Milking It For All It's Worth
One-Of-A-Kind MilkBoy ArtHouse Bridges the Gap between Community And The Arts
By Nelia Dashiell
Have you ever sat during a long, never-ending art performance and thought to yourself, “This would be SO much better if I had a beer right now.”
Yeah? Well, enter MilkBoy ArtHouse.
Sitting between The University of Maryland and its surrounding communities, MilkBoy ArtHouse seeks to bring community and campus residents together under one roof to celebrate art and pop culture while grabbing a drink and good American comfort cuisine.
MilkBoy ArtHouse was a dream turned reality fathomed by Tommy Joyner and Jamie Lokoff. Starting as just a recording studio in Philadelphia in 1994, Joyner and Lokoff wanted to grow MilkBoy beyond a studio. They wanted to give it a venue, a place where people could grab something to eat and enjoy a good local performance. With that the first MilkBoy ArtHouse opened. After seeing the great success of the first venue, Joyner and Lokoff began to open up various MilkBoy ArtHouses around the Philadelphia area.
Meanwhile, here on the campus of the University of Maryland, Martin Wollesen, the executive director of The Clarice, sought a place like home where people could come and enjoy various genres of art performances.
When asked how Wollesen came to work with Milkboy he said, “Not all people feel comfortable coming to traditional performing arts center. I wanted something a little less formal than The Clarice. So I began to have conversations with folk in the community. Simultaneously, a group from Philadelphia called MilkBoy was looking to expand down in the College Park area with a very similar idea.”
“The university wanted to do something for the school, the students and the community,” said Joyner. “They wanted something real. So, they invited us to come down to College Park and introduced us to the people of The Clarice and we formed a partnership.”
The MilkBoy ArtHouse in College Park opened in May 2017. They partnered up with local breweries and local farmers to get the best beers and the food is all made from scratch. MilkBoy offers a menu of various wings, salads, burgers, crab cakes and donuts. I grabbed their seasonal Red Velvet trio of donuts - made to order and delicious (not a bad price either, I might add).
What also makes MilkBoy ArtHouse a great spot for a Friday night is the wide variety of art. Various performances include spoken word, jazz, rock, pop and even film showings. Performers from The Clarice and UMD also perform at MilkBoy as well as other local artists. The Clarice recognizes MilkBoy as the only campus-community arts venue of its kind. It is, as Wollesen put it, literally “an art bridge between campus and community.”
The future for MilkBoy ArtHouse goals include becoming a destination center point. “The vision is for people in the entire DC metro area who are looking for something to do, will come to College Park. The goal is to make College Park the destination,” Joyner says.
Wollesen followed up with, “[I want MilkBoy ArtHouse to be] a space where artists and creative people can find a home to create.”
In the future, MilkBoy ArtHouse plans to have open mic nights and even paint and sip events and so many more performances.
Come grab a good bite to eat and enjoy a local beer while supporting and enjoying the local arts any day of the week at MilkBoy ArtHouse. Find an event that brings out the MilkBoy artist in you.
