Celebrating 100 Years of the Wisconsin State Capitol Building at Madison Children’s Museum

Madison Children’s Museum is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Wisconsin State Capitol with a series of seasonal events and kids’ workshops. The museum’s participation in this event is in partnership with the Madison Community Foundation and their Capitol Century grant, an initiative of their anniversary year of giving.

On Saturday, November 18, the museum lights up for Shine On Madison. At 6:08 p.m. downtown Madison will come alive as all of the holiday lights — from businesses, cultural establishments, and the city’s own decorations — all turn on at the same moment. Madison Children’s Museum is delighted to be a part of this downtown-wide celebration.

Here’s how we’ll help celebrate the first ever Shine event: On Saturday, November 18, the museum will be open to the public with free admission from 5 to 8 p.m. Visitors are invited to join in special activities, including lantern-making on the Rooftop Ramble, and building a capitol playhouse in the Art Studio. In the museum’s rooftop garden, the Capitol building will be replicated in a very different format: the museum’s popular rooftop climbing structure has been reimagined as the nearby Capitol dome, and will be illuminated from within at 6:08 p.m. The rooftop capitol will remain as a winter-long part of cold-weather activities at the museum.

The Wisconsin State Capitol building as seen from Madison Children’s Museum

Also during the Shine On Madison celebration, the museum’s newest Sidewalk Surprise art installation will open. Mini Caps celebrates the Wisconsin State Capitol building with tiny capitol buildings in many different artistic styles, created by local artists Justin Bitner, Cheryl DeWelt, Renee Earley, Eric Ford, Martha Glowacki, Tracey Honn, Angela Johnson, Erika Koivunen, Chris Murphy, Jeff Repko, Grace Sullivan, John Taylor, Michael Ward, and Claire Wilson. Visible from both the museum’s lobby and the N. Hamilton Street sidewalk, the art installation demonstrates how the same iconic building can inspire artists in many differing ways.

The capitol-inspired activities continue into the holiday season. Within the museum, even more capitol buildings will be constructed using two fundamentally different, kid-friendly, materials: plastic Lego building blocks and gingerbread.

The gingerbread house–style capitol is being laser-cut by Sector67, and will be constructed in stages, over the weekend of December 2 and 3, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Simultaneously, traditional gingerbread houses will be created and displayed during the museum’s annual Casas for CASA event, which supports court-appointed advocates for abused or neglected children.

The evening of December 6 will be Lego Capitol night at Madison Children’s Museum. As part of the museum’s monthly Free Family Nights, which offer special programming and no-cost admission to the public, the first 200 kids will receive their own Lego mini-capitol building kit. A much larger Lego model of the capitol will be on display that evening, with construction completed by the artist as children watch.

In addition to the capitol-themed special weekend events, several of the museum’s drop-in programs will involve capitol, architecture, and building themes, encouraging kids to find their inner architect though building and sculpting with unconventional media. These programs nicely complement Coops to Cathedrals: Nature, Childhood, and the Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, the museum’s newest exhibit, exploring the inspirations of the famous architect.

The numerous interpretations of capitol buildings, ranging from less than an inch tall to several feet tall, contrasted with the magnificent capitol building so clearly visible from the museum’s front door, will inspire children to consider the history and art that is part of their daily lives in Madison. The Madison Children’s Museum is grateful to the Madison Community Foundation for their support of this innovative, imaginative project.