises, but perhaps the most surprising thing about ArtBlaze is that it seems to be the first of its kind. “In 20 years, there hasn’t ever been a public free event on Milwaukee beaches,” says Andy Nelson, who is consulting for Joy Engine and promoting this event across the community. We met at Bradford Beach before the first ArtBlaze kicked off and talked underneath the emerging sculptures: three massive inflatable “Cosmopods” created by FuzzPop Workshop, the artist collective behind the popular Deep Lake Future exhibition at Var Gallery on 5^th, which has been extended until the last weekend in July.

As we talk about the upcoming events, Nelson looks out across the beach, at the parallel nets up and down the vast expanse where volleyball players dive and chase and rotate. “Of course there’s volleyball,” he says. “Small gatherings, and private parties that happen here. But never something like this. ArtBlaze could be an annual event. We want to utilize the beaches and draw more people to this incredible natural asset.” People have started to approach the Cosmopods, snapping pictures and ducking in and out from between the large tentacles that reach out into the water. Nelson observes how the public interacts with the sculptures and grins. “They glow at night!”

Setting up the inflatable Cosmopods is Daniel Murray and his FuzzPop Workshop team, who double as performance artists representing ICOR (Interspecies Cybernetic Optimization Research), the fictional, enterprising, often misguided research team devoted to studying freshwater invasive species. It’s all part of an expansive narrative that FuzzPop has written to investigate how art can blend with the ecological and technological questions we face in the modern era.

Each FuzzPop experience follows the narrative thread a little deeper, looking for new ways to engage the community in what it means to share our home with invaders, which are portrayed as experiments gone awry and the appearance of mysterious visitors. Enter: the Cosmopods. Murray is wearing a wide brimmed straw hat and very reflective teal sunglasses, in which the pink and purple visitors loom against the blue sky, swaying in his lenses like a vision manifest.

Fun with Science

“It’s a fun conversation starter,” Murray says. “Parents can talk to their children about invasive species in a playful, science fiction way.”

ArtBlaze will occur in three more iterations, so plan ahead for July 31st and August 7th at South Shore Beach, and a concluding event on August 21st at Bradford Beach. The July 31st ArtBlaze event at South Shore Beach will feature musical acts Lil Rev, Tigera, and De La Buena, yoga on the beach, and Latin dancing. Programming is scheduled from 3:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will certainly include surprise activities and community engagement between the confirmed acts. Murray confirms that the collaborative team will continue to invent new activities during the next ArtBlaze events. “There may be a few evolutions as the Cosmopods adapt to life on land. They take on a life of their own.”

It is likely that these creatures will return to their homeland with intelligence about our species and community. It may be wise for Milwaukeeans to put our best selves forward, do a little welcoming chant, and show them that the creative and community vitality is very much alive in our city. Nelson summarizes this neatly in this observation: “If you’re an outsider looking at Milwaukee right now, you’re seeing a creative energy that wasn’t there before.”

What I saw at the first ArtBlaze event and expect to see again during the next three was a palpable enthusiasm and curiosity for the program. Children leapt over the neon pink tentacles in the water. Adults played along with the inventive ICOR narrative, and the organizers of both Joy Engine and FuzzPop exhibited genuine enthusiasm to be participating in an event that brought the community together. I want to tell the Cosmopods we can do better for the arts as a state, that we can shift the narrative about art and culture to include more collaborative, inventive, and publicly accessible events like ArtBlaze. But Murray claims we are still awaiting the Rosetta Stone that will translate the Cosmopod language into ours. Maybe we let our actions speak instead. 

See ArtBlaze on the Beach this summer, presented by Joy Engine and featuring sculptures by FuzzPop Workshop

• Wednesday, July 31 at South Shore Beach, 3-9 p.m.
• Wednesday, August 7 at South Shore Beach, 3-9 p.m.
• Wednesday, August 21 at Bradford Beach, 3-9 p.m.

For complete details, visit joyengine.org/artblaze.