When I see the birds fly thousands of miles into the unknown together, I am reminded that our animal bodies have this same instinctual wisdom. I paint the bird and human forms to make this wisdom visible – the bodily communication we can feel when we allow ourselves the space to listen. What does it look like when we receive a spark of excitement in our chest or a powerful current of grief washing through our heart? The sensation may appear as a bright spiral in the hand, a deep blue lake in the heart, or a fish swimming through the leg. The wooden forms have their arms (wings) spread wide, receptive to the insight their body carries. However, these insights are not meant to be carried alone.
Just like the flock, our human bodies are designed to exist together. But we are out of practice. Perhaps we can try moving like starlings in a murmuration, or geese in a V formation, exploring new shapes as a collective. This residency and upcoming bird parades are designed to offer the space to practice these shapes of connection in a world where our social and ecological webs have been deeply disrupted. We hope you’ll join us for this practice, so together we can rediscover something more true and alive – in each other and ourselves.
April 17 | 5 – 9 pm
The residency will launch during Gallery Night with an interactive installation featuring small bird puppets. Visitors will be invited to animate the puppets, experiment with movement, and participate in the Hattie’s Flock residency. Prompts will encourage reflection on collective motion and freedom, asking questions such as: What shape does your flock take? What does freedom look like in motion? Guests will also be invited to join an ongoing creative practice group.
Making Hope: A Fabric Flag Workshop
May 7 | 6 – 8 pm
Participants will spark their imagination with Hattie’s automatic writing exercises and generate their own mantras and intentions that will become fabric banners for future parades and events.
It’s Us With Wings: A Bird Puppet Workshop
June 17 | 6 – 8 pm
Guests will build bird puppet bodies using papier-mâché and other sculptural techniques, laying the groundwork for later performances and parades. Guests will also paint the birds and create wearable elements or costumes for a culminating bird parade. The workshop will offer opportunities for movement, performance, and collective creation.
Flock: The Bird Parade
July 1 | 6 – 9 pm
The residency will culminate in a public bird parade and festival featuring the puppets, costumes, and fabric banners created throughout the program. The celebration hopes to be full of sights and sounds, and welcome contributions from Hattie’s creative collaborators, transforming the streets into a shared performance of movement, sound, and collective joy.
Gallery Hours
Tuesday – Saturday 9 am – 2 pm
Through this residency, Arts@Large and Hattie Grimm invite the community to imagine what it might mean to move together differently—to practice freedom, care, and creativity as a flock.
This Fall, we welcome Whitney Salgado as our next Arts @ Large Artist in Residence. A Latine digital painter and illustrator, Whitney studied Illustration and Communication Design at MIAD and has called Milwaukee home for over a decade. Influenced by Art Nouveau, pop art, and anime, their work explores themes of mental health, emotions, and identity, using both digital and traditional mediums. Their 3D pieces, such as Nichos, draw on cultural storytelling and traditions surrounding death.
In Spring 2026, Hattie Grimm will begin her residency in the Arts @ Large gallery. An artist and educator with a BA in Art Education from UW–Madison, Hattie’s work is inspired by birds, the natural world, and intuitive wisdom. She has taught art to youth, led workshops across Wisconsin, and exhibited her paintings, sculptures, and puppet parades statewide.
The Arts @ Large Artist in Residence program offers artists a three-month residency with studio space and a budget, staff support, and opportunities to transform our gallery, engage with the community through workshops and field trips, and celebrate with opening and closing events.
Learn more about both artists via their websites by clicking the links below.
Thank you to the many supporters who make our residency program possible, especially the City of Milwaukee Arts Board, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, and the Wisconsin Arts Board.