The Farm Project
The Farm Project is a partnership between the Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative (CSNI) and the Cesar Chavez Drive Business Improvement District (BID) to seed arts, culture, and small business in the Clarke Square neighborhood. The Farm Project objective is to cultivate Chavez Drive as a destination for both cultural and economic investment.
News: The Farm Project Named Finalist for 2020 MANDI
Chavez Drive is one of the city’s few major arterial streets that is well connected to many different neighborhoods (The Menomonee Valley, Walker Square, Clarke Square, Muskego Way). Historically, it is the epicenter for Latino business and residents to access ethnic food, music and merchandise. Chavez Drive is at the center of the State’s densest zip code 53204 with almost ten thousand residents within a ten-block radius.
The Farm Project has implemented several successful projects, from the installation of a significant public art piece in the shape of a six-foot bronze Cesar E. Chavez Sculpture (at 916 S. Chavez Drive) to the successful planning and implementation of special events such as Ciclovía MKE.
From late 2018 through September 30, 2019 three beautiful murals have been installed on Chavez Drive. Two of these have been installed thanks to the partnership and vision of the Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers.
The most prominent of these two is the 50th Anniversary mural created by Mauricio Ramírez on the main building for Sixteenth Street, on the Northeast corner of Washington & Chavez.
The Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers' 50th Anniversary Mural by Mauricio Ramírez
Most recently, Isabel Castro, the 2018 Chavez Drive Artist in Residence completed and installed Tejiendo Raíces on the North wall of 1023 S. Chavez Drive (Southwest corner of Mineral & Chavez) as her major legacy project for her residency. We celebrate these and the many other artists who have helped to build the identity of Chavez Drive over the years. We also look forward to many more public art and culturally significant landmarks to come.
Tejiendo Raíces Mural (during installation) by Isabel Castro, 2018 Chavez Drive Artist in Residence