Madison’s Imagination Center: the art inside and behind the new park library

Madison’s Imagination Center at Reindahl Park opened for its first scheduled public entry after a September 25 ribbon cutting in northeast Madison. Visitors were invited to see Nate Page’s outdoor sculpture, The Passage of Being. A September 29 report by The Daily Cardinal also documented art inside the new library, giving readers a fuller picture of the work on view at the opening.

Our earlier report covered the opening and its community-shaped public art. The Daily Cardinal’s subsequent account adds descriptions of neighborhood artist Terrance Adeyanju’s work, an Imagination Wall built for changing murals and the collage displayed there during the newspaper’s visit. Those descriptions establish what the reporter saw in late September; the available sources give no schedule for how long individual indoor works will stay in place.

What art was inside the Imagination Center at opening

The Daily Cardinal reported that artwork by neighborhood artist Terrance Adeyanju was displayed throughout the library when it visited. Its account also identified an Imagination Wall with four removable mural panels. The panels are intended to bring changing artwork through the center and, later, to other places around Madison. The report did not establish dates for those changes.

At the time of the newspaper’s visit, the wall displayed Passage, a collage by Aleida Hertel made from discarded papers from the library collection. That material ties the work directly to the library, while the removable panels give the wall a different role from a permanent installation. Readers planning a visit should treat the named indoor displays as a record of what the newspaper found in late September, rather than as a guaranteed permanent lineup.

Nate Page’s sculpture behind the library

According to the city, the colored planes draw on national flags of prominent immigrant communities in northeast Madison. The city describes that side as a representation of community opening a path toward nature. The reflective side is meant to show the park and its activity against the library’s architecture. Those are the city’s descriptions of the design, not claims about how every visitor will interpret it.

Page said in the city’s dedication announcement that he wanted the work to feel like an invitation to enter, connect with nature and imagine together. City cultural resources planner Meri Rose Ekberg said it reflected requests for something colorful, welcoming and representative of the community. Neither statement measures visitors’ reactions to the finished sculpture.

How residents and students influenced the selection

The Madison Arts Commission selected Page’s proposal after a process that included an artist call, finalist proposals, a public survey and input from Sandburg Elementary School students. The city said more than 1,200 residents completed the survey. Library arts staff also worked with students in classroom sessions and passed their views to the commission. The city’s earlier account says staff then worked with Page to modify the design in response to feedback; Madison’s Common Council approved the final design on March 24, 2026.

Council President Sabrina Madison told The Daily Cardinal that she pressed for the commission to hear the Sandburg students before choosing the outdoor art. The city’s records establish that their views entered the selection process, but do not specify which student comments or survey answers produced each element of the finished sculpture. The city funded the work through its Percent for Art program, which sets aside 1% of eligible construction budgets for public art.

A library and gathering place in Reindahl Park

The Imagination Center combines a public library with a park gathering space in a 17,500-square-foot building at 1814 Parkside Drive. The city calls it Madison’s first park-based library and says it serves the northeast area. It lists indoor and outdoor programming, free Wi-Fi, public computers and resources for health, wellness, work and education among the center’s planned uses.

Library director Tana Elias told The Daily Cardinal that residents had repeatedly described a shortage of places to meet on that side of the city. The library includes meeting and classroom spaces, according to the newspaper. An attached parks pavilion is expected to become available for rental in 2027, the report said; that remains a future plan. For now, the city’s opening records and the newspaper’s late-September visit document a center where the outdoor sculpture and indoor displays connect the new public space with work by local artists.