Hand in Hand: AFFW, Madison Children's Museum,
and YWCA Bring Art to Life

By: Jennifer Seeker Conroy
After 30 years serving children and families in Dane County, Madison Children's Museum is celebrating a new beginning in a spacious new location. On August 14th, the public will be able to walk in to a brand new Madison Children's Museum with three times the space of the old location and endless hours of fun and discovery. Greeting these anxious visitors will be an elaborate interactive media sculpture with quite a story to tell.

The museum has had a working partnership with its neighbor the YWCA for a decade. Museum directors wanted to deepen this relationship and reach out to women and children in the Third Street program. This program offers a safe, supportive place to live for single mothers with one young child.

Museum directors envisioned a collaborative project with the families to create an art piece for the new museum location. In 2008, they applied for and received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and also looked to AFFW for support. Organizers of the project were impressed with the thoroughness of AFFW's grant-making committee, and the passion of its volunteers. "It was a really good fit," said Jennifer Collins, Director of Development and External Relations.

Museum directors say AFFW valued the lasting effect of the grant on a small handful of women rather than demanding a quick turnaround and a widespread payoff. "This project was an inch wide and a mile deep," said Sandra Bonnici Hoecherl, the museum's Outreach Coordinator.

"They weren't pushing for numbers," Collins agreed. "They were appreciative of the deep impact on individuals in this project."

The project has been two years in the making. Museum staff first reached out to the Third Street women. They met about once or twice a month, often on Tuesday evenings, when the women had child care available. First the process focused on getting the women to explore and appreciate art and to believe that they could create something beautiful. "We worked on getting to the climate of them thinking of themselves as artists," Bonnici Hoecherl explained.

Program coordinators also had to build trust with the women and deal with obstacles from tumultuous personal lives, busy family and work schedules, and ongoing construction at the museum and the YWCA. Some women phased in and out of the program, others were a constant presence.

After several months of relationship-building and exploring the world of art, the women were ready to design a prototype for their interactive art piece. They paired with nationally-known artists Bird Ross and Tom Loeser to carry out their vision. The women drew a lot of inspiration from a visit to the Chazen Art Museum. They were enthralled with the intricacy of a bronze statue of a woman and wanted to capture that idea.

Through their own creativity and ideas from Ross and Loeser, the women constructed the prototype. The team created hand casts of the women and their children and put together memory boxes to be incorporated into an elaborate and interactive front desk exhibit. The women and their children took pictures and added precious keepsakes to their displays. It was an emotional experience for many of them who had few possessions and few or no family pictures.

Ross and Loeser are now working on the final exhibit which will also serve as the front desk for the museum. It will be 25 feet long with four stations. Visitors will be able to explore hidden nooks holding the women's treasures, leaf through scrapbooks, and watch a video montage. The finished product will be the centerpiece of the community concourse which will be free to the public.

Organizers say the Third Street women showed remarkable strength and inspiring creativity, and soon community members will get a chance to share in their experience. "We are a place for all families in our community," Bonnici Hoecherl said. "We need to be much more responsive and reduce barriers in our community. We are taking women where they are. They do not have to be defined by their circumstances."

Museum directors hope to continue the strong relationship with the women of Third Street and create murals and other works of art for display in the Children's Museum and the YWCA. Collins said after such a successful project, they will likely turn to AFFW again. "It was a great partnership," Collins said. "I hope there are opportunities in the future."

The new Madison Children's Museum opens for a gala on August 7th and then to the public on August 14th. It is located at 100 N. Hamilton St. Meanwhile, museum staff is continuing its series of road shows to bring exhibits to the public. The museum is still working to raise $550,000 before the grand opening.