Dozens of artists came and painted, destroyed, rebuilt, reused, embellished, installed, and created art throughout the entire building after all the books had been relocated for the duration of the construction. Some artists used the usual suspects - paint, wood, clay - while others used leftovers from the library - old microfilm to make butterflies, ceiling tiles to create furniture, return slips to wallpaper walls, and book pages - in a myriad of ways.
Nikki Johnson, White Portal
They also had a fantastic little photobooth set up with mustaches, glasses, old books, etc. So basically, Laura, Cec, and I are famous:
All photos above courtesy of madisonpubliclibrary's Photostream
There were walls to paint, crafts for kids, live music (Cecily's new favorite, Yid Vicious), heavenly tea (yeah, Dobra Tea is the bomb), old slide shows, and more. And, of course, Cec the artist stole the show with this great shot of her addition to the paint wall:
In a word: awesome. It was a blast. Can't wait to see the new building!
