January 25, 2018 at 10:46 a.m.
Vacant seat filled at Campanile
Campanile hires new executive director
Vacant seat filled at Campanile
By Abbey McEnroe-
Madden is no stranger to the arts, becoming involved in music at just four years old and holding an array of jobs in the arts since graduating college. She graduated from University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point with a bachelor of music degree as a trumpet major.
After graduating, Madden considered getting her master's degree in arts administration at UW-Madison, but created her own business instead.
"I thought, you know what, I'm going to going to get my master's in arts administration," Madden explained. "Well, then when I graduated I started my own business, it was called Clinicians Network, and it had functioned as sort of a clearing house, or a networking opportunity between music educators who worked in the public schools and professional ... the hardhat, lunchbox, type musicians. You know, the guys that were playing the shows that came to town or just the working musicians making a living at it but you didn't necessarily know their names."
After meeting her husband through her business, they moved to Denver, where Madden got a job with the Denver Chamber Orchestra. A couple years later, Madden moved back to Wisconsin and worked as the executive director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
When moving back to Madison, Madden again considered going back to school for her master's in arts administration, but after talking to the program director realized her real-life experience had nearly equated a master's degree.
"It's always been sort of a disappointment of mine that I've never gotten that master's piece of paper, but as another friend of mine said, 'Well, you've probably got a doctorate in real-life when it comes to arts administration,'" Madden laughed.
Madden then moved back to Colorado to work as the general manager at the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and then spent some time as the chief financial officer for the Colorado Ballet, before moving back to Wisconsin, again.
"Then I had the great opportunity to come back to Wisconsin where all of my family is and become the vice president of facilities and operations at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center (PAC) in Appleton, which sort of prepared me for this job, where you're presenting," Madden said.
To the Northwoods
After working at the PAC, Madden worked at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center in Brookfield before moving to Winchester in 2015 to help with her parents.
"I was nonprofit consulting at the time, working smaller nonprofits and sort of helping them with board development, fundraising and things of that nature, but being up here the consulting opportunities are fewer and far between than in a more urban center," Madden explained.
While nonprofit consulting, Madden saw the Campanile executive director position being advertised.
"I thought how perfect, it's what I've done for a living so I shot my resume and I was lucky enough that they chose to speak with me and then offered me the position," Madden expressed. "I've just been delighted to be here."
Madden said the Campanile executive director position is a culmination of all her previous positions in the arts field.
"The common thing is they are all nonprofits, they all have the same, pretty much, structure in that you've got a nonprofit board of directors, that you're heavily dependent on volunteers to make these organizations go and successful, you have to raise money, whether it's through individual donations, writing grants, you all have to sell tickets - every single job I've had to sell tickets - you have fundraising events," Madden explained. "When I was at the Wilson Center for the Arts down in Brookfield that also had an educational component similar to the conservatory side of things that we've got here. So, this job is sort of a culmination of all of my previous positions, rolled into one, which is what makes it kind of exciting."
Madden explained that as a nonprofit, one of her goals for the Campanile is to create stronger bonds and collaborations with the community.
"I think it's building more collaborations and more partnerships in the community, working together, being more of a known resource for the community," Madden said of her goals for the Campanile. "I think the Campanile is here, it provides this area with something that a lot of small towns wish they had and so we're really lucky to have it. But, I think it's really important that as the Campanile, we don't get stuck inside a bubble where we just expect everything to come to us, the sort of build it and we will come philosophy - I don't believe in that. It's working with other organizations in town ... "
In working with different organizations and community members, Madden said she hopes those who have not been to the Campanile in awhile or have never been, come and experience what it has to offer.
"One of the things that I really hope is that maybe people who haven't been here in awhile come back and see what changes have happened over the past nine months that we've been here, or those that have maybe never been here come and check it out," Madden explained.
Madden said she hopes people view the Campanile as more than just a center for the arts, but a gathering place for the community.
"I like to think of this place ultimately as the gathering place of the community," Madden expressed. "That, you know, when there are community celebrations to be had ... If there's a reason that the community wants to come together and celebrate something, that this is the place they think of. Let's all gather there because all walks of life, all different demographics, everything is all represented here at the Campanile."
The Campanile Center for the Arts is an important gathering space for the community because places to display and revel in the arts are few and far between in the Northwoods.
"I would argue that probably there is more creativity in the populous, in the population base up here, then there are in maybe some more urban, metropolitan type communities," Madden explained. "You're forced to be more creative, right? Because we don't have access to more of the stores and shopping and distractions and things like that. So we have to create our own arts. There's not a local art museum here that you can just, on a Saturday afternoon, decide to go explore or just what show is playing this weekend. We have to, sort of, do it ourselves, which is cool because it's all friends and families and neighbors ... it's a communion of sorts, where people can get together and delight in each others creativity and talents and share all of that."
Celebrating art, the people who create it and the people who consume it is what makes the Campanile such an incredible, inclusive gathering space for the people of the Northwoods.
"I just think we're so lucky and I'm so grateful to be part of it," Madden concluded.
To learn more about the Campanile Center for the Arts, visit campanile center.org, call 715-356-9700, or like their Facebook page.
Abbey McEnroe may be reached via email at [email protected].
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