June/July - private public

Julie Koenke and Mandy Yourick are the founding artists of the collective Private Public. "Private Public" is a play on the term Public Private Partnerships, which has the goal of exploring private thoughts about race, class, gender and bias in public community settings.

Private Public believes that artists can play an important role in helping a community re-imagine and recreate its future. The pieces created during their residency, collectively called  “Our Madison,” are works in progress. Throughout this work, Julie and Mandy invite residents to participate in visualizing and recording our current lived experiences (both positive and negative) within our city to foster conversations about the issues facing our community. 

Saying, "We want pieces that help to convey the texture, depth and complexities found here in Madison. We welcome your feedback in creating these pieces. In choosing to participate, you become a part of the collaborative creation of these works, a part of our “Our Madison.”  We will then synthesize those experiences in a book form to create a “People’s Atlas: Our Madison” for distribution in our community."