Miscellaneous
The Madison Public Library's Bubbler program is an unusually flexible force in the local arts and culture community, spanning activities from gallery shows to in-person arts residencies to maker resources to multimedia software training. In the absence of public events and gathering, the Bubbler staff has pulled together an extensive page of online resources and has been figuring out other ways to adapt their work. In explaining what the Bubbler does, Bubbler Program Assistant Carlee Latimer found herself thinking a lot about the literal and metaphorical role of buckets."I often think about the work that the Bubbler does and the work that the library does as existing in different buckets," Latimer says. "We're in nine different physical locations around the city, we partner with lots of local organizations, we also have national partners, and we are in schools and we are in detention centers, and we kind of exist wherever people are."Latimer spoke with us on the April 30 edition of Conduit, a livestream collaboration between Tone Madison, Communication, and UnderBelly. For each episode of Conduit, people make a small donation to join us on the call, and the money goes toward either the guest or an organization of the guest's choosing. This time Latimer chose the Madison Public Library Foundation. You can sign up to join us on future episodes by filling out this Google Form.While sharing a slideshow filled with photos of the various supply buckets she encounters in her day-to-day work, Latimer gave an overview of how the Bubbler program works. Latimer also answered questions about how the Bubbler is adapting during uncertain times and how it maintains its autonomy within the larger structure of the library system and city government. Latimer also shared a little about a forthcoming MPL program called Look Forward Madison. You can view all of Carlee's slides in the post that accompanies this podcast on our website.The next Conduit session is on Thursday, May 14, and we'll be talking with artist Kay LeClaire.