BLINK on ice . . . Let it snow! Let it freeze! Just don't BLINK or you'll miss some fabulous temporary public art projects taking place in Madison this winter. The Madison Arts Commission is proud to announce funding for five new public art projects, some that will begin as early as this week on the winter solstice and some that will remain up until, the snow melts (otherwise known as the summer solstice).

Projects include:
• Nationally known local artist Brenda Baker's When Water Was Here is a site-specific installation overhanging the Vilas Park walking path by Grant Street and Edgewood Avenue. As the title indicates, When Water Was Here references the dynamic and changing nature of the landscape, those who pass over it, and alter it, and the fragile balance between humans and biological systems. Made with native willow and dogwood, the piece is both a prayer and a call to action. The installation opens on the Winter Solstice, Saturday, December 22 between 10:00-noon and will be up for six months, until summer solstice, June 21, 2008. 12/22/2007 - 06/21/2008
Contact 608-255-6401 bakergore@charter.net
• The ever popular and familiar work of former pail and shovel party member Timothy Browning will appear in early January. Browning has already constructed his trademark painted plywood characters and intends to place his Penguins on Ice on lake Monona before the primaries. 12/24/2007 - 02/19/2008
Contact 608-255-2405
• In late January, we are eagerly anticipating the appearance of Christine Olson's Hot Shanty, an interactive art shanty on Monona Bay. Inspired by the art shanty village that is erected every year in the Twin Cities (www.artshantyprojects.org). Olson's bright fuchsia shanty with rosemaling will be visible from the road, but will also invite visitors onto the lake and into a unique non-gallery environment that will include activities such as Inuit mythology readings, film screenings, and talks about global warming. 01/20/2008 - 02/15/2008
Contact 608-441-3859 dishinteractive@yahoo.com
• Around the same time, Madison newcomer Jeremy Wineberg will place his conceptual, yet material, Inverted Lakes on the Yahara Parkway near East Washington Avenue, between Main Street and Williamson Street. This ice model of Madison's lakes will reveal the once visible now hidden topography or Madison's greatest geographic feature by inverting the immense negative space of the lakes. Wineberg will offer public lectures to groups and nearby O'Keefe science students to help contextualize his work. 02/01/2008 - 03/31/2008
Contact 720-470-0275 jlwineberg@mac.com www.jeremywineberg.net
• Finally, current MFA student William Turnbull's Flowfield (a kinetic field of steel wheat-like welded forms) will rest on top of a plaza at the Humanities Building by early February and remain up for his MFA show that will take place on April 19 from 7-9pm in the 7th Floor Gallery of the Humanities Building at 455 North Park Street. 1/22/2008 - 05/19/2008
Contact 608-332-3861 wturnbull@wisc.edu

For more information about the Madison Arts Commission's BLINK! grants visit our website at www.cityofmadison.com/mac or contact Karin Wolf, the Arts Program Administrator kwolf@cityofmadison.com
Next BLINK application deadline is February 1, 2008.