An Island of Art & Culture in a Scholastic Sea
Chazen Museum of Art: UW-Madison, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
This post may contain images of art, of adult themes and should be viewed at your discretion. All views expressed here-in are my own and do not represent anyone else or any organization.
University campuses in the US are these utopian spaces brimming with culture and education all those things we hope the youth of our society will consider worthy of pursuing. They are filled with ideas and resources which society perhaps deems essential to transfer to the next generation. While my journey so far has been blessed with beautiful campuses and the best of educational facilities, the institutes in India were mostly unidimensional. They deliver the best in their fields but don’t expose you much to all that is beyond your area of expertise. The large public schools in the US though offer a truly enviable environment of cultural richness, which one will do well to remind oneself of time and again. After a long, pandemic-forced hiatus from campuses, it is time to start perusing my new home. Art viewed from a distance, in controlled open spaces, perhaps the best place to start?
Chazen Museum of Art
Originally built in 1969, the Chazen Museum building fits into the rather blocky form of many of the UW-Madison schools. Perhaps slightly less industrial in its appearance than others. The building was modified in 2005 and very beautifully uses natural light for illumination.
Currently on display were lithographic colorful rectangles at the lowest level of the museum. You know those large canvases with a single colored square sitting there making you wonder about the notion of “art” in society and how value is a very human construct dripping with subjectivity?
The museum also showcases a few insects and preserved invertebrates which perhaps made the most interesting exhibit in the place. One can’t compete with nature can one?
Chazen features some interesting contemporary pieces besides a selection of European, Asian, and African paintings and sculptures. However the most intriguing are perhaps the ones with a local Midwestern influence or inspiration.
All in all, the collection rotates, offers a quick respite from a stressful day in class, in an air-conditioned space, and interestingly offers study spaces in an artistic environment. Could be inspiring for writing I guess?
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
A few blocks down is another art collection, perhaps more forward and racy for a University campus. Again free, again surrounded by heaps of culture and perhaps more accurately representing the hipness which I am learning is the way of much of MADcity.
The most striking feature of the building is the set of stretched colorful ribbons covering the glass staircase facing the street. This may be a celebration of PRIDE or a permanent fixture post-pandemic. The building was designed by César Pelli (Petronas Towers fame) and is mostly identifiable by its angular glass facade. While some of the galleries are closed for public viewing during the pandemic, there’s still enough to see to merit a visit.
On the ground floor this month is Natalie Frank’s Unbound a feminist take of Grimm’s fairytales. Rather grim (hehe…), dark, and many times sexual. There is some appeal in the gruesome but it does seem that it might be trying a little too much to be out there.
The floor above has some in your face permanent pieces too. Much of it still not my cuppa but hey, it's a wide-open air-conditioned peaceful space to break your hot downtown walk. I’d drop by to take a gander, either to escape the heat or the cold. There’s plenty of opportunities to do that here.
Madison Public Library — Central
While the overture center and the theatres of Madison aren’t all open as of yet another public building worth browsing is the public library. Good libraries are like a candy store and a year or more of abstinence from them can leave you wanting. University libraries are a joy but public city ones are particularly amazing because again it seems so hard to believe that something like this is free to everyone.
The public library system in the city has been operational since 1875 when it first operated out of two rooms in City Hall. The current central location has been active since the 60s. Besides the books themselves, the location offers ample comfortable working spaces and even a roof garden!
Madison may not be the most sprawling of cities, but with its lakes, parks and now reopening restaurants, pubs, bars, theatres, cafes, live music venues, and art galleries might just offer the tasty balance between affordability, calm, and culture. I read somewhere that the intertwined nature of the town with the University means that it keeps reinventing itself to stay current, here’s hoping that remains true.
