Wisconsin Life

A big scavenger hunt for tiny Wisconsin landmarks

– Ken Fager: I’m not a superstitious person.
I don’t believe in the paranormal or anything like that, but I do believe that the closest thing to magic that we have are the things that we can create out of nothing.
My name is Ken Fager.
I’m a photographer, Madison denizen, and creator of MiniWI.
The Mini Wisconsin project kind of got its start when I would distribute these little Capitols in Little Free Libraries across town and people got really excited about it.
And it being the pandemic, people were searching out new, novel things to stay entertained, to keep their sanity.
So this is the original MiniWI model.
The very first thing that I created was actually the Capitol building, the Wisconsin Capitol building.
It has straight edges, it has curves, it has a dome, it has various features on it, and I needed to practice how to make objects.
[keys clacking] Eventually, things spiraled out of control as my desk kept filling up with prototypes.
And that’s kind of when I decided, “Oh, well, I don’t want to just throw these away.
I can maybe just give them away and we’ll see what happens.”
[bubbling] It took off like wildfire.
People were looking for them in Little Free Libraries left and right.
There was clearly a shared need in our community for positivity, for discovery.
Something to focus on that was a little more positive than the world around us at the time.
– Beth Rasmussen: Yay!
I started collecting the MiniWI when I found this one, and I just thought it was so charming.
I thought, “How many people can hold on to the Capitol?”
So then I started making sure I stopped by the Little Libraries as often as I could.
[laughs] – Michael Weerts: I’m just really into people, like, hiding treasure and stuff.
[laughs] He’s kind of making life like a video game a little bit, like he’s providing a side quest for me to do.
– Caroline Sullivan: I got into collecting these sculptures when COVID was happening.
I don’t know how I ended up finding Ken, but I found him on Instagram.
And, you know, COVID, it was a tough time for a lot of folks, myself included, as an extrovert.
– I’m incredibly fortunate to have this group of people that are passionate about finding my art, and there are times where I have to stop and just appreciate that I have something that a lot of people don’t.
Did I think it was gonna catch on when it started?
Absolutely not.
This is not something that I ever anticipated that I would still be doing to this day several years later.
So every MiniWI comes with, well, the MiniWI itself, a little bit of candy because life is short and you gotta have sweet things in life.
[upbeat music] Some of the MiniWI models that I have made, of course, are the Capitol.
I’ve made Wisconsin icons itself of the state.
I’ve done little Lambeau, a Camp Randall.
I recently did a flamingo, paying homage to the prank on Bascom Hill at the university.
I’ve done a badger, the Bitsy Badger, which was incredibly popular.
Oh, I’ve done a cow, of course.
I can’t forget the Mini Moo.
That one is very beloved.
– Maryjane Behm: I probably found 15 or 16 of them.
– I have 24.
– Five, six, seven, I have eight, which is my lucky number.
– Ken: That one’s special.
So I have, according to my own estimations, distributed over 5,000 MiniWI so far.
One thing that I sort of take a perverse pride in is that it is impossible to collect them all.
Actually, I think my mother probably owns the most complete set, but she doesn’t have them all either.
Another interesting facet of the relationships that I have with people who like this art is that I don’t get to see the reactions that most people have to my art.
But every now and then, people do reach out, and they say things like, “I was having the worst day today, “and I just happened to check in a Little Free Library “and I found your art.
“I found the MiniWI, and it really gave me a little bit of hope.”
And it’s messages like that that really validate my efforts to spread small acts of kindness around in the community.
– What I would say to Ken is, “Thank you so much “for allowing me to freak out when I found one in front of you.”
– Oh, I’d shake his hand and say, “Thank you.
You’re doing a good thing.”
The world needs more whimsy like he’s providing.
– Thank you, thank you, thank you for spreading whimsy, your sharing of your time and energy and capital.
[laughs] Thank you so much.
– What is in the future for the MiniWI project is a question that I get asked quite a bit, and that I refuse to divulge.
But I can guarantee it’ll be Wisconsin theme, and that’s all I’m gonna tell you.
[gentle music]