Madison arts and libraries groups are seeking community input on a sculpture installation in front of the Imagination Center, Madison Public Library’s first new library in over 25 years.
The City of Madison, the Madison Arts Commission (MAC) and Bubbler, an arts-based program at MPL invites community members to fill out a survey by Feb. 12 at 2 p.m., before giving that feedback to the public arts subcommittee, which will make its decision on Feb. 18.
The Imagination Center is currently under construction at Reindahl Park and will consist of an indoor-outdoor library and community gathering space.
Madison Public Library Director Tana Elias told The Daily Cardinal the lack of community spaces in this particular neighborhood makes the Imagination Center a focal point for gathering and engagement.
MAC selected four finalists from a pool of 36 applicants. The finalists were invited to explore the Imagination Center to draw inspiration for their personalized sculpture. They recently submitted their sculpture proposals, leaving the final decision to a collaboration between community members and the MAC public art subcommittee.
“We hope for all art installations that they engage people, that people are able to connect, engage with the piece itself and be inspired,” Elias said.
The first art proposal, “Inkroot” by Cooke-Sassevill, consists of a feather set upright and planted in an inkwell. Cooke-Sassevill highlights the feather’s reference to literature, authorship and the creation of ideas in relation to the inkwell, which resembles human skin. The combination of these depicts the human impulse to voice their ideas. The inkwell will be treated as a time capsule, giving community members the ability to write a message to store until the capsule is eventually reopened.
The second art proposal, “Suenos de Paloma,” was submitted by Flor Molina, Gabriela Jiménez Marván and Ryan Rothweiler. The title translates to the “Dreams of Paloma,” with the central message highlighting the importance of belonging for all community members, regardless of identity.
Drawing from their own identities as migrants and Afro-Mexican artists, this sculpture depicts a human face, modeled after the sculptor’s features, with a bird’s body. The combination of human and bird is meant to signify freedom, migration and the ability to create a home, regardless of where one comes from. This proposal highlights the artists’ desires to provide a moment of reflection for people of all races.
The third art proposal, “The Passage of Being” by Nate Page, is a 3D triangular shape with a cutout of a figure holding a book in one hand and raising the other above its head. The first side depicts a road, a symbol of the strength of communities and how they create paths towards nature. Layers of colors are pushing the figure, each found in the national flags of dominant immigrant communities in Northeast Madison.
The other side is a reflective surface showing the park and activities as they are actively occurring. The collaboration of both sides reminds viewers that communities inherit systems but also have the power to develop them through imagination and collective participation.
The final proposal, “Silver Lining: Where Dreams Flow” by Sujin Lim, consists of two structures: a cloud-headed human figure and a floating cloud with five beams of light flowing downward. These figures symbolize how important it is to share individual dreams with others, depicting how imagination, knowledge and activity often work together. The proposal goes on to draw connections between the sculpture and the Imagination Center as a whole.
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