Madison, Wisconsin

Last week I was at a conference in Madison for a few days. It was a wonderful time, I ended up really liking the city. I cannot totally tell if that is because this was a great place to have a conference or if I actually like the place, but regardless I had a great time.

The town itself feels like a small college town. I was really amazed how few cars there are around and how quiet it is. Most of it is very walkable, especially if you’re sticking to the downtown area near where the university is. There is a bus system, I never really used it though. The airport is maybe 20 minutes from downtown, and since I did not have the time to go far away I just never needed it.

The conference I was participating in was at the Monona Terrace Convention Center, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and has a rooftop garden! There are a few other Wright places around, I did not have time to check them out, but still really cool. It is also very close to downtown which was nice as I could skip a session and just head to a museum.

In the center of town there is the capitol building. It’s a huge structure and really recognizable as it looks very similar to the capitol in DC. Taking a tour is free, but you can also just hop in and wander around. The building is gorgeous, there is so much marble and fancy rock everywhere! In the center there are some panels with historical information, but the tour also gets you into areas like the governor’s conference room, the courtroom, the senate, and others. And the tour guide gives you tidbits of history about Wisconsin as a state as well as Madison. You can also climb up to get onto the roof and see incredible views of the city! Well worth a visit for sure.

Close to the University of Wisconsin is the Chazen Museum of Art. It is run by the school and definitely has the feel of a small but well cared for university art museum. I think the biggest name that they have is an Andy Warhol but do not let that deter you, the collection is still fun to wander through. The best part, for me anyways, was a temporary exhibit about discrimination and exclusion at the university. It was incredibly well done, they go from the beginning where the school purchased land from the indigenous people up until more recent events and testimonials (I think the most recent I saw was from 2018). You can even look at it online here. It’s really great to see an institution taking the time to examine and document their history instead of covering it up.

The other art museum that I went to was the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMOCA). This was a cool museum, it is located roughly between the Chazen and the capitol building on State Street, which is a main street of sorts for shops and restaurants. (Usually it is crawling with students though.) There were also two exhibits addressing race in there as well, one curated by Black female artists and one by a Black man. Both were really cool and incredible to walk through. And there is a sculpture garden on the roof! My one complaint was that there were multiple installations that basically required you to walk into a dark room and feel uncomfortable, after the first one of those I really did not want to enter the second but did my best. It just feels like a lot for a visitor to take in during a small amount of time.

I have to say, usually with the Midwest there is the “Midwest nice” where people act courteous but are also super racist and I did not get that vibe here. Everyone was super friendly, and with all of the art installations about race and just the sheer volume of “Black Lives Matter” signs around I felt as though the city was making an effort to be inclusive. Maybe that is not true of everyone, maybe that changes the second you leave downtown, but it was nice to see some effort being made.

I really enjoyed my time in Madison, enough that I would definitely consider visiting again. I only saw the three different places and never even left the downtown area (there is also a zoo and a botanic gardens). Hopefully I can come back soon!