Let’s make diversity Milwaukee’s greatest asset.

  • Who We Are

      Greater Together is a non-profit organization that promotes racial and economic equity in the creative industries in the Greater Milwaukee area. We embrace collaboration and creativity, and believe in inclusion, so everyone can participate, prosper and reach their full potential within the design and creative communities.

      We are the originators of the Greater Together Challenge, an unprecedented competition focused on generating and advancing ideas that address segregation in Milwaukee.

  • Our Mission
      • To Inspire creative industry professionals to use their talents to design a more diverse future.
      • Start with ourselves — our organizations, industries, businesses
        and the work we do everyday.
      • Create campaigns that increase awareness and deeper understanding of the issues of racial inequity.
      • Explore opportunities for positive change that others can follow
      • Inspire people of color in underrepresented communities to pursue creative careers.
      • Champion research and create tools that drive change.
  • Our Vision

      A creative industry where everyone can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential.

  • Our Strategy

      Inspire members of Milwaukee’s creative industries to take leadership roles in creating just and fair inclusion in our fields.

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Why

“Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world.”

John Lennon

“Hold fast to dreams,
for if dreams die,
life is a broken-winged
bird that cannot fly.”

Langston Hughes

“There is a place in America to take a stand: it is public education. It is the underpinning of our cultural and political system. It is the great common ground… It is in public education that the American dream begins to take shape.”

Tom Brokaw

“Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality.”

Pope Francis
in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium Nov. 24, 2013.

“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.”

Nelson Mandela

“Like Jim Crow (and slavery), mass incarceration operates as a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions that operate collectively to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined largely
by race.”

Michelle Alexander,
The New Jim Crow:
Mass Incarceration in the
Age of Colorblindness

“I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.”

Robert F. Kennedy

“We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

U.S Supreme Court
Brown v. Board of education

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”

John F. Kennedy

Our Programs

Greater Together Creative Corps

The Creative Corps is a multi-faceted program designed to make it easy for businesses and professionals within the creative industries to open their businesses and the creative economy to young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods.This ongoing program is an opportunity to close the diversity gap within our creative industries, while creating a new resource of talent for our businesses.

Businesses: 4 Ways to Engage in Creative Corps

  • Sponsor & host a 2 hour workshop at your business.

      Our professional team will engage your staff in an inspiring and meaningful way with talented diverse youth in hands-on workshops. The program focuses on leveraging a few volunteers from your business to share their story and participate in a discussion and hands-on workshop. Workshops may include focusing on a specific design problem, or describing a current project your business is working on and inviting employees to discuss their individual roles in executing the project.

  • Create an outreach initiative at your business.

      Offer your staff members the opportunity to visit classrooms and share their passion and excitement for their profession. See Greater Together Mentor below. (link)

  • Host a tour of your business.

      Every dream starts somewhere. A simple organized tour of your business can be an experience that sparks a dream for an impressionable youth. We’ll recruit the students; you give the tour and have four of your colleagues share their story. Ninety minutes that can leave a lifelong impression.

  • Offer an internship at your business.

      We’ve partnered with Lead2Change to offer an easy way to manage summer internships. We’ll ensure an appropriate skills match and work through the logistics. Your staff will have the rewarding opportunity to mentor and inspire an aspiring student who will one day make them proud as fellow creative professional.

Professionals: 2 Ways to Engage in Creative Corps

  • Become a Greater Together Mentor

      Become a Greater Together mentor for our ongoing series of issue-based dialogue workshops. You’ll be joined by a trained facilitator from the Zeidler Center and other members of our growing team of Greater Together Mentors. Mentors help oversee the sessions, share their passion for the industry and engage the students in creatively-driven activities. As a mentor you’ll find the experience of sharing your passion and hearing the stories of students, both enlightening and rewarding. Workshops typically begin with an issues-based discussion (Greater Together Mission Link) followed by a hands-on workshop that gives participants an dynamic opportunity to verbally and creatively explore ideas that are often integrated into Greater Together’s efforts.

  • Creative Industry Brainstorms & Community Dialogues

      The Greater Together Creative Industry Brainstorms give professionals within creative industries and community stakeholders an opportunity to explore issues of race and develop a unified commitment to opening the creative industries to greater diversity and generate ideas for Greater Together Programming.

Spectral Lecture Series

Greater Together Spectrum Lecture Series

Greater Together curates an annual series of lectures that bring together the world of design and social innovation with a particular focus on increasing inclusion into Greater Milwaukee’s Creative Industries so that all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. The series is designed to lively and entertaining and equally interesting to the professional creative community, businesses, social innovators, and aspiring students.

 

Support & Info

Hi,
Thank you for you interest in being Greater Together.

We believe, to thrive as a city, it is essential for Milwaukee's racially segregated creative industries to become more inclusive and reflective of our city as a whole. That begins by acknowledging the issues, and then making a commitment as individuals, professionals and businesses to be part of the soultion. We believe that making our creative economy more open and welcoming will be good for our businesses and have a significant impact by increasing opportunities for the disadvantaged as well.

If you'd like to stay in touch, give us input, donate or help make a difference - you are in the right place...


Please tell us a little about yourself:

Upcoming Events

Design and social innovation come together at The Premier of the Greater Together Spectrum Series debuts at the University Club of Milwaukee on April 6.

Upcoming Events

Greater Together People’s Flag of Milwaukee Exhibit

Milwaukee's City Hall
May 14 from 5 to 8:30PM

You are cordially invited to an exhibit of the 50 best flag design submissions to the Greater Together Milwaukee People’s Flag Initiative.

Greater Together, a coalition dedicated to promoting racial and economic equality in Milwaukee in partnership with AIGA Wisconsin, The Professional Association for Design, Radio Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Flag Initiative announces The Greater Together People’s Flag of Milwaukee Design Exhibition.

This exhibition will feature the 50 best designs and announce the top five finalists.

Read more.

Greater Together Challenge

Our Partners

AIGA

AIGA, the professional association for design, believes designers serve a critical role as communicators, educators and innovators.

Hanson Dodge Creative

Hanson Dodge Creative is a fully integrated, strategically driven marketing agency dedicated to inspiring consumers and transforming businesses.

Core Creative

Core Creative is an integrated marketing communications agency with a passion for making brands more human.

Zeidler Center

The Zeidler Center organizes civil dialogues and trainings for individuals, groups, and communities to decrease polarization, improve communication, and foster relationships.

Lead2Change

Lead2Change is a youth leadership organization that develops young leaders who are committed to creating change in the greater Milwaukee area.

88Nine Radio Milwaukee

88Nine Radio Milwaukee is a catalyst for creating a better, more inclusive and engaged Milwaukee.

The University Club of Milwaukee

The University Club of Milwaukee is the City’s premier private city club for leaders who are shaping the business, philanthropic and civic landscape of our community.

Heil Family Foundation

Heil Family Foundation supports organizations at the intersection of art, creativity and social innovation.

Advisory Team & Friends of Greater Together

Staff

  • Ken Hanson

    Executive Director
    Greater Together
    220 East Buffalo Street
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    Khanson@hansondodge.com

  • Katherine Wilson

    Associate Director
    Katherine@zeidlercenter.org

  • Nata Abbott

    Director of Operations & Outreach
    nata.abbott@smartsystemsworks.com

  • Xavier Ruffin

    Programming Director
    xavier@dopamine.pro

  • Sarah Smith

    Social Media Specialist
    Greatertogethermke.com

    • Advisory Team

  • Chris Bishop

    Brand Director
    Graff Faucets

    President
    AIGA Wisconsin

  • Todd Broadie

    Consultant
    M-7 Next Generation
    Manufacturing Council

  • James Hall

    Attorney
    Hall Legal

  • Christine Harris

    CEO
    Christine Harris Connections

  • Katie Heil

    Director
    The Heil Family Foundation

  • Marty Kaiser

    Former Editor &
    Senior Vice President
    Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

  • Kimberly Kane

    President
    Kane Communications Group

  • Ken Krei

    Chairman
    Milwaukee Art Museum
    Board of Trustees

  • Melinda Krei

    President’s Advisory Council
    Teachers College
    Columbia University

  • Keisha Krumm

    Lead Organizer
    Common Ground

  • Paula Pennebaker

    President & CEO
    YWCA

  • Rabbi Francis Barry Silberg

    Rabbi
    Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun

  • George Tzourgos

    Executive Director
    Wisconsin Arts Board

  • Wyman Winston

    Executive Director
    WHEDA