150 Artists x 150 Years
150 Artists x 150 Years
150 Artists x 150 Years is a milestone exhibition celebrates Madison Public Library’s 150 years of service to the community.
November 15, 2025 to February 28, 2026
The exhibition is on display at Alicia Ashman, Central, Goodman South
Madison, Hawthorne, Meadowridge, Pinney, and Sequoya Library
Visit all seven locations where this exhibition will be featured during open library hours. For Central, Hawthorne and Goodman South Madison Library, please call ahead to confirm the exhibition space(s) are not temporarily closed to the public for a booking.
Join us at the opening celebrations:
Friday, December 5 from 7 - 9 pm at Central Library
Saturday, December 6 from 10 am - 12 pm at Central Library
Exhibition Description:
Language is constantly changing and evolving. Every year, new words and terms are added to the dictionary. Some are used for the first time—slang, inventions, or cultural trends—while others have existed for centuries but take on new meanings through use. As humans, we revel in the ever-evolving nature of language and how it reflects our cultures, histories, pastimes, and styles. It’s who we are.
To celebrate Madison Public Library’s 150th Anniversary, The Bubbler has invited 150 artists from our community, many of whom have contributed to The Bubbler’s programs over the years, to create new artworks for the 150 Artists × 150 Years exhibition. Each artist was assigned a year between 1875 and 2025 and a word first recorded or revised in the dictionary that year. Their task: to transform that word into an original artwork.
The resulting collection of paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, videos, and more traces 150 years of linguistic change and artistic imagination. In doing so, the exhibition highlights how language, literacy, and creative expression continually shape our understanding of one another and reflects the ongoing creativity of artists connected to Madison and its libraries.
150 Artists × 150 Years was developed under the curatorial direction of Trent Miller, Carlee Latimer, and Kate Mothes. Words were selected through research using Merriam-Webster’s Time Traveler and quarterly updates to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Interested in purchasing original artwork?
100% of proceeds of any work sold from 150 Artists x 150 Words will go directly to the artist. If interested in purchasing a particular piece, please email Trent Miller at tmiller@madisonpubliclibrary.org
Special Thanks:
Poster Design: Art & Sons
Exhibition Photography: Jim Escalante
Pedestals on Loan: Edgewood University Gallery
Installation Support: Ann Orlowski, Grace Olson, Christina Kelly, Emily Baslsey and Sam Merck.
1875 - 1884
Hawthorne Library
2222 S. Park St.
1875: Feel-good — Adam Villegas
1876: Kaboom — Alanna Stapleton
1877: Musical Chairs — Alice Traore
1878: Full Circle — Alicia Rheal
1879: Wildlife — Amy Mietzel
1880: Dinky — Lucija Drake
1881: Cue Ball — Christina Kelly
1882: Time Zone — Andy Rubin
1883: Curiosa — Sarah Passannante
1884: Pacemaker — Angela Johnson
1885 - 1899, 1914, 1931, 1961 - 1976, 1983, 1989, 2001 - 2024
Central Library
201 W Mifflin St.
1885: Razzle-dazzle — Ann Orlowski
1886: Zoom — Ariel Wood
1887: Radio — Aris Georgiades
1888: Mason Jar — Ash Armenta
1889: Chain Letter— Ash Lusietto
1890: Tondo — Audifax
1891: Mystique — Baptiste Paul
1892: Spoonerism — Barb Mergen Alvarado
1893: Gutsy — Barbara Landes
1894: Moving Picture — Barry Carlsen
1895: Foamflower — bernie & zuzu
1896: Luminesce — Bird Ross
1897: Obsessive — Carlos Eduardo Gacharná
1898: Photosynthesis — Chele Isaac
1899: cloud-cuckoo-land — Chris Murphy
**1914: Atomic Bomb — Rose Heflin (This piece is on display at Central Library due to the installation needs of the work.)
**1931: Aha Moment — James Papadopoulos (This piece is on display at Central Library due to the installation needs of the work.)
1961: Embedded — Lydia Diemer
1962: Primordial Soup — Mallory Stowe
1963: Assemblagist — Maria Amalia Wood
1964: Color Field — Maria Schirmer
1965: Xerox — Marianne Fairbanks
1966: Muscle Car — Seth Albertson
1967: Flower Child — mars pattern
1968: Earthrise — Mary Bergs
1969: Deco — Mayela Finol
1970: Control Freak — Megan Scheffer
1971: Reboot — Michael Duffy
1972: Deep Ecology — Michael Velliquette
1973: Gentrification — Stefan Matioc
1974: Transgender — Miryeong Hong
1975: Download — Niki Johnson
1976: Spider Vein — Eric Adjetey Anang
**1983: Empowered — Rebecca Vickers (This piece is on display at Central Library due to the installation needs of the work.)
**1989: Blueway — Sam Christensen (This piece is on display at Central Library due to the installation needs of the work.)
2001: Cornhole — Spatula&Barcode
2002: Airplane Mode — Stephen Kennedy
2003: Flash Mob — Stephen Perkins
2004: supersize — TetraPAKMAN
2005: truthiness — Tobie DePauw
2006: Hyper-thymesia — Toby Kaufmann-Buhler
2007: Epic Fail — Tom Loeser
2008: Me Too — Ty Springer
2009: Frenemy — Vincent Mollica
2010: aha moment — Rachel Hausmann Schall
2011: ASMR — Emily Meredith Lewis
2012: Micropig — Tess Stroh
2013: Familyhood — Corey Dean
2014: Bookaholic — Quincy Millerjohn
2015: Aphantasia — Aaron Granat
2016: Softscape — Rebecca Millerjohn
2017: Funkify — Paul Douglas
2018: Bendy — Kassandra Palmer
2019: Ancestory — Thomas Olson
2020: COVID-19 — Terri Messinides
2021: Dark Thirty — Lance Owens
2022: Pinkie Swear — National Velvet
2023: Swear Jar — Doug Fath
2024: Kintsugi — Lisa Shoshany-Anderson (in memoriam)
1900 - 1916
Goodman South Madison Library
2222 S. Park St.
1900: American Dream — Christina Theobald
1901: Memory Trace — Christine Holm
1902: Flower Girl — Ciara Nash
1903: Everywoman — Claire Kellesvig
1904: Imperial Moth — Jaundy Brunswick
1905: Tyrannosaurus Rex — GG
1906: Dream Vision — Laura Owens
1907: Subspace — Craig Auge
1908: Bagel — Deckard Salm
1909: Color Wheel — Derrick Buisch
1910: Starlet — Deseré Mayo
1911: Hope Chest — Ellie Braun
1912: Free-Range — Elyza Parker
1913: Blackout — Emily Balsley
*1914: Atomic Bomb — Rose Heflin (This piece is on display at Central Library due to the installation needs of the work)
1915: Lifestyle — Emily Schroeder
1916: Lounge Lizard — Hailey McLaughlin
1917 - 1933
Sequoya Library
4340 Tokay Blvd.
1917: Mustard Gas — Eric Baillies
1918: Venn Diagram — Johanna Poole
1919: Love Nest — Erika Koivunen
1920: Flowchart — Frank Juárez
1921: Abstractionism — Gabrielle Javier-Cerulli
1922: Eyeshadow — Gail Simpson
1923: Moon Shell — Grace Olson
1924: Sustainable — Hannah O'Hare Bennett
1925: Dire Wolf — Hannah Sandvold
1926: Algorithm — Heath Matysek-Snyder
1927: Graph Paper — Heather Kohlmeier
1928: Starburst — Henry Obeng
1929: Haywire — J Myszka Lewis
1930: Woven — Jack Whisenant
**1931: Aha Moment — James Papadopoulos (This piece is on display at Central Library due to the installation needs of the work.)
1932: Guide Dog — Jason Levy
1933: Crunch Time — Jason Ruhl
1934 - 1946
Alicia Ashman Library
733 N. High Point Rd.
1934: Antimatter — Jennifer Falkowski
1935: Ecosystem — Jenie Gao
1936: Den Mother— Jennifer Bastian
1937: Groovy — Jeremy Wineberg
1938: Jitterbug — Jerry Chapa
1939: Grayscale — Jerry Jordan
1940: Serigraph — John Hitchcock
1941: Gremlin — Juliet King
1942: Catnapper — Juliette Walker
1943: White Noise — Justin Bitner
1944: Airwave — Kate Mead
1945: Firestorm — Katherine Steichen Rosing
1946: Ground Zero — Kathy Walter
1947 - 1960
Meadowridge Library
5726 Raymond Rd.
1947: Morph — Tim Sanders
1948: Stuntwoman — Katrin Talbot
1949: Aromatherapy — Kristin Redman
1950: Dicey — Larry Stephens
1951: Closed Loop — Katie Hogan
1952: Hawaiian Shirt — Laura Damon-Moore
1953: UFO — Lauren Scanlon
1954: Double Helix — Lyra Evans
1955: Big Bang Theory — Tom Zikuhr
1956: Empath — Lexie Olson
1957: Disco — Lillian Sizemore
1958: Bigfoot — Linda Farrelly
1959: Happy Hour — Linda Justmann
1960: Cyborg — Luis Echavarría Uribe
1961 - 1976
Displayed at Central Library (see list above)
1977 - 2000
Pinney Library
516 Cottage Grove Rd.
1977: Brewski — Paul Briskey
1978: Sticky Note — Philip Hassett
1979: Supermoon — Poornima Moorthy
1980: Voicemail — Emilee Taxman
1981: Warm Fuzzies — Rachael Griffin
1982: Snail Mail — Ray Mawst
**1983: Empowered — Rebecca Vickers (This piece is on display at Central Library due to the installation needs of the work.)
1984: Glass Ceiling — Rodney Schreiner
1985: breakbeat — Rodrigo Carapia
1986: Cocooning — Romano Johnson
1987: GIF — Ryan Sigg
1988: Boomerang child — Sachi + Laura Komai
**1989: Blueway — Sam Christensen (This piece is on display at Central Library due to the installation needs of the work.)
1990: Greenwashing — Sara Meredith
1991: Bestie — Savannah Starlin
1992: Man Cave — Scott Espeseth
1993: Rewilding — Scott Pauli
1994: Digital Divide — Seth Klekamp
1995: Re-gift — Shandra Bjyrd
1996: Fist Bump — Sharon Bjyrd
1997: Money Tree — Sharon Tang
1998: Social Networking — Sherri Shokler
1999: Bling — Shlomit Kafri
2000: Deep Web — Sophia Abrams
2001 - 2024
Displayed at Central Library (see list above)
Culminating a year-long celebration marking the 150th Anniversary of Madison Public Library, the 150x150 art exhibition is made possible with support from Beyond the Page, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Madison Community Foundation.