Lab3 Exhibition at ALL’s original location, 2018. Photograph provided by Arts + Literature Laboratory
Recently, a visitor to Arts + Literature Laboratory (ALL) asked, “With so many programs, how do you tell your story?” It’s a fair question for the independent arts nonprofit located just a mile from the state capitol. The organization’s three-story building houses a dizzying array of programs: visual arts exhibitions; a mentorship program for artists; low-cost artist studios; the Native Art Market; film screenings, such as the monthly Mills Folly Microcinema and the annual Midwest Video Poetry Fest; a curated lending library of small press books; a monthly reading series; the annual Wisconsin Writers Awards; write-ins; the Madison Jazz Festival; the Auricle New Music Series; other concerts; arts summer camps; and year-round classes for youth, adults, and seniors in writing and visual arts.
While the programming is complex, director Rita Mae Reese’s answer is simple: “We can’t tell our story alone because, really, we are a mosaic of stories, so we need the community’s voices. Our motto is ‘your ideas belong here,’ reflecting the fact that we aren’t a top-down organization. We exist so that the arts community—which we believe can and should include everyone—can create its own stories. And that’s why this work is so exciting.”
Photograph by James Kreul
ALL was founded by artist Jolynne Roorda, who helped launch an earlier iteration of the organization in New Haven, Connecticut, in 2003 to support women artists and writers. After moving to Madison in 2015, Jolynne searched for an arts organization that provided space for writers and artists to develop and share their work and found that nothing quite fit. So she began building community one relationship at a time, meeting with artists, writers, and musicians across Dane County. That network became the volunteer team that launched ALL in late fall of 2015. Rita Mae was one of the first people Jolynne spoke with and has been part of the organization ever since.
ALL was entirely volunteer led for its first five years and initially operated out of a 700-square-foot space on Winnebago Street. The community response was enthusiastic, and the organization grew quickly. By 2020, ALL moved into its current over-10,000-square-foot building at Livingston and Main and hired its first staff.
The arts can sometimes be dismissed as a luxury, particularly in precarious times, but they remain central to our humanity. Beyond mental health benefits, such as reduced stress, the arts foster community and civic engagement and help us imagine change. These aren’t luxuries; they’re essential.
Yet public funding for the arts in Wisconsin is consistently among the lowest in the nation. The state currently ranks 49th, allocating just 18 cents per person per year. By comparison, Minnesota spends $10.07 per person—a difference reflected in its thriving cultural scene and in the challenges Wisconsin artists face in sustaining their work locally.
Photograph provided by Arts + Literature Laboratory
A core tenet of ALL is keeping programs free or low cost while paying artists fairly. One quarter of summer camp spots are reserved for youth who need full or partial financial assistance. Education programs are free for Native students. Exhibitions, readings, film screenings, and most concerts are free to attend; the programs that aren’t free are offered at low cost.
The organization’s mission is to steward a community laboratory for creative experimentation, collaboration, and excellence in contemporary visual, literary, and performing arts. This stewardship means keeping expenses low, prioritizing people, and cultivating sustainable funding. This is how ALL is able to pay artists, rent, and staff. Nearly one-third of ALL’s annual budget goes directly to paying artists for teaching or presenting their work. The organization relies on grants; small donations; earned income, such as tuition and ticket sales; and the time and talent of dozens of volunteers to manage approximately 200 events each year with a small staff.
Ultimately, it’s the many voices of the community that fuel ALL’s evolving story. One such voice is Charles Payne’s. Charles, a social artist and current Lab4 curator, first connected with ALL by attending a jazz show in 2016. After that, he became a regular participant in writing workshops before recently teaching one himself. He says, “If you look at the artists who are part of the organization, it’s a rainbow of different identities working and dialoguing … so they can create the most beautiful art possible and show our youth how to work together rather than divide themselves. I can’t think of a better place to connect across disciplines and people and be your full self.”
Musician, sound designer, and artist Lorna Dune echoes this sentiment. “Earlier in my career, I lived in cities, like Brooklyn and Portland, where I saw many new-music venues close due to lack of funding. I can’t emphasize how important it is to have a local platform for explorative music and sound. It develops community and, on a personal level, plants a seed of belief in oneself. I’ve never seen such deep listening or a more dedicated audience in Wisconsin than at the Auricle Series.”
Photograph by MOD Media Photography
Artist Hannah O’Hare Bennett shares another perspective. Six years ago, she slept in her closet so she could use her bedroom as an art studio. In 2020, she moved into one of ALL’s four studios. “I feel such fulfillment when I open the door to my studio,” she says. “A space I dreamed of since childhood—with good light and high ceilings—has been part of my daily life for years. ALL has made this possible for me and for many other artists in Madison.”
Perhaps the most powerful voices come from youth, like Arina, whose family fled Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion. That summer, she attended eight weeks of ALL camp with full tuition assistance and has returned every year since. Reflecting on what the experience has meant to her, she says, “There are a lot of kids in the same situation as me. I’m very thankful for ArtLitLab—that it exists and that I got a scholarship—because without it, I wouldn’t be the me I am right now.”
Regardless of circumstance, discipline, or career stage, commitment is rewarded at ALL, and the entire community reaps the benefits. And that is what ALL is all about.
Contributed by Arts + Literature Laboratory.
Arts + Literature Laboratory
111 S. Livingston Street
, Suite 100
Madison, WI 53703
(608) 590-9358
artlitlab.org