WHO ARE THE WASHINGTON PARK NEIGHBORS?
OUR MISSION
Washington Park Neighbors seek to provide audiences from the neighborhoods surrounding Washington Park with the opportunity to experience a wide variety of cultural entertainment through its quality and diverse programming in a historical venue on the West Side of Milwaukee.
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HOLDING ON TO TRADITION
The park’s designer, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, believed that open space in nature promotes health and well-being. He created Washington Park with the intention of improving society by encouraging varying urban demographics to gather in a natural setting. Today, Washington Park still feeds the energy of four strong communities - Washington Heights, Walnut Hill, Martin Drive, and Sherman Park.
CONTINUING TO EXPAND AND GROW
These bordering neighborhoods know the ongoing traditions of concerts, church gatherings, dance performances, farmers' markets, lively events, and family celebrations that fill our park and help maintain the momentum started by Olmsted. We are also lucky enough to have the Urban Ecology Center at the northeastern end of the park which remains fundamental in strengthening and growing our community and connecting it with the rest of the city. The goal of WPN’s Washington Park Wednesdays Summer Concert Series is to both broaden the scope of attendees to the park and the West Side of Milwaukee, as well as to bring access to the rich cultural fabric of Milwaukee as a whole to the residents surrounding the park.
WHAT WE DO
Each summer beginning in July, Washington Park Neighbors presents Washington Park Wednesdays—a free, vibrant concert series that transforms the historic bandshell into a hub of music, art, and community connection. Featuring a dynamic mix of established and emerging musicians, Milwaukee’s top food trucks, and family-friendly activities, Wednesdays in the park are not to be missed.
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Our popular theme nights return in 2025, each one curated to spotlight a unique blend of musical genres, cultural expressions, and creative experiences. We are deepening our focus on issues affecting Milwaukee’s youth and at-risk populations—using art as a vehicle to inspire, connect, and uplift.
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We believe that art in all its forms, presented in a beautiful public space and offered freely to all, has the power to spark real change—in neighborhoods, in lives, and across the city.
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION POLICY
Washington Park Neighbors is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Our human capital is the most valuable asset we have. The collective sum of the individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, innovation, self-expression, unique capabilities, and talent that our employees invest in their work represents a significant part of not only our culture but our reputation and the organization's achievement as well.
We embrace and encourage our staff and volunteers differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique.
WPN’s diversity initiatives are applicable—but not limited—to our practices and policies on recruitment and selection; compensation and benefits; professional development and training; promotions; transfers; social and recreational programs; layoffs; terminations; and the ongoing development of a working environment built on the premise of gender and diversity equity that encourages and enforces:
Respectful communication and cooperation between all staff and volunteers.
Teamwork and worker participation, permit the representation of all groups and worker perspectives.
Work/life balance through flexible volunteer schedules to accommodate staff and volunteers’ varying needs.
Director, staff, and volunteer contributions to the communities we serve to promote a greater understanding and respect for diversity.
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All staff and volunteers of WPN have a responsibility to treat others with dignity and respect at all times. All people are expected to exhibit conduct that reflects inclusion during working event hours, at event functions on or off the event site, and at all other WPN-sponsored and participative events.
Any volunteer found to have exhibited any inappropriate conduct or behavior against others may be subject to disciplinary action.
Volunteers, staff, and attendees who believe they have been subjected to any kind of discrimination that conflicts with the company’s diversity policy and initiatives should seek assistance from a supervisor of Washington Park Neighbors.
OUR BOARD
President: Melissa Muller, Nonprofit Consultant, Artist, Community Organizer
Vice President & Treasurer: Brenda Simonis, Director Of Food And Beverage at The Pfister Hotel
Secretary: Rachel Neal, Educator, GE Healthcare
Members:
Molly Howard, Owner, Joy Chaser
Derrick Cainion, Owner ,Arts Intersection MKE
Barbara Haig, Corporate Communications Manager, Johnson Controls
Sophia Flood El yafi, Attourney
Sharlen Moore, Alderwoman, Community Organizer
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Advisors to the board:
Lamont Smith, Health Cities Program, The Nature Conservancy
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LAND RECOGNITION
Washington Park is located in the city of Milwaukee, WI which occupies ancestral Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi and Menominee lands along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes; A place where the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida and Mohican nations remain present. We share this land acknowledgment to remind ourselves and others of our inextricable history with these sovereignties and as a commitment to our shared future.