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Category: Arts & Humanities

‘Government by the worst’: why people are calling Trump’s new sidekicks a ‘kakistocracy’

Posted on
The Guardian

“Hayes’ term was absolutely being described as a kakistocracy,” said Kelly Wright, assistant professor of language sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (1880 was also a general election year in the UK, another country known for its contributions to the English language. That year, William Gladstone became prime minister for the second time; perhaps his opponents were among those giving the word a boost.)

Learn more about ‘American Indians and the American Dream’ with this ‘University Place’ Q&A and episode

Posted on
PBS Wisconsin

In this episode of University Place Presents, host Norman Gilliland and his guest Kasey Keeler, assistant professor of American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discuss the topic, American Indians and the American Dream, which she explores in her book of the same title.

Royal Photographic Society awards 2024 – in pictures

Posted on
The Guardian

The Royal Photographic Society Award for editorial or documentary photography: Darcy Padilla Wounded Knee, Pine Ridge Reservation, February 2015, US, from the series Dreamers. Darcy Padilla is an associate professor of art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member photographer of Agence VU’ in Paris. Known for her narrative photography, Padilla focuses on long-term projects that explore themes of struggle and the transgenerational effects of socioeconomic issues.

Election results show how Wisconsin’s urban-rural divide continues to deepen

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Katherine Cramer’s influential book “The Politics of Resentment” was published in March 2016 — just eight months before Donald Trump won the presidential election for the first time and ushered in a new era of American politics.

The book got national attention for the way it homed in on the urban-rural divide. Cramer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, based the book on years of having conversations with people across the state in cafes, pool halls and other community spaces.

Celebrity endorsements of presidential candidates grow, how it could impact the election

Posted on
WKOW-TV 27

“Celebrity endorsements are not likely to literally change somebody’s mind, but they are likely to get people to pause and say, ‘should I pay attention to this person?’ ‘Can I trust this person in the way that I trust and or admire the celebrity that I’m thinking about?’ And that just gives people another opportunity to find a way into political participation,” said UW Professor Mike Wagner.

Q&A: ‘We’re seven days away from making history’: Actor Adam Brody rallies UW-Madison voters

Posted on
The Daily Cardinal

Actor Adam Brody, known for his role as Seth Cohen on the Fox series “The O.C” and most recently as Noah on “Nobody Wants This,” hosted a student meet-and-greet on behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign in Madison on Sunday, where he spoke about Madison’s pivotal role in what he called “a historical election.”

‘A Road at Night’ brings UW coach Howard Moore’s devastating story to the screen

Posted on
Madison Magazine

John Roach needed both his screenwriting and journalist hats when he signed on to direct “A Road at Night,” a new documentary about a tragic 2019 car crash outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Roach — perhaps best known for his decades as a Madison Magazine columnist and for cowriting David Lynch’s acclaimed film, “The Straight Story” — tracked down a witness to the crash who had previously not been identified.

Civic Media is betting on local pro-democracy radio. Will it work?

Posted on
Wisconsin Watch

Mike Wagner, a journalism and mass communication professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said conservative talk radio remains “the dominant talk format that deals with civic life and politics” in Wisconsin.

Listener feedback has reinforced that locally focused strategy, said Lewis Friedland, a University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism professor emeritus who Weil consulted to research what radio audiences look for in their programming.

Madison’s Spanish-speaking radio station gives ‘a way of life’ to the Latino community

Posted on
Wisconsin Watch

“Community radio plays a really important role in creating the range of voices … from minority communities who wouldn’t have any voice in mass media at all otherwise,” said Lewis Friedland, an emeritus professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Conservative talk radio continues to be a powerful political tool in Wisconsin

Posted on
Wisconsin Watch

Although less popular than local television and some other forms of media, local radio generally gains strong trust from those who listen, according to Mike Wagner, a University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism and mass communication researcher and professor. In Wisconsin, during the 2016 election, radio stations were airing around 200 hours of conservative talk every day, according to one UW-Madison study.

Sykes’ WTMJ show was Walker’s primary connection to a statewide audience, according to Lew Friedland, distinguished journalism and mass communication professor emeritus and researcher at UW-Madison. “Without Charlie Sykes, I don’t think there would have been a Scott Walker,” Friedland said, calling Sykes “one of the top three most important political actors” at the time.

Teen Vogue Generation Next 2024: Meet the winning designers

Posted on
Teen Vogue

Robyn George: I’m 22 years old and I’m from Milwaukee, Wisconsin … I entered college at UW-Madison as a political science major which really heavily informed the way that I use the medium to digest the world around me, it also pushed me to create spaces like The Issue on campus where art and culture can combine to create something new and unrestricted.

Steve Miller on growing up in Milwaukee, lessons from Les Paul, inspiring Eminem and more

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

After I went to the University of Wisconsin (in Madison) … My parents said, “What are you going to do?” And I said, “Well, you know, I want to go to Chicago and play blues.” And my mother said to me, “That’s a great idea. … Why don’t you see if you can make it? You know, you’re young, you don’t have many responsibilities. Why don’t you go?” And she gave me a $100 bill and told me to leave the next day. And I did. And that was the greatest. …

Turning 40, the Haggerty Museum of Art is a Milwaukee venue deserving wider recognition

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Its permanent collection includes about 10,000 works of art, said John McKinnon, who came on board as director in July from a similar leadership post at Elmhurst Art Museum in Illinois. McKinnon earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked as assistant curator of modern and contemporary art at the Milwaukee Art Museum from 2007 to 2010.

Wisconsin Master Naturalists, Ho-Chunk Nation to host ‘Caring for Grandmother Earth’ volunteer summit

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

For more than a decade, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension has been offering the opportunity for people to become Master Naturalists by attending expert-led training sessions and volunteering their time to conservation efforts. Altogether, Master Naturalists volunteer over 25,000 hours of service each year to over 700 organizations across the state.

UW-Madison students show gratitude for program that expands study abroad access

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

During the 2022-23 school year, more than 2,500 UW-Madison students participated in a study abroad program, according to the university’s International Academic Programs annual report for that year.

“We really see it as an opportunity for growth,” said Dan Gold of UW-Madison’s study abroad office. “When you look at it conceptually, basically it’s just: What can you do that’s not on campus that will help your academic goals?”

Take a fall-colors, art-loving journey to see these 7 Wisconsin art exhibits this autumn

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Weaving a Legacy” features nearly 200 works of black ash baskets made by more than 40 Ho-Chunk makers from the mid-1800s to the present. The exhibit, which runs through Nov. 10, is curated by Tom Jones, a University of Wisconsin-Madison photography professor, who has collected and studied thousands of Ho-Chunk baskets for more than decade.

Wisconsin’s Bizhiki spotlights powwow music and Ojibwe culture, with Justin Vernon’s help

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“We try not to romanticize our culture, but we are unapologetically Indigenous,” said Jennings, who is close to finishing the PhD program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies. “There are a lot of statistics about our communities and a lot of negative statistics. Our goal is to showcase and highlight the good things in our communities — the good people, those traditional values our communities still rest upon.”

10 diverse children’s books with Wisconsin connections

Posted on
Appleton-Post Crescent

But the number of diverse children’s books and creators has significantly increased since then, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center found. The CCBC is based in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education and receives funding from the state Department of Public Instruction. It reviews the diversity of both content and creators of about 3,500 children’s and young adult books each year.

“Children are curious learners, and are most naturally interested in themselves and also in understanding the world they live in,” CCBC Director Tessa Schmidt said. “Books should offer children the opportunity to see themselves, as well as people in their local and global communities.”

Next round of COVID vaccines, Social media warnings for minors, Wisconsin folk songs in the National Recording Registry

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

A Wisconsin doctor explains what you need to know about the next round of COVID vaccines. Then, we explore the effectiveness of warning labels for social media sites. Then, we hear some Wisconsin folks tunes that were recently added to the National Recording Registry.

Nearly 900 Wisconsin folk tunes part of the National Recording Registry in Library of Congress

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

What constitutes “folk music”?

Though musical genres are, by nature, difficult to define, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor emeritus Jim Leary gave WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” a fairly succinct answer: “Fundamentally, folk music is the grassroots music; the musical vernacular of distinctive locales and cultural groups.”

The surprising depth of human-insect relationships with Heather Swan

Posted on
WORT FM

On today’s show host Douglas Haynes sits down with Heather Swan to talk about her new book “Where the Grass Still Sings: Stories of Insects and Interconnections.” Heather Swan is a poet, writer, and lecturer in the University of Wisconsin – Madison’s English Department. Her book tells stories of human-insect connections through the lens of science and art, with a focus on the way we can connect across species.

Now a Notre Dame sculpture teacher, Keith Kaziak returns to Wausau to install new work

Posted on
Wausau Daily Herald

Kaziak, a 1998 graduate of Wausau East High School, earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota and a master’s of fine arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He takes part in exhibitions across the Midwest and has won numerous awards, including Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture in 2021, bestowed by the International Sculpture Center.

Author Joyce Carol Oates describes moment at UW-Madison that could have ‘sabotaged’ her life

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates loved much of her time as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She loved the city, the water and the student union.

But she has written that her campus years in Wisconsin were in some ways a “lost time” for her. She found much of the older, male-dominated faculty — and their old-school teaching methods — to be dull. And her time featured a turning point that could have led her down a path away from her future accolades, which include a National Book Award, the National Humanities Medal and several Pulitzer Prize nominations.

After long effort, Capitol will have its first statue honoring a Black leader, Vel Phillips

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

After years of effort, Saturday will mark history for Wisconsin as the first statue commemorating a Black leader will be unveiled on the Capitol grounds in Madison.

Phillips holds significance in Wisconsin as a trailblazing Black woman who had a lasting impact on the state’s legal and political history.

Ho-Chunk artist, Wisconsin native Harry Whitehorse honored with wood sculpture festival

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Decades earlier, Whitehorse began mentoring Gene Delcourt, then a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on his wood sculpting craft. He encouraged Delcourt, who is Abenaki and Filipino, to attend symposiums in Europe dedicated to the art form. Each time Delcourt returned from a symposium, he thought, “I’d really love to put one of these on.”

First Harry Whitehorse International Wood Sculpture Festival celebrates the art’s past and future

Posted on
WORT FM

One of Delcourt and Levin’s main goals in creating the festival was to prevent Whitehorse’s work from being forgotten. Whitehorse, who was born in a wigwam in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, studied anatomy at UW–Madison, fine arts at the Arthur Colt School of Fine Arts in Madison and welding at a local technical college. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Whitehorse returned to Madison where he experimented with many different kinds of art, including metalwork and custom car design, before landing on wood carving in the 1980’s. He died in 2017 at age 90.

Artist Harry Whitehorse honored with new wood sculpture festival in Monona

Posted on
Wisconsin Life

After the war, Harry Whitehorse returned to Wisconsin to pursue a career as an artist. He went to the Arthur Colt School of Fine Arts in Madison to study oil painting and studied human and animal anatomy at University of Wisconsin. He also got his degree in welding and metal fabrication at Madison Area Technical College to become an auto mechanic.

Robert Plant surprises Madison record store with a visit

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

After about 20 minutes, Plant approached Manley again. He wanted to know what was playing over the store’s speakers. It was the 2023 LP “The Window” from Chicago indie group Ratboys.

Manley told WPR it was exciting to introduce a newer band — who had recently played on the nearby UW-Madison student union terrace — to “the biggest rockstar in the world.”

New Wisconsin Public Radio station honors late Executive Director Gene Purcell

Posted on
Current

Wisconsin Public Radio is launching a new music station with call letters honoring Gene Purcell, Wisconsin Public Media’s late executive director.

WEPP, which will start broadcasting Thursday on 90.7 FM in Rice Lake, Wis., gets its call letters from Purcell’s given name, Eugene Patrick Purcell. He died due to injuries from a traffic crash in 2021 after more than a decade at the helm of the organizations behind Wisconsin Public Radio and PBS Wisconsin.

University of Wisconsin alum Jenn Tran is ‘The Bachelorette.’ Here’s when her season will premiere.

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Back in March, University of Wisconsin-Madison alum Jenn Tran was announced as the next “Bachelorette” — the show’s first Asian American lead.

And now, we know when we’ll get to start seeing her love story unfold. The Season 21 premiere of “The Bachelorette” is at 7 p.m. CT July 8 on ABC, the network shared.

Vel R. Phillips was a woman of many firsts in Milwaukee

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Vel R. Phillips has been described by many as an icon, a trailblazer, a culture shifter, and a woman of many firsts.

The Milwaukee native and North Division High School graduate was the first Black woman to earn her degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, the first woman to be elected to Milwaukee’s Common Council, the first female judge in Milwaukee, and the first Black woman to win statewide office in Wisconsin, among dozens of other accomplishments.

National Nordic Museum Reveals A Nordic Utopia For 20th-Century African American Artists

Posted on
Forbes

Anderson had been thinking about William H. Johnson (1901-1970) when Ethelene Whitmire, Chair and a professor in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, spoke at the National Nordic Museum in 2019. The pair of museum professionals had much in common. Both were past American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellows, both Fulbright Fellows, both spent time at the University of Copenhagen.

A Madison birding program connects students with nature and neighbors

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Trish O’Kane calls herself an “accidental birder.” After surviving Hurricane Katrina in 2005, O’Kane moved to Wisconsin with her husband to start a new chapter. She had spent years as a human rights journalist in Central America and was now setting her sights on a Ph.D. in environmental natural resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wisconsin cultures and their folk music get major honor from Library of Congress

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

“It is the most diverse, equitable, and inclusive folksong field collection ever made for the Library of Congress,” said James P. Leary, professor emeritus of Folklore and Scandinavian Studies at UW-Madison. It reminds “us that we cannot fully grasp the richness of American roots music without recognizing the many peoples, tongues, and sounds that – whether past or present, from mainstream or margins, deservedly acknowledged or unjustly ignored – have always made America great.”