On this episode we chat to Chele Isaac. Chele is an Immersive Installation Artist and exhibit video based installations in project spaces and art museums. Her studio is located in a former church building in downtown Madison. She is active in the arts landscape in Madison and opens her space to other artists– musicians, dancers, film screenings, poetry readings, etc– for rehearsal and exhibition. It’s called the Maiahaus Project Space in tribute to her first dog. She is an invested volunteer for the Arts+Literature Lab (ALL) so some of the programming is connected to them. ALL is an amazing entrepreneurial (women run!) project that you should look at! She is also in the beginning stages of establishing a sustainable farm model in the driftless area.

“As an artist/farmer most of my existence is about being alone. But now that I’m being ordered to stay put all I can think about is hosting dinner parties. In terms of being an artist in the age of the pandemic…every venue -museums, galleries, film festivals- is shut down. They are trying to make do with virtual events (the Ann Arbor Film Festival live streamed my work, for instance), but it’s not the same— an integral part of art is the direct contact. I worry about art institutions and especially those working at the community level. What will our cultural fabric look like after this? The other weird thing (on the farm side) is that all of a sudden being self sufficient and in charge of ones food supply is something people are thinking about instead of taking for granted.”