A new arts space in Riverwest celebrates its grand opening this weekend. Located at 514 E. Center St. next to Club Timbuktu and across from Mad Planet, Style Machine is run by artists for artists, designed as a hub for live music, film screenings, creative workshops, private parties, divinations and more. The venue kicks things off on Friday, October 2 with a downtempo DJ night by xDOMINIONx and Dance Commandr of darkwave party duo Goth Barge from 8 p.m. till midnight.
“I decided to invest in this place and thought we could start an arts center here,” executive director Anna Fortune says. She and members of the Style Machine team each bring a unique creative background to the table; Fortune is an apparel designer and tarot reader as well as vocalist in the bands Fake Twin and System Sect. Program director Neil Horsky is a visual artist, designer, educator and writer who teaches at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) and plays drums in the band Gore Area II. Technical director J.J. Fortune is a designer and software architect who co-runs Goth Barge. Operations director Amanda Fish is a jeweler and party planner who is vocalist of Gore Area II.
The process of restoring and permitting the historic building that houses Style Machine, which had previously been both a tavern and art gallery, took about five years. Anna Fortune and Neil Horksy are siblings; while Fortune has lived in Milwaukee since 2016, Horsky moved here from Boston in 2023. The space’s name came from a visioning exercise, as Horsky explains, “I had been getting some traction within my art practice where I would find inspiration with words from intriguing books. We came across a book about rhetorical terms and I used intuition to grab a couple dozen interesting words. We looked through those and that was what popped out.”
Multiple Programming
Four types of programming have been planned for Style Machine: the Cinema 514 local filmmaker series, the Smoke & Mirrors live music and DJ series, Fortune House Divinations (oracle and tarot readings) and Friday Fit Check boutique nights. “We’re starting with those and seeing what people gravitate towards,” Horsky notes.
Style Machine is furnished with display cases for exhibitions and merchandise, and is equipped with a 15 ft. projection screen. The space features a claw machine stocked with locally made prizes like punk rock tapes and jewelry, and has a vending machine that dispenses oracle cards drawn by Horsky that feature fortunes written by Fortune. The bar features beer, wine, THC and non-alcoholic options including house-made craft sodas. Next to the bar is a DJ booth, and around the corner is the private room for tarot and oracle readings…