Maria Schirmer Devitt

Central Library / Our Town Everywhere

September 2023 - January 2024

In the residency titled Wishing well // Well wishes, Maria Schirmer Devitt created a space for wishing. Each week that Maria was in the Bubbler Room, she explored the magic that exists in the natural world, our community, and in ourselves through printmaking, collage, and sculpture. Participants were encouraged to think about questions like:

  • What are we wishing for (something we’ve never had or something we’ve lost or…)? 

  • What does it take for our wishes to come true?

  • Who or what grants them?

  • What kind of collective magic can we summon?

  • What offerings do we leave in return as we make our wish?

  • What rituals do we create around making wishes?

Maria was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, and practices art in community as a way to imagine new ways of being and living in the world: vibrant, playful, generous, and aware of magic within the ordinary.

Download the Wishing Well // Well Wishes // book list.

Return to the residency archive.

An artist stands behind a table with a typewriter.
A large, gold board with notes and drawings. The title of the board reads "I am wishing for oak savannas to return."
A woman, an artist, holds a drawing.
A young library patron holds up a craft project made with paper and an old sports trophy.
A young girl holds up a drawing.
An array of images displayed on a table.
A group of people gathered in a library workspace, working on crafts.
A figure holds a print.
Two anonymous people work on a screen print.
A blonde woman and two children stand next to a large board.
A young girl and a woman with a purple cardigan pose with canvas tote bags.
A young Black boy works on a craft project.
A young person fans out a number of colorful sheets of paper.
A woman crouches on the floor and arranges wooden letters.
A woman, the artist, holds a large sheet made of many smaller, colorful papers.
Two women stand on either side of a wishing well inside of a library.
A screen cap from an Instagram post showing a young Black man holding a note in front of him. The note reads, "I wish to be accepted into UW-Madison School of Business and earn my Bachelors"
An array of books laid out on a table.
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Artists in the Neighborhood