When I told people I would be spending my Friday night at the Milwaukee Art Museum, I mostly got laughed at. Well, the joke is on all ya’ll.

The Milwaukee Art Museum and Cedar Block, Milwaukee’s self-proclaimed “presenter of odd little events,” once again gave the city a night of art that will be remembered by all who attended.

After the success of the “Bruce Nauman 101,” the duo teamed up again and persuaded local artists to create work inspired by the museum’s current Saul Leiter exhibit. Thus "Milwaukee Street, Milwaukee" or "MKESTMKE" came to be.

The story goes like so: Cedar Block sent out 35 area artists to capture lomographic photos in Milwaukee’s streets on a rainy late-September day. What these artists brought back captured the very essences of the city.

At 8 p.m. the event started, and few people had arrived yet. There was no line for drinks and most of the food was neatly arranged in the east hallway.

Being a college student, one thinks that drinks and free food were my first priority, but this relative emptiness gave me a good opportunity to view the one-night exhibit without crowds of people surrounding me and talking in my ear.

The photographs and photograph arrangements were all amazing. Each photographer took the “lomographic” style and bent it to his/her/their will. A sweeping picture of Milwaukee was created fragment by fragment, until the looking glass was restored.

Each picture was a stolen glance here and a spaceless stare there. Some artist’s arrangements showed the repetition of city life, reminding the viewer of how often they pass a solitary point in Milwaukee and not realize they saw it.

Artists all definitely got Leiter’s attention to detail and use of color. Some pictures seemed timeless to the viewer, questioning the age of the photograph.

Along with the photographs, Cedar Block gave other Milwaukee artists a chance to create artwork inspired by Saul Leiter’s photos in the medium of choice.

Evan Gritzon gave another hilarious Power Point presentation, this time “Remembering 9/22,” the day Cedar Block sent out its platoon of camera-wielding soldiers, and what 9/22 means to all of us. Fasten Co-Op presented outfits derived from Leiter’s photographs. Music and video performances were given by Rosenau/Schoenecker/Rammel/Warchol (members of Collections of Colonies of Bees, Loam, Penumbra Music) and donebestdone.

Yet again the Milwaukee Art Museum and Cedar Block created a very intriguing and innovative event/gala/exhibit that truly represents Milwaukee’s art scene. By the end of the exhibit, the museum was full of artsy Milwaukeeans.

If you missed out on "MKESTMKE," hopefully the museum and Cedar Block will team up again very soon.

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