The MdW Atlas is a regular online publication where editorial partners from each state commission contributions of stories, artwork, media, and other genres. It is also a radio show! The Atlas Editor is Mairead Case.
The complete 2022 Atlas Table of Contents, featuring 68 contributions, is below (keep scrolling!). It is also a book, designed by Lu Liang and was released at the 2024 convening in Kansas City. It’s now available for purchase at Buddy.
The 2024-25 edition began in May 2024 and will continue through summer 2024.
2024 Editors:
Rita Mae Reese, Art Lit Lab (Wisconsin)
John Engelbrecht and Rachel Buse, PS1 and Art Beacon (Iowa)
Yashi Davalos, Charlotte Street Foundation (Missouri)
Sylvia Thomas, Big Car (Indiana)
Za’Nia Coleman, Tangible Collective (Minnesota)
Alexander Andrew-Martin, Project 1612 (Illinois)
Intersectional Press (Michigan)
M. Carmen Lane, ATNSC (Ohio)
L.M. Forgie, Red River Creatives (North Dakota)
Angela Zonunpari, No Business Magazine (South Dakota)
Erika Nelson, The World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Version of the World’s Largest Things (Kansas)
Peter Fankhauser, Amplify Arts (Nebraska)
If you have questions or need paper copies, large print, translations, or alt text, email Mairead: mairead.case @ gmail
How to Make a Scene 2024
As a special, live addition to the MdW Atlas, Brandon Alvendia curated a series of conversations among artist organizers from the 80s through the 2020s. Audio and video documentation of those conversations can be found here.
In Defiance of Racism
Oftentimes, “Lake Life” is seen as something that only white people get to enjoy. The rest of us have to hope to know a white person who will let us come up for a day. Fox Lake reminds us that we are all allowed at the lake.
What I Learned From a Power Lift Recliner and a Paintbrush
Through art, I continue to ask questions.
Fill the room with your presence!
I realized my whole being is expression. My existence is art.
The Buxton Initiative: Sacred Spaces for Black Futures
I truly believe that finding out that you are not alone and your story is valid is the key to unlocking the potential for a beautiful Black dream.
2022 Atlas Table of Contents
ILLINOIS
Editors selected by Public Media Institute
Tempestt Hazel
Tempestt Hazel, “Make It Last Forever: Movements, Moments, and Questions of Enduring Change in the Arts”
[Lauren Williams] Tempestt Hazel, “Still Here: An Interview with Lauren Williams”
Onyx Montes, “Love Before and After”
Kate Bowen: “Doing Less Is More”
Nance Klehm
Nance Klehm: “Follow the Flowers: Navigating These Unruly Times, This Unbound Place”
Tim Hogan: “& Environs: Peregrine Falcons, Ecological Pecovery & Place in the Midwest Metropolis”
Kimberly Sigafus: “Walking the Native Way”
Charles Joseph Smith, “Digital Toccata”
MINNESOTA
Editors selected by Confluence Studio
Sam Gould, Duaba Unenra & John Kim
Confluence Studio: “A Conversation with Douglas R. Ewart”
Confluence Studio: “No Titles, Just Tasks: Social Ecologies in South Minneapolis”
Confluence Studio: “Water Language: A Conversation with Shanai Matteson & Oscar Tuazon”
Karen Goulet, Monique Verdin, Rebecca Dallinger: “A Big River Continuum”
Sam Gould: “On Gravity”
INDIANA
Editors selected by Big Car
Jim Walker
Jim Walker: “What Can Artists Do? Strive for Utopia”
Kaila Austin: “Reimagining the Hardrick Home”
Oreo Jones: “Listen to Your City”
Brett Bloom
Brett Bloom: “Concrete Cultural Reversals”
Dan Zink: “Going With the Flow: Placemaking Along a Corridor”
Ryan Schnurr: “Oil and Water”
Sierah Barnhart: “In Defiance of Racism”
MISSOURI
Editors selected by Charlotte Street Foundation
Kimi Kitada
Kimi Kitada: “Reflections on History from a (Temporary) Missourian”
rachel atakpa: “Agricultural Poetics: Practices for Transformation”
Kevin Umaña: “Artist-Run Galleries Dazzle”
Chad Onianwa: “Art in a Vacuum”
Stephanie Koch
Stephanie Koch: “How Can We Imagine an Abundant Future for St. Louis?”
Cami Thomas: “LouTown, Evolution (And Flashback)”
Visitor Assembly: “ATL Arts Ecosystem: A Topography”
IOWA
Editors selected by PS1
John Engelbrecht & Kalmia Strong
Mary Swander: “AgArts: Imagining a Healthy Food System”
Monica Leo: “Building Community”
Dawson Davenport: “Letter from Iowa”
Cameron Gray
Cameron Gray: “The Buxton Initiative: Sacred Spaces for Black Futures”
jameson malone: “routine”
Jordan Brooks: “Fill the room with your presence!”
Jill Wells: “What I Learned From a Power Lift Recliner and a Paint Brush”
MICHIGAN
Editors selected by Bulk Space
Talking Dolls
Talking Dolls: “Letter from Detroit”
Miz Korona: “Motor City”
Diana Noh: “Understanding Abandonment”
Ashley Cook
Ashley Cook: “Runner Magazine presents…”
Nisi Shawl: “My Recipe for Making Amends”
Kristen Kirby-Shoote: “In Case of Emergency: Recipes for Collapse”
Bear: “Titles”
WISCONSIN
Editors selected by Wormfarm Institute
Curt Meine
Curt Meine: “Wisconsin Flows: Rock, Water, Seed”
Marcia Bjornerud, Eric Carson, Rudy Molinek, Roxane Aubrey: “Layered by Time”
Adam Carr, Sara Daleiden, Wes Tank: Rural Urban FLOW: Every seed has a powerful story
Kimberly Blaeser, Max Garland, Angie Trudell Vasquez, Catherine Young: “Wisconfluence”
Dan S. Wang
Dan S. Wang: “Wisconsin Excluded”
Alondra Garcia: “Ten Years Dreaming: A Wisconsin DACA Recipient Speaks Out”
BORDERLESS EDITORS
Kristi McGuire
Kristi McGuire: “Artist Running From”
Kristi McGuire: “Lock me up and put me in Witness Protection, with the other AI, or I wonder if we might stop using the word ‘artist’”
Katie Giritlian: “terms for pressing with”
Kim Upstill: “four dream menus for the midwest summer”
J. Dakota Brown: “New Cultures of Work: A Syllabus”
Thomas Huston: “Shims may be necessary to reduce the wobble”
olivier: “(eyes) !?!?!?!!!??????....??? (eyes) On the Artist-Run Archives of Ufology”
Genvieve DeLeon: “In the Direction of the Sky”
Mairead Case
Lee Hunter: “No Coast” - Illinois
N. Adam Beadel: “Trying to make a print / point” - Wisconsin
Cameron A. Granger: “Homebody” - Michigan
Sara Maloney: “Pole Dancing in South Bend, Indiana” - Indiana
Michelangelo Matos: “At Home in the Archives” - Minnesota