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.

Sasha Debevec-McKenney 5/28/24 Sasha Debevec-McKenney 5/28/24

Five Poems

I SEE OTIS REDDING’S GHOST ON THE BIKE PATH

Nikki Wallschlaeger 5/27/24 Nikki Wallschlaeger 5/27/24

Notes on Commute

America is an idea that belongs only to people. I’m glad.

Dorothy Chan 5/26/24 Dorothy Chan 5/26/24

I’ll Give You a Haunting: A Crown of Sonnets

“Poetry teaches us / About heart. I want my heart held, my body warm.”

Art Lit Lab 5/25/24 Art Lit Lab 5/25/24

Ghosts of Wisconsin

Art—in all of its forms—is one crucial way to combat this blindness—to open ourselves and each other to things we can’t explain or contextualize, and to see beyond our current moment.

N. Adam Beadel 8/31/22 N. Adam Beadel 8/31/22

Trying to make a print / point

Luckily, there will always be people who appreciate the old stuff.

Alondra Garcia 8/21/22 Alondra Garcia 8/21/22

Ten Years Dreaming: A Wisconsin DACA Recipient Speaks Out

This is NOT enough. We need more. DACA recipients want to contribute in full to the growth of this country, to the city of Milwaukee, and prove that we can make a difference in our society.

mIEKAL aND 8/13/22 mIEKAL aND 8/13/22

TEMPORAL VIRTUALOSITY IN THE WASTELAND OF AESTHETICS: the half-life of the Avant Garde Museum of Temporary Art

We should feel not only what we are doing, but what we are representing. The entrance corridor should be seamless, simple, and invisible, even when someone makes their first entrance.

Dan S. Wang 8/6/22 Dan S. Wang 8/6/22

Wisconsin Excluded

Naming the non-human features of the land is a human activity with all attendant human limitations. Thus the will to represent falls into the well of selection—and for an atlas like this one, of curation.

Kimberly Blaeser, Max Garland, Angie Trudell Vasquez & Catherine Young 7/30/22 Kimberly Blaeser, Max Garland, Angie Trudell Vasquez & Catherine Young 7/30/22

Wisconfluence

We are water beings.

Adam Carr, Sara Daleiden & Wes Tank 7/23/22 Adam Carr, Sara Daleiden & Wes Tank 7/23/22

Rural Urban FLOW: Every seed has a powerful story

The conversation veered in many directions, driven by personal stories, meditations on agriculture, cultural context, race in America, and much more—but at the center: a shared vision to enliven our region by connecting people across geography and history.