Melanie Ariens
environmental artist : for the water : for each other
About
Believing that water unites us in our humanity and with all life, and that everyone has a right to clean, safe water, Melanie Ariens works passionately for social and environmental justice, equity and access to our shared waters. She is a multi-media artist, environmental advocate and community coordinator with a diverse knowledge base and creative skills set that allow her to design unique water-themed work with the Great Lakes and water as her muse. Her goal is to get people to engage with and think about water issues in a non-traditional way, often evoking a simple metaphor or tapping into a spiritual connection to water, and inviting community into the work of creation. She loves unexpected and surprising ways to insert artwork and creativity into the public sphere.
Currently she is the Creative Arts Manager for Milwaukee Water Commons, planning and facilitating creative, water inspired art experiences for local community groups, and administering an Artist in Residency program.
Education and Experience
Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1992, specializing in painting, drawing and printmaking, but has always enjoyed mixing it up and experimenting. She has extensive exhibition experience, showing both her own work and curating the work of others. She has a passion for community engaged and participatory art.
Melanie has worked to implement public art projects and coordinate community engaged and socially informed artwork in the Milwaukee watershed. She has been a regular guest lecturer and mentor for classes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and Alverno College, and has presented to a wide variety of community organizations.
Abbreviated Timeline
2026
AP3 (Anchor Press, Paper and Print) Membership exhibition, House of RAD, Milwaukee Wisconsin. 3 works exhibited from the “We Share One Water, One Sky series”. Along with a community art project hosted, where people were invited to reflect on water through drawing, collaging and printing in a 12’ long, double sided accordion book.
For the Love of Water, Art Lit Lab, Madison, WI. A grassroots resistance themed art exhibition to educate and inspire people to work collaboratively to protect the water. The show is a collaboration between Great Lakes artists whose work connects to water whether through the materials and methods used or the stories told. Water connects us all, and as such, so do the threats posed by extractive industries like mining and pipelines. Featured artists April Ogimaakwe Stone, Bomgiizhik (Isaac Murdoch), Melanie Ariens, Richard Jones, Shea Schachameyer, and Susan Simensky Bietila. This exhibition will be traveling throughout the region and is currently in Ashland, WI
Creative Arts Manager, Milwaukee Water Commons (MWC) - Design and incorporate art and creative engagement into all aspects of Milwaukee Water Commons work, ranging from small projects to support MWC’s policy and advocacy work, administering an Artist in Residence program (since 2023), Implementing creative projects with our Water School Program, and coordinating the annual We Are Water an interactive beachfront celebration of Milwaukee’s Waters, Milwaukee, WI, (since 2015)
Adams Garden Park Imagining Art Coordinating Committee and Board member, Milwaukee, WI. (Since 2020) Curation of exhibitions of diverse local artists that address a variety of cultural issues in their work. These exhibitions are held at the Milwaukee Water Commons offices which are in the Adams Garden Park Building.
2025
Lead artist, UCC Acosta Somos Agua mural expansion with Milwaukee Water Commons and Arts@Large. Served as a teaching artist and lead artist, leading 180 middle-school students at UCC Acosta MIddle School on an exploration of green infrastructure and blue/green jobs. This culminated in the painting of a 125’ pavement mural of the Great Lakes and a 5300 gallon rainwater cistern. Two former MWC Artists in Residence, Ceci Tejeda and Ann Mory Wydeven, worked alongside Melanie to implement this project. Dr. Carmen Aguliar of the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences and representatives of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage district were also involved in teaching the students about the watershed and human and environmental impacts on the water.
2024
Working for the Water, Working for Each Other: the Artwork of Melanie Ariens, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union Art Gallery. A solo exhibition featuring 118 pieces of artwork and installations. Panel discussion, and screenprinting workshop, and class visits were held in conjunction with the exhibition. There was also a community art project themed on water, unity and Melanie’s NOH8 (No Hate) initiative.
2023
Embarked on a one-month solo camping trip around the Great Lakes basin, visiting all 5 lakes, setting up small shrines to water at each lake, and photographing her piece, Tattered, with each lake. Traveling through geologic time along the mid-continental rift and exploring the diverse landscapes and indigenous communities that are part of the Great Lakes Basin offered time to reflect on our short human existence on this planet. This led to Melanie’s current studio theme of We Share One Water, One Sky.
2022
River Hero Award Recipient, River Network, Washington DC. First Artist awarded in the 22 year history of the award.
Featured Artist - Joy Engine’s Cracking Art event at Lakeshore State Park’s Plastic-Free Day, Milwaukee, WI. Created an interactive outdoor installation of Suck, a piece that is created out of over 12,000 compostable straws and encourages people to reflect on all the things we do to the water that suck the life out of it, like plastic pollution. Participants wove discarded plastic bags around the lakes to represent the Great Lakes basin.
Artist’s Now! Guest Lecturer - University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Artists Now! is a popular monthly series that presents a diverse group of artists working across traditional, hybrid and emergent disciplines. It features nationally and internationally recognized practitioners as they explore and expand boundaries of creative visual practices.
2021
AECOM/Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District - Artist on green infrastructure projects focused on rainwater capture. (Since 2015) Working in the Milwaukee County communities of West Allis, St. Francis, Greendale, Glendale, Whitefish Bay, Brown Deer, and Wauwatosa.
2019
Commissioned Artist, Muralist for 3 City of Milwaukee Public Boat Docks on the Milwaukee River, Milwaukee, WI. This work had the unexpected benefit of serving as an ambassador for Milwaukee and its waterways as passers by would stop to chat during the work.
Teaching Artist and muralist, City as a Living Lab: Watermarks Project, United Community Center’s Acosta Middle School, Milwaukee, WI - Worked in both art and science classrooms with the entire school to explore how water connects us and how runs through our lives, culminated in the painting of 9 pillars under I-94 expressway with images that reflected water connections and careers.
2018
Curator, Water Works, invitational exhibition, RedLine, Milwaukee, WI An exhibition that Water Works provoked viewers to think about all we demand of water, and questions whether we adequately care for and celebrate this life sustaining resource.
Featured Artist, To the Best of Our Knowledge: Making Waves, Wisconsin Public Radio. Staged the Turner Hall Ballroom with large water-themed installations for the live recording of this popular radio program. Milwaukee, WI. This included a 12’ wide mobile of the great lakes, and 9’ illuminated sculpture of a faucet made from recycled materials, and a 7’ shrine to water in front of the stage.
2017
Project Coordinator, Lincoln Avenue School Garden Murals, Milwaukee Public Schools, The Boys and Girls Club and the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center, Milwaukee, WI. Worked with 30 students to create 8 double sided mural panels that depict the water cycle, our watershed, the Great Lakes, and nature.
Project Coordinator, Pulaski Park Pavillion Mural, Milwaukee County Parks and Sixteenth Street Community Health Center. Worked with summer camp students to design and paint a mural based on the restoration of the Kinnickinnic River that runs through the park.
2016
Concrete River: Memorial and Promise on the Kinnickinnic, Melanie Ariens and Eddee Daniel, Alfons Gallery, Milwaukee
2015
Community Partner of the Year Award - University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee - Center for Community Based Learning, Leadership and Research.
Community Mural Coordinator - Urban Ecology Center's (UEC) HKE MKE event. “Help paint a mural” was a stop on this hiking event along the Milwaukee River Greenway. 400 event participants helped paint mural panels that were installed on the overlook tower at the UEC. Four University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Community Arts students assisted with the implementation of this project. Melanie also coordinated a community mural project for the UEC’s 10th Anniversary gathering.