For the November 4, 2008 presidential election, MY VOTE PERFORMS (MVP) produced
performance art at eleven different polling places in the City of Milwaukee. MVP
is nonpartisan and approved by the State Elections Board (this body is now revamped
and called the Government Accountability Board) and the Milwaukee Election Commission.

Throughout American history, art has shaped ideas about government and civic
responsibility, but a project of this nature had not been undertaken before in the United
States. The polling sites were located all over the city, representing eleven of the city’s
fifteen voting districts.

The performance art pieces were about citizenship and voting. The artists involved
represent three decades of Milwaukee's finest performance artists. At most sites artists
created five-ten minute pieces that were presented every twenty-thirty minutes
between the highest-volume polling hours of four-eight. Projects included dance,
recorded sound, original music, puppetry, video, interactive sculpture, and storytelling.

The projects were carefully created so they would not get in the way of people voting.
(For full details, please click on the POLLING PERFORMANCES tab.)

These are the goals of MVP:

--To celebrate voting as an act of citizenship.

--To provide a value-added experience for people voting.

--To encourage more people to vote.

--To make voters more aware of the sites where they vote. 

--To expose a broad range of people to performance art.

Since only the people who voted at the eleven polling sites could experience the projects,
MVP had a free forum at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design on Tuesday,
November 25th.  At the forum MVP presented a documentary by Joseph R. Reeves of all eleven
projects, as well as live performances. To view the documentary, please click here.

The forum was sponsored by WUWM, Milwaukee Public Radio (89.7 FM.)

MVP is grateful for generous support from:

The Heller Foundation

The Meyer and Norma Ragir Foundation

Joan Heller

The Max Fund, Inc.

(Please click on the CONTRIBUTIONS tab if you would like to provide support for
MVP. This page also lists places where MVP has collection cans.)

MVP thanks the following people for their volunteer help:

Nikki D'Amico: Website Design

Sheri Urban: Promotion and Publicity Advisor

Joseph R. Reeves: Documentation

MIAD instructor Phil Belair and his communication design class: The students created logo and collection can concepts. MVP used the logo and design developed by Jamison Burish.

Andy Larsen from Boelter

Lincoln Marketing Communications for help with PR

Laura Maker: Design Assistance

Colin Dickson: Collection and Distribution

On-Site Volunteers:

(If you would like to volunteer, please contact Pegi Taylor.)