Shrinking Legroom Just One Way Airline Culture Has Changed, New Milwaukee Art Exhibit Highlights Mid-Century Modern Design, Milwaukee Continues To Face Poverty

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The Institute For Research On Poverty located at UW-Madison has released a new report that finds Milwaukee County to still have some of the highest levels of poverty in the state. We talk to the co-author of the report for more details. We also find out more about the colorful and whimsical furniture, toys, office spaces and more from the curator of the new Milwaukee Art Museum exhibit called “Serious Play.” And we look at new changes some airlines are pushing for.

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  • New Milwaukee Art Museum Exhibit Encourages Visitors To Take Time To Play

    A new Milwaukee Art Museum exhibit is encouraging visitors to take some time to play.

    The new exhibit, Serious Play: Design in Midcentury America, highlights the work of more than 40 designers from the 1940s to the 1960s who fought against a homogenous society through whimsical designs and colorful tones.


    Ray Eames with the first prototype of The Toy. Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Art Museum.

    “This is probably the brightest, most colorful display that visitors will have seen at the Milwaukee Art Museum in the last few years,” said Monica Obniski, curator at the museum.

    The exhibit is split into three sections, American homes, children’s play — toys, playgrounds, children’s furniture — and corporations that embraced the playful designs, she said.

    Everything in the exhibit is from the period, with the exception of the play areas where visitors are encouraged to take some time to play with the various toys inspired by the era.

    With the Cold War and a culture that placed a heavy emphasis on work as the backdrop, the architects and designers imagined a different world — one where free play, experimentation and creativity were encouraged, Obniski said.

    “One of the things that I like to talk about is, you know, the man in the gray flannel suit and that is exactly it … this kind of homogenous 1950s moment,” she said. “Architecture and design is … not just a singular discipline but in fact once you start blurring the boundaries you can do super interesting things.”

    The designers of the era wanted to show play was as valuable as work, Obniski said. Like Arthur Carrara and his Magnet Master toy set featured in the exhibit.

    On the surface, the colored magnets in different shapes seem simple, she said. But what Carrara envisioned had more to do with building and envisioning a future where buildings could be held together by a magnetic core.

    “He was thinking about magnetism as not just something that was a playful game,” Obniski said. “And it’s only when you allow yourself to stop and dream and think about these things that you know the future is possible.”


    Arthur A. Carrara, Magnet Master 400, 1947. Photo by John R. Glembin, courtesy of Milwaukee Art Museum.

    Those ideas still echo today, she said.

    “This idea that free play or experimentation is really central to the work of architects and designers, if you look at something like Silicon Valley for example, I mean they are really kind of driving the message home,” she said.

    Obniski hopes visitors will take that message to heart and let their minds go free and enjoy the process.

    “I hope that actually gives you some pause and it causes you to think that, ‘Oh, maybe I should block out 15 minutes a day to … not look at e-mail or not look at my screen and actually just let my mind go,’” she said. “I think that would be the greatest thing.”

    The exhibit, which is co-organized with the Denver Art Museum, opened Friday and will run through Jan. 6.

  • FAA Funding Bill Would Protect Legroom On Airplanes

    The FAA reauthorization bill passed by the House last week includes provisions that would set a minimum standard for legroom on airplanes and prohibit airlines from forcibly removing passengers. We talk with an advocate for airline passengers about the legislation and trends in the industry.

  • High Poverty Remains In Milwaukee County

    A new supplemental report from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty finds that Milwaukee County still has some of the highest poverty rates in the state. We talk to Timothy Smeeding, Lee Rainwater Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics and a co-author of the report, about the economic disparities in the state’s most populous county.

  • How Midcentury Designers Made Playfulness A Part Of Every Day Spaces

    A new exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum encourages its visitors to take moments out of their busy schedules to make time for play. We learn about Mid Century designers who did just that from the exhibit’s organizer.

Episode Credits

  • Rob Ferrett Host
  • Natalie Guyette Producer
  • Dean Knetter Producer
  • J. Carlisle Larsen Producer
  • Monica Obniski Guest
  • Douglas Kidd Guest
  • Timothy Smeeding Guest

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