Category: Arts & Humanities

MADISON, Wis. — Lady Liberty, the plastic foam and wood structure placed annually on the ice on Lake Mendota, was damaged by vandals over the weekend.

In Madison West High School?s Hip Hop Studies class, most of the students enrolled in this course have never before taken a school class in music, even though they live and breathe the stuff. The brand new course, which began in January and is a semester-long music elective, is designed ?to get kids thinking about the most popular form of music since they?ve been born,? said West High school vocal music teacher Anthony Cao, who came up with the idea last year while on sabbatical and pursuing a master?s degree in music education at UW-Madison.

The forbidden island of Cuba opens to visitors, of a sort, with the Wisconsin Union Theater?s presentation of the travel adventure film ?Cuba: A Road Journey from Havana to Santiago.?

Dali, Chihuly and Degas? It?s possible to see all three in one weekend in the Tampa Bay area ? and still have time to savor the beach. The new Salvador Dali Museum, which opened in St. Petersburg in January, is the latest in a string of splashy arts venues on Florida?s west coast. The $33 million Tampa Museum of Art ? soon to host a Degas show ? opened in February 2010. And the Chihuly Collection, a permanent gallery devoted to the vibrant glassworks of artist Dale Chihuly, who attended UW-Madison, was unveiled across the bay in St. Petersburg in July.

?Level 7,? a science fiction book by Mordecai Roshwald about a post-apocalyptic dystopia published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 1959, has gotten a new life in the present thanks to the Amazon Kindle.

?Level 7,? a science fiction book by Mordecai Roshwald about a post-apocalyptic dystopia published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 1959, has gotten a new life in the present thanks to the Amazon Kindle. Krista Coulson, electronic publishing manager for the UW Press, says ?Level 7? was one of the first backlist titles the press published in e-book format, thanks to requests from Kindle users looking for the story.

Dance corps often look perfectly symmetrical ? each dancer about the same height, legs perfectly aligned, every movement precise.

Chris Walker?s dancers for ?The People Who Came,? a new piece based on students? immigration stories, couldn?t be more different.

They?re tall and short, with a variety of skin tones and levels of experience. Some performers are break dancers. Some are classically trained dance majors. Still others are members of First Wave, a pioneering hip-hop/spoken word program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The group that is going to be in charge of ownership and operation of Madison?s performing arts center has changed its name. The 201 State Foundation is now the Overture Center Foundation. The group made the name change at its board of directors meeting Tuesday night.

(Among the new board members is Richard Davis, renowned musician and UW-Madison professor of bass in the School of Music.)

A University of Wisconsin-Madison program is bringing live chamber music to hospital patients, families and staff.

A couple of years ago, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz invited the heads of the United Way of Dane County and the Madison Community Foundation to meet with him to discuss a question he was pondering. Was Madison bumping against its ceiling for charitable giving? Given the array of needs for social services, education and a diverse arts community, were we nearing capacity? Or, more directly, were givers tapped out?

….The question is timely again as the need to raise more private money to operate the Overture Center for the Arts has been added to the civic to-do list. So, can contributions keep up?

(Among those quoted: Former UW Foundation president Sandy Wilcox)

In late spring 2012, the Wisconsin Union Theater will go dark for an extensive two-year renovation. When it opens again, the theater?s offerings could look significantly different, making it less of a community arts center and more centered around University of Wisconsin-Madison students.

UW-Madison alumnus Matt Henry travels the world eight months out of the year on the pro juggling circuit, working cruise ships, performing with circuses and symphony orchestras, and making appearances on TV shows such as ?America?s Got Talent.? Next weekend, he?ll return home to Madison as a headliner at the 47th Annual MadFest Juggling Festival, three days of free workshops capped by a first-rate, family-friendly show Saturday night at Union Theater.

Phil Johnston, 39, is a Neenah native and UW-Madison grad whose new film, “Cedar Rapids,” has its world premiere in two weeks at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

When one imagines pop culture?s most common incarnation of hip-hop being squished into a ball with musical theater, it?s tough to conjure up anything realistic; Gucci Mane stumbling through Cats as Bustopher Jones with auto-tune? Horrific, right? Thankfully, the University Of Wisconsin?s First Wave program has a far different vision of the merging of those aforementioned elements, a vision that knocked us flat on our asses on several occasions in 2010.

OSHKOSH, Wis. — A University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh professor has helped revive a once-lost soundtrack to Dr. Seuss? only live-action film. Alan Lareau, German professor and literature scholar, is an expert on Frederick Hollander, who was the composer for “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.”

Chancellor Biddy Martin made the announcement Monday: the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the university a $10 million grant as part of an effort to preserve and enhance the humanities at research universities.

UW-Madison will work to strengthen humanities education with the help of $20 million coming from a $10 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and matching funds from the state of Wisconsin.

Tyche, the Greek goddess of chance, smiled on the University of Wisconsin at Madison this week.

The university announced Monday that it had received a $20 million grant — $10 million of which will come from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with the remainder matched by the state of Wisconsin over much of the next decade. The money will allow Wisconsin to hire new faculty members and support postdoctoral and graduate students in the humanities. None of the disciplines within the humanities have been specifically designated to receive money, save one: a $2.5 million endowed chair in ancient Greek philosophy.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has received a $10 million grant to enhance education and research in the humanities.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has received a $10 million grant to enhance education and research in the humanities.

UW Madison gets a major humanities grant. Chancellor Biddy Martin made the announcement Monday: the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the university a $10 million grant as part of an effort to preserve and enhance the humanities at research universities. ?The grant . . . which will be matched by the state, will be used to support and sustain our strengths in core areas in the humanities,? Martin said. ?It will allow us to hire faculty, support postdoctoral fellows, and support graduate students.

Books are not often thought of as an art form. Then again, these are not mere books.The compendiums slaved over by monastic scribes in candlelit halls were not merely text upon paper. Illuminated manuscripts were carefully crafted, elaborately decorated pieces of medieval artwork. And while these European gilded texts were crafted for elite patrons, they?ll soon be on display for all to see at the Chazen Art Museum.

She spent years in hiding, forging papers and fleeing imprisonment in Nazi Germany.  Expelled from high school for her Jewish heritage, she fled Germany and ultimately landed in Madison. Now after her death, Vera Croner is giving almost $500,000 to UW-Madison.

It?s the kind of story that seems impossible now, when unmanned planes drop explosives on foreign soil and solitary snipers hover behind enemy lines. Early in World War I, German and Allied troops called a temporary truce on Christmas Eve, 1914. They sang carols, exchanged gifts, even played soccer.

Cantus, a professional all-male a cappella choir from Minneapolis, recaptures the poignancy of that cease-fire in ?All Is Calm,? a performance that combines letters from soldiers and Christmas songs from the early 20th century. This is the fourth year Cantus has toured the show, which comes to the Wisconsin Union Theater on Saturday, Dec. 11, at 7:30 p.m.

Inside the elevator that ascends six floors in the UW-Madison Humanities Building to reach the university?s art department, the aesthetics had sunk low, really low. Over the years the metal walls of the bare-bones, slightly rumbly elevator served as a magnet for 2D creativity, some of it intriguing, but a lot of it slapdash and much of it resembling graffiti more often found on the sides of a bathroom stall. Over and over, the hodge-podge returned ? until a staff meeting gave rise to an idea: Why not turn the elevator into a legitimate design space?

Justin Richardson is president of the board of directors of WORT community radio, which marks its 35th anniversary this week. Richardson, 34, works as facilities manager for the UW-Madison School of Music and plays trombone and euphonium in bands and orchestras in Madison.

A new home for music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has taken a giant step forward with the selection of an architectural firm.

The dance program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has recently been designated an official department. This upgrade was celebrated on Nov. 19 with “Upswing,” the fall faculty concert at the Wisconsin Union Theater (with post performance soiree). The festivities continue through Nov. 21 with “Dancing All Weekend Long,” a busy schedule of free showcases and classes from student dance organizations.

The new head of UW-Madison?s Cinematheque foresees a very bright future for film fans, as new screens begin to appear across campus.