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BY LAURA PATTEN
t was 1962. America was twisting and shouting with The Isley Brothers, TV viewers were captivated by a redhead named Lucy, Andy Warhol was painting soup cans and a Milwaukeean named Jack Lewis, now 84, was putting together the city’s first Lakefront Festival of Arts (LFOA). With no real experience raising money or organizing festivals, Lewis and his co-chair, Mary Ellen Philipp, joined with a hard-working handful of friends
and recruited more than 100 Wisconsin artists to display their works on temporary fencing that zigzagged across the Milwaukee Art Museum’s old grounds. The volunteers also hired musicians, including part of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, as well as other performing artists and children’s entertainers, like the Pick-A-Pack Players. “The focus was on arts, plural,” emphasizes Lewis. “Movies, plays, music – all kinds of stuff. Something for everybody, all in one day.” Ideally, all in one sunny day.
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