WaterMarks: An Atlas of Water for the City of Milwaukee is a project to build a city-wide network of engagement that starts with the topic of water.  It focuses on the history, present state and future of water in the city and Lake Michigan.

In 2014, New York City artist Mary Miss, who also helped envision the popular Milwaukee RiverWalk in the late 1990s, was invited to develop an urban-scale vision for art and water for the city Milwaukee. Working with artist Aaron Asis to develop the framework for this vision, WaterMarks is an urban-scaled initiative designed to activate and engage residents throughout our Water Centric City. Within each neighborhood a symbolic WaterMarker focuses on particular theme, community expression, or sector perspective that adds richness to our shared understanding of and value for water. Taken together, WaterMarks creates space for all Milwaukeeans to contribute to this "Atlas of Water."

Connecting all these WaterMarkers with each other and the many communities of the city is an ongoing process of community engagement. Following the City as Living Laboratory practices of WALKS, WORKSHOPS and PROJECTS, we are imagining and co-creating new, positive narratives of a sustainable future in Milwaukee, not only in terms of water but in terms of the neighborhoods themselves.  With this project we aspire to help create more robust community organizations for the neighbors they serve.   

As the resource of water and issues around its availability and protection are raised, multiple aspects of sustainable development—health, social justice, employment, infrastructure, education, nutrition, wildlife conservation—also come to view. Water serves as a platform to engage the full agenda of sustainable development. It also highlights that we must address the human needs for equitable lives of dignity and freedom in order to effectively take on the challenge of climate change.