What are the opening hours?

Tuesday 6pm - 12am Wednesday 4pm - 2am Thursday 4pm - 2am Friday 4pm - 2:30am Saturday 1pm - 2:30am Sunday 11am - 2am

Cactus Club

Name: Cactus Club
Address: 2496 S Wentworth Avenue, Milwaukee, WI, 53207, US
Telephone: +14148970663
Price range: $
Rating: 4.2

artist-run music venue
community event space
friendly neighborhood tavern
(869)

Artist-run, queer-owned music + arts venue
Community event space
Friendly, storied neighborhood staple

07/16/2026

⊹ ࣪ ˖ 𝓈𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝒶𝓉𝑒 ˖ ࣪ ⊹ Beet Street 2026 is
Saturday, Oct 3 🍂

Our autumn block party returns with phenomenal performances from international and local musicians, interactive tables from community orgs providing transformative services in this city and vendors galore, featuring some of our favorite local artists and food purveyors. Engaging intergenerational fun for everyone ♡₊˚⊹

Full daytime and afterparty lineups will be announced in the coming weeks, but today we’re excited to share a first look!

This event would not be possible without the generous support of our lead sponsors Marine Credit Union City of Milwaukee arts board Educators Credit Union community sponsors Outpost Coop Grocery Store Visit Milwaukee La Gritona Reposado Gruber Law Offices media media pals WMSE 91.7FM Milwaukee Record Radio Milwaukee and many rad folks just like you showing up, donating, and making it a memorable party!

07/15/2026

💫 Join us 7/21 online at 6pm for a free writing workshop led by ITC 2026 artist resident Cynthia Marie Hoffman!

🔸Multiply Your Obsessions and Write More🔸

📝 This two-hour generative creative writing class will have you thinking big and writing more by leaning into what already fascinates you. We’ll brainstorm a list of obsessions—those unanswered questions we keep returning to, and even the recurring signs and symbols that seem to keep finding us. What do these things mean in our lives, and how can we use them in our creative work?

🖼️🖼️ Taking inspiration from the diptych and triptych panel paintings first popularized more than 600 years ago, you’ll draft two (or three!) poems or flash memoir pieces that relate to each other. We’ll talk about using repetition of themes and imagery, call and response, and other strategies for envisioning a larger body of work and recognizing what makes you, as an author, unique.

Your workshop leader is poet and essayist Cynthia Marie Hoffman Studner, author of four collections of poetry on cohesive themes. She has extensive experience building projects from existing obsessions and cultivating new obsessions through research.

This workshop will include lecture, readings, generative writing prompts, and some time to share. Writers of any level and genre are welcome. Come ready to write and play!

RSVP at the link in our linktree!

Tuesday, July 21
6:00-8:00pm
all ages
online

07/15/2026

Wednesday, July 15th ⋆˚࿔ tightknit- cactus fibers club

▪️▫️ Free • 4pm • All Ages

Join us for tightknit, a monthly meetup open to fiber artists of all experience levels. All mediums welcome, bring your own materials and/or projects for some intergenerational fun 🧶

Q***r Karaoke

▪️▫️ Free • 7pm • All Ages

Come party and sing your heart out 🎤🎶 Take to the stage solo or with a small crew.

07/14/2026

ONE WEEK AWAY ⏰

JULY 21 7pm

📺 MISS VIDEO 4 U THIRD TRANSMISSION 📹

MV4u is an alternative video distribution project inspired by feminist VHS chainletters based in NYC 📼
In each transmission, they bring together submitted films, zines, manifestos, reflections, and ephemera from artists around the world. oriented towards sharing the work of femme and q***r artists, keeping alive the legacy of pre-internet DIY media. for every 10 videos submitted, a compilation gets burned onto a USB and redistributed with a collaborative zine.

This third chainletter brings together works spanning nearly 50 years, 10 artists, 10 towns, 2 oceans, 3 countries & 3 continents. Having shown in venues globally, it’s screening in Milwaukee this July!!

THE VIDEOS

Babylon - Alicia Nieto

The Great Path to a Foreign Body - Lau Mota

Snooping - Lenny Farinholt

Who Do You Think You Are - Mary Filippo

Prelude - Paulina Jamieson

Another Great Day - Ruth Peyser

Embryonic - Jackie Blue Weddell

Shifting Borders - Tess Usher & Frances Mitchler

Los Angeles Movie - Ankha Cros-Roig

The Red 70s - Derek Caterwaul

CACTUS+

Cactus+ Moving Image’s vision is to create an environment conducive to critical engagement by showing work that takes risks, challenges norms, and opens conversations by showcasing a wide range of artist-driven independent media. As a series, we hope to offer a space for inter-generational attendees to engage with film, expanded cinema, and integrated moving image arts practices made by artists from a variety of backgrounds.

Visit our MI page to submit an event inquiry!

07/14/2026

Want to learn more about movies and watch your own creation come to life at one of Milwaukee’s historic theatres? 🎬

Come create, connect, and collaborate this fall on a film of your own in the Cactus live room 🌵🖤

Class starts Saturday, Sept 12 from 12pm-3pm at the club and is free for Milwaukee area teens!

Students aged 13-19 are welcome - enroll now at take1.cactusplus.org

This program is made possible with the generous support of the Herzfeld Foundation ☀️✨ Herzfeld Foundation

07/14/2026

Cactus+ Moving Image (MI) Program 📽️

MI is a collaborative program that offers space for intergenerational attendees to engage with film, video, and integrated moving image arts practices that are artist driven through:

-Screenings

-Workshops

-Expanded Cinema

History 📔

MI Programming began at Cactus Club in 2020, with intentions of growing with the Milwaukee film community. MI quickly pivoted to online showcases and watch parties to keep the film community connected. The program has since returned to in person events.

Cactus+ 🌵

Aims to create an artist-centered model for multimedia arts education and community building that champions accessibility, inclusivity and sustainability.

C+ is our effort to formalize and broaden the reach of our arts education and community building programs including workshops, youth internships, and accessibility initiatives.

Get Involved 🤝

C+ Moving Image collaborates frequently with local artists, curators, and organizations to host a wide range of events from people of many disciplines and experience levels

Submit an event inquiry 🌐

-Visit the MI form via our linktree

-Fill out and submit the form

07/14/2026

Tuesday, Julyth ༘⋆ ITC Artist Talk: Cynthia Marie Hoffman

▪️▫️ Free • 6pm • All Ages

Join us online to hear from ITC 2026 virtual artist-in-residence Cynthia Marie Hoffman!

Poet and essayist Cynthia Marie Hoffman will talk about her memoir-in-progress; the challenges and charms of writing about OCD, metal music, and the Gen X mental health experience in the early 90s; and making the mid-career genre leap from poetry to prose.

She’ll be interviewed by poet Angela Voras-Hills (UWM English Dept.), author of Louder Birds and host of the Milwaukee-based reading series The Book Drop

The link to join can be found on our website.

Q***r Line Dance Lessons (Early Session)

▪️▫️ $10-20 Sliding Scale • 6pm • All Ages

Dust off your boots, Slap Leather Saloon is back! 🌵🤠🕺🏻 Collin O'Brien teaches line dancing- no prior experience necessary! Send off beloved host Bad Al as she heads off to a new adventure.

Q***r Line Dance Lessons (Late Session)

▪️▫️ $10-20 Sliding Scale • 8pm • All Ages

Can't make the early session? Put on your chaps and ride into the late session!

07/12/2026

Recess! Artist Market - July Edition ☀️

ROSE OF JERICHO slinging ceramics, prints, and plant hangers ☘️
c 🧲 i t l i n r ♾️ n e y 🌬️🌾 popping up with drawings and reimagined objects 🗝
𝒯𝒶𝓋𝒾 bringing out sparkly sweet jewelery sets and prints ✨️
Brooke Thompson coming through with incredible comics and zines ✏️

Come find these talented folks in the pocket of shade and lake breeze next to Cactus Club, we'd love to see you 🌬🍃

12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Free & all ages, always ♾️

07/12/2026

Sunday, July 12th ⟡ ݁₊ . Recess! Artist Market

▪️▫️ Free • 12pm • All Ages

Recess! Artist Markets is Cactus Club’s outdoor monthly vendor series.
Browse through a sweet selection of makers, bakers, and creatives.
A new DJ will be spinning tunes in the bar every month.

Wavy Lines Workshop Series ~ Melt Ice: Ice-Dying Workshop

▪️▫️ $10-$20 • 12pm • All Ages

This month, Wavy Lines will lead the workshop Melt Ice: Ice-dying alongside the market. Register for the workshop on the Cactus site.
Participants need to bring their own white/ light colored shirt or garment to dye. Instruction and all other materials provided.

Cola • PARKiNG • Eden’s expy

▪️▫️ $22 • 7pm • All Ages

Canadian post-punk trio Cola tour their latest album "Cost of Living Adjustment." The record finds the group embracing maximalism, crafting songs that occillate between romantic, subtle, and deceptively intense.

Joining them are Louisville post-punk art-rockers PARKiNG and Chicago indie rockers Eden’s expy.

07/11/2026

Saturday, July 11th ⊹₊⟡⋆ Killer High Life (Final Show) • Totally Cashed • Socially Suspect • Tiny Vamp

▪️▫️ $15 • 6pm • All Ages

Killer High Life goes out with a bang, celebrating their final show and the release of their single "kittens and puppies." The indie rockers have been making music since the members' first year of college, with a sound that varies between dreamo/shoegaze, midwest emo, indie rock, and punk.

Joining them are dynamic punk/country/jazz rockers Totally Cashed, ghost-obsessed alt-rock group Socially Suspect, and shoegaze grrl band Tiny Vamp.

Address

2496 S Wentworth Avenue
Milwaukee, WI
53207

Opening Hours

Tuesday	6pm - 12am
Wednesday	4pm - 2am
Thursday	4pm - 2am
Friday	4pm - 2:30am
Saturday	1pm - 2:30am
Sunday	11am - 2am

Telephone

+14148970663

Website

http://www.cactusclubmilwaukee.com/

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