2025

“What’s eating Gilman Street?” was a project we made about and for the 400 block of West Gilman Street in Madison in the summer and autumn of 2025. Funded by the city from a range of sources, including federal “Safe Growth” money, the goal was to engage residents, business folks, and other users of the street in conversation and other activities to boost the “sense of place” on the block. We came to think of the process that evolved as a version of “deep hanging out”, to borrow a phrase from anthropologist Clifford Geertz. But rather than a method of gathering ethnographic evidence, we thought of hanging out as collaboratively producing knowledge and experience.

The block runs between State Street, the pedestrianized heart of downtown, and busy University Avenue, and by day it often feels as much like an alleyway as a residential and commercial street. On weekend nights, it can be crowded with revelers and has had a series of noise complaints and some sporadic violence. We had no aspiration to address any crowd control issues, but we did hope that we could help folks experience it as a “real place” and not just a strip of asphalt and concrete.

Our original proposal to the city imagined a “series of events and experiences, each centered on a building or enterprise located on the block, with the aim of connecting occupants and passers-by in conversations about the value of place.” We proposed using city funds to set up in front of a different business each visit, connecting the establishment with passers-by and giving away, for example, sample dumplings from places like Paul’s Pel’meni or Chin Up’s Chinese street food specialities. Our proposal was accepted, but while the Arts Commission liked the idea of a slow-rolling food festival, it proved impossible to get necessary permits from other elements of the municipal government.

Daunted but not deterred, we bought out parking spaces up and down the street and set up a sort of temporary living room in a different spot each day. We gave away commercially produced granola bars with our “What’s eating Gilman Street?” branding, and handed out our weekly newspaper, Gilman Street News, and talked. We met many students living on or around the block, including a former study-abroad student who wrote an essay for our newspaper; we got to know the business folk, and especially enjoyed the spirit of the folks at Chin Up and the thoughtful conversation with the owners of Paul’s Pel’meni (who let us store our police street barricade in their alley).

In addition to “hanging out” a couple of days each week, we did a few special events. We really enjoyed collaborating with the amazing nonprofit REAP food group to bring their licensed food truck to the street to distribute free ice cream that was “rescued” from local diaries that participated in food competitions.

Twice, we “tabled” at the Madison Night Market 

When we first set up there in August, we were still in the early days of figuring out our approach, but we liked that the Night Market concentrated the food vendors on our block, making Gilman sort of the dining room of this downtown promotional event. The only problem was that everyone had to sit on the ground to eat! When we returned to participate in the October Night Market, we simply rented a truck, 120 chairs, and 20 tables, which we decorated with our signature gingham table cloths and copies of our newspaper. For a project where our desire to share food was so obstructed, it was really gratifying to just offer folks a place to sit and eat their street food. The sidewalk took on a sociability it had lacked before, and many people lingered for conversation after they had finished their food.

What have we learned? We wrote in our last issue of Gilman Street News:

“We have a strong sense of how forces beyond any individual’s control are shaping the place; the sheer scale of capital involved in downtown property can make it feel like actual people have little influence over the fate of the block. But at the same time we’ve been impressed by the energy, generosity, and creativity of all kinds of folks who’ve talked with us, and the dedication many of them display to their ideas for a livable city. In the long term, art probably has little say about what the place will be like, but it has certainly been a fascinating way to get to know a very specific locale at ground level.

One short answer to “What’s eating Gilman Street?” is “massive real estate corporations and the luxury student housing industry.” That’s not the whole story, of course. We do feel pretty strongly that what’s feeding Gilman Street is its people.