Coplanning for Success with your Community
Co-building is at the heart of any community partnership with the library - finding common ground and shared values that guarantee a mutually beneficial partnership.
Madison Public Library is lucky, like many communities, to exist within a thriving community of artists, makers, and experts. For several years, the library has made a commitment to working with that community, rather than investing in outside or touring performers for library programs.
This includes The Bubbler at Madison Public Library’s Artist in Residence program. A unique residency, this opportunity puts engaging with the community at the forefront while producing artistic content. Each artist is unique, bringing with them a new set of skills and intentions for a residency. Each artist also brings varying levels of experience when engaging with the public in open studios or workshop formats.
Since 2023, the Bubbler at Madison Public Library has used their framework of goals and the Observation Deck to find shared intentions with community artists, talk deeply from the very beginning about what success looks like in achieving their goals, and to reflect on what is actually happening during the scope of their residency.
In 2023, artist Bernie Widzack, a conceptual visual artist, hosted the residency Color Play: Making the world a little more rainbow at the Pinney Library in Madison. They worried that adults in particular did not see themselves as artists. In initial conversations, Bernie stated the intention -
“I want to create a safe, welcoming, and accepting space where people can be generous with their ideas and trying something new”
This goal aligns very well with the dimensions of the Bubbler’s framework: Making Connections, Initiative & Intentionality, and Creativity and Self Expression.
By looking at the framework together, Bernie and the Bubbler team brainstormed about what this may look like or sound like in action:
- patrons experience a change or shift in attitude at their ability to ‘be an artist” or to be creative, sharing this with the artist, talking with each other, expressing amazement in what they have made
- patrons engage in artistic practices even if they are unsure or lack confidence
- patrons gain knowledge about “froofroo” ;) art practices, abstraction, and color
- patrons make things they love and bring them joy!
- patrons engage in the passive projects provided
- patrons engage in open studios
- patrons return to the space again
Establishing these shared understandings benefitted the partnership throughout. With these ideas, Bernie worked with Bubbler programming specialist Carlee Latimer to design projects in the space and brainstorm workshop ideas. Throughout Bernie’s residency, they collected quotes, stories, and photos on their own, while Bubbler staff also did observations using their strategic framework.
Was there evidence of these goals? Was one activity more supportive of them than others? Were there unexpected impacts?
These observations lead to rich and meaningful check in conversations, tweaks in Open Studio design, and the ideation of Bernie’s culminating interactive art exhibit. In the end, Bernie left their residency with a trove of photos, quotes, and evidenced content outlining the impact of their time with us. Bubbler team created a report for the Madison Public Library Foundation, sustaining the Pinney residency for another year.
Images to accompany - on Bernie’s residency page: https://www.madisonbubbler.org/residencies/past/2023/bernie-and-zuzu