Meet the artist who will design men’s shelter exterior art
The city is inviting people to weigh in on what the art on the exterior of the new men’s homeless shelter should look like in an artist meet-and-greet next week.
New Orleans-based mosaic artist and UW-Madison alumna Laurel True will be at the East Madison Community Center at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, a few blocks from where the new men’s homeless shelter is under construction. The hourlong event will give attendees an opportunity to ask questions and give feedback.
True was commissioned by the Madison Arts Commission to design artwork for the five areas on the exterior of the men’s shelter, located on Bartillon Drive on the city’s Far East Side. True’s mosaic work has been featured in buildings and sculptures around the world, including Haiti, Mexico, Argentina and U.S. states like Montana and California.
Adding artwork to the side of the building could “create a bridge” between the shelter and those who stay there, Ald. Julia Matthews, District 12, said in a statement.
“The artist has the opportunity to make something beautiful for the exterior of the building that could raise public awareness and empathy, while providing the temporary residents an empowering symbol of resilience,” Matthews said.
True did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Work progresses on the 42,125-square-foot men’s homeless shelter on Madison’s Far East Side. While financing for the $27 million shelter is in hand, Madison and Dane County are a long way from the funds necessary for operating the shelter 24 hours a day.
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The $27 million homeless shelter, expected to open early next year, is a joint county-city effort after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago prompted the closures of makeshift shelters in the basements of Downtown churches.
Since then, the city has opted for temporary shelters in spaces such as the Warner Park Community Center, the Fleet Services building, which is currently being transformed into the city’s Public Market, and a vacant big-box store near the East Towne Mall.
The new shelter near Highway 51 and Madison Area Technical College will be able to house 250 people in its 42,125-square-foot space, but it’s unlikely to be open 24 hours a day. The budgeted $1.2 million in operational expenses are less than half of what’s needed to run it at night and a less than a third of what it costs to run it all day.
It’s the first city-county building purpose-built to provide shelter to those who are homeless.
Complicating matters is the planned closure of a tiny shelter site on Dairy Drive, on the city’s Southeast Side, in September as federal pandemic funding for the site runs dry. The timing of that closure leaves a monthslong gap before the new shelter opens.
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