If you’re acquainted with The Bubbler, you might think of the room at Madison’s Central Library where our artist-in-residence is hosted. You may be surprised to learn that a majority of Bubbler programming actually happens outside that room in our neighborhood libraries, public parks, and outreach sites across the city. 

For many years, Team Bubbler has organized rotating workshops with artists and pop-up experiences with our Making & Learning Interns in our neighborhood libraries over the summer, prioritizing variety and opportunity for our different communities to interact with a range of artists. However, with the success of several smaller neighborhood library artist residencies, our team altered course in 2022. 

What our community loves about artist residencies is the chance to build relationships with artists and makers to share ideas and see what bubbles up organically in the artist’s work or workshop offerings. It is also a chance for authentic co-building to happen between the community and the library. 

With in-person programming returning in earnest to our libraries in the summer of 2022, we wanted to create more opportunities for these connections, and We Read Bubbler Artist-in-Residence (formerly Bubbler Artist in the Neighborhood) program took shape.

Read more about the previous artists in the residencies archive.