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.
Even though it?s just past New Year?s Day, readers at UW-Madison are already thinking about books for the next academic year. UW-Madison?s common book program, Go Big Read, is accepting nominations for next year?s selection. Make suggestions quickly, though – the deadline is midnight on Thursday, Jan. 6. Nominations can be made at www.gobigread.wisc.edu/nominate.html.
The Wisconsin State Journal’s list includes Russell Panczenko. 2011 will mark a milestone for the Chazen Museum of Art, the UW-Madison institution Panczenko has headed since 1984, and which even in tough economic times is virtually doubling in size and enhancing its cultural presence on University Avenue.
?Handmade Meaning: The Value of Craft in Victorian and Contemporary Culture? combines pieces culled from historical societies around the state with contemporary embroidery, paper arts and beading. The show is a collaboration between the Watrous gallery, the UW department of art history and the Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database, and it runs through Feb. 6 on the third floor of the Overture Center.
Quoted: Anne Smart Martin, associate professor of art history and the head of the material culture program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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.
….Thanks to local musician and performer Anthony Lamarr, the Badgers? run for the Rose Bowl has an unofficial anthem. “We?re Smelling Roses” debuted on YouTube earlier this month and has already scored more than 200,000 hits. J. Dante is on the track ? his rap is the best part, when the song really picks up ? and the video features cameos by members of the marching band, Chancellor Biddy Martin and Heisman Trophy winner and former Badger Ron Dayne.
Thanks to a $10 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and matching funds from the state, UW-Madison hopes to enhance its commitment to the humanities. The grant is intended to support core areas of study, hire new faculty, and support postdoctoral and graduate students, the university announced in a press release Monday.
UW-Madison will get $20 million for research and education in the humanities – $10 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and $10 million from the state of Wisconsin. The Mellon grant required a match of state funds, which Gov. Jim Doyle agreed to commit.
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.
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Madison has received a $10 million grant to enhance education and research in the humanities.The grant announced Monday comes from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The state will match the award.Gov. Jim Doyle said in a statement that the money will allow the humanities program at UW-Madison to grow and prosper.
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.
Some people have been raised with gospel music as a significant part of their lives. Others were not introduced to the style until ?Sister Act? took the screen in the ?90s ? their experience with the soulful genre continuing to develop in the new millennium with 2005?s so-so film ?The Gospel? (Rob Hardy), or even Christina Aguilera?s track ?Makes Me Wanna Pray? on Back to Basics. Regardless of background, the University Gospel Choir in Madison is one fun, safe space for anyone on campus who possesses the singular, internal spark of musical joy.
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.
?Second Skin? is truly a one-woman show.For her solo performance at Music Hall on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 10-11, Ella Rosewood solicited new dances from five professional choreographers. She wrote grant applications, coordinated publicity and recruited a technical team. Rosewood, 22, even developed a dance curriculum for grade levels K-8 and took her dance to seven area schools ? all before she herself has graduated from college. ?I have never been a person who thinks I?m going to be discovered as a dancer, because that doesn?t really happen,? said Rosewood, a dual major in dance and elementary education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ?You have to make happen what you want.”
Opening of the video installation “Shirin Neshat: Rapture” with lecture by Michael Jay McClure, assistant professor of contemporary art at UW-Madison, plus a screening of Neshat?s 2009 feature-length film “Women Without Men”
Quoted: Michael Jay McClure, assistant professor of contemporary art at UW-Madison.
It was already a week past Black Friday, but UW-Madison junior Lauren Gunderson, 20, still managed to strike a great bargain when she walked up to an Overture Center ticket window Friday morning with $20, and walked away with a pair of prime seats for that evening?s performance of the Madison Symphony Orchestra?s “Christmas Spectacular” worth $151. The Madison Symphony Orchestra has ratcheted up its marketing among students like Gunderson with its student rush tickets, offering the best seats available at the time of sale. Students must present an ID to buy up to two $10 tickets the day of the show.While student rush has been around for awhile, sales this year have on average more than tripled from the 2009-10 season, said MSO marketing director Ann Miller.
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.
Kathleen Horning is having a few close friends over for the holidays, some of the same characters who might show up in anyone?s home over the next four weeks. They include Truman Capote, an angel or three, a donkey, a carpenter, a couple of guys on skis and some freezing soldiers, even a snow lady.
Horning directs the Cooperative Children?s Book Center located on the fourth floor of the Helen C. White building on the UW-Madison campus. It is a treasury of lore, content and advice effusively doled out to the state?s and the nation?s librarians, teachers, parents and anyone else interested in all that touches children literature.
Representatives from the Division of State Facilities, UW System, UW-Madison School of Music and other campus offices have selected an architect firm to design the new School of Music performance center.
A new home for music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has taken a giant step forward with the selection of an architectural firm.
As a sophomore last year on the UW-Madison campus, Jeffrey Vinokur decided he?d had it with dancing alone. So Vinokur, a biochemistry major from New Jersey with a talent and passion for the hip-hop subspecialty called “popping,” rallied student dance groups from every genre and every corner of campus. “It seemed like dancers (across campus) didn?t have much interaction, even though we share something powerful,” he said. “I wanted to create a more cohesive community.” He began pairing student dance clubs for style-bending collaborations over several months, capped by a one-day Madison Dance Conference. The idea was such a success that this year?s Madison Dance Conference stretches over a full weekend, with free dance workshops for the public Saturday and Sunday and a two-hour dance performance and social dance Sunday evening in the Memorial Union?s Great Hall.
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.
….Sundance manager Merijoy Endrizzi-Ray said demand for seeing the new “Harry Potter” movie was huge, and both the film?s midnight screenings sold out less than a week after they went on sale. Both theaters were bought out by UW-Madison dorms who are hitting the movie en masse, Endrizzi-Ray said.
“They?re just at that age, where they started the first books when they were kids, and now they?re in college,” she said.
It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in early October, yet the Promenade Room at Madison?s Overture Center had a couple hundred people gathered inside to hear a discussion on religion and science as part of the Wisconsin Book Festival.
That?s just one indication of how lively this subject is these days. One of the presenters that day was Steve Paulson, the Wisconsin Public Radio producer whose new book sheds lots of light on this topic, which often stirs overheated debate.
Danielle L. McGuire was a student at UW-Madison in 1998 researching the civil rights movement when she heard a National Public Radio report about the Montgomery bus boycott. The announcer lauded Gertrude Perkins as a pioneer of the movement. Gertrude Perkins? Not Rosa Parks? McGuire decided more research was warranted, and the end result of her work is ?At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance ? A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power.?
Craig Werner and Doug Bradley have spent many years researching on music and the Vietnam War. The book, working title “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” still gestating – Werner is a teacher at UW-Madison, and Bradley is about to retire from his position in UW-Madison?s Office of Corporate Relations. Later this week, Werner and Bradley will anchor a three-day symposium (Thursday-Saturday) in Madison titled “…Next Stop Is Vietnam: The War on Record, 1961-2008.” It is hosted by the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, UW-Madison and other community partners.
The new head of UW-Madison?s Cinematheque foresees a very bright future for film fans, as new screens begin to appear across campus.
The Film Studies Center of National Central University will show a series of Taiwan-made films on several university campuses in the United States, promoting local cinematic art and Taiwan studies through film, NCU announced Nov. 10.
A Taiwanese film festival will go on tour in November, making stops at eight universities across the United States.
A major private collection of 20th-century sculpture will be made accessible to the public in its new home at the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin?Madison. The museum announced the gift of the renowned Terese and Alvin S. Lane Collection, comprising more than 70 sculptures and 250 preparatory drawings by artists including Jean Arp, Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, Pablo Picasso, and David Smith, among other modern masters.
Noted: “Another myopic fortress: the UW-Madison, which is busily raising $38 million to build a new School of Music performance center just blocks away from seriously underused Overture stages. Go figure.”
The UW-Madison?s Chazen Museum of Art has been on a role lately. Less than a year away from the opening of a $43 Million dollar expansion and the recipient of a major collection from the very Chazens who donated the expansion, the museum is becoming an even more valuable resource for the visual arts in the Midwest.
In honor of a bequest by the late UW-Madison Professor Emeritus Jane Graff, the Madison Early Music Festival will present a free performance of Claudio Monteverdi?s ?Vespers of 1610? on Sunday, Nov. 7, at 7:30 p.m.Featuring the UW-Madison Madrigal Singers, the university?s top choir, and an orchestra of period instruments, the Vespers liturgy will be conducted by Bruce Gladstone and preceded by a lecture by John Barker starting at 6:30 p.m.
It?s enough to make a purist squirm: a cellist playing the scroll or the tuning peg of his instrument, a violinist drawing his bow slowly from the bridge all the way to the fingerboard.
….The group is known for both promoting established, living composers ? they?ll play a piece by UW-Madison professor Laura Schwendinger in the Nov. 10 concert ? and helping students develop and annotate some of the unusual styles of playing that can emerge in contemporary composition. At times, reading through student work, the quartet has found a piece for their permanent repertoire.
The best cartoons hit a nerve, including one about education in the current issue of The New Yorker magazine.
Sitting in a park, two rather snooty looking mothers with toddlers are having a conversation. One assures the other, “We believe in the concept of public education.” But in reality? Well, they are probably like the narrator of “Waiting for Superman,” the controversial documentary about the failures of urban public education now playing at Sundance theater in Madison and in other theaters around the country.
Quoted: Gloria Ladson-Billings and Michael Apple, UW-Madison professors of curriculum and instruction in the School of Education.
The reason is that it?s been vandalized. A conservator is studying the damage. It could be beyond repair.
Poets will be jamming the UW-Madison Wisconsin Union Theater on Nov. 14, hoping to make their marks at the fourth annual Collegiate Poetry Slam.
Poets will be jamming the UW-Madison Wisconsin Union Theater on Nov. 14, hoping to make their marks at the fourth annual Collegiate Poetry Slam. The poetry slam is put on by the Multicultural Student Coalition, giving a voice to local poets? self expression and self-assuredness, standing up at the mic in front of a live audience.
UW-Madison Alumnus Alvin Lane and his wife have bestowed their $30 million collection of 20th century sculpture to the university?s Chazen Museum of Art, according to museum officials.
After a rigorous dance workshop with UW undergraduate and student teacher Ella Rosewood, an elementary school class was asked how the movement had made them feel. ?Fun!? was the most common response. Amid these typical third grade descriptions, though, one girl spoke at great length and detail of how exactly it had felt for her to dance. After the lesson ended, the teacher approached Rosewood. ?You know that girl who said all of that stuff?? she said. ?That was the third time I?ve heard her speak all year.?
Judy Leavitt had been thinking about the subject of fathers and childbirth for a long time before she decided to write about it. A story her mother told resonated with scholar and author Judith Walzer Leavitt, only recently retired as a professor of medical history and women?s studies at UW-Madison. Leavitt?s fathers and childbirth book, titled ?Make Room for Daddy,? has just had its paperback release, and it is fascinating reading, especially for those of us who can lay claim to the last word in the title.
The author of the University of Wisconsin?s second book in the Go Big Read series spoke to an audience at the Kohl Center Monday night about how she came across the topic and the true story of the family in the novel.
UW-Madison is paying author Rebecca Skloot $15,000 to come to campus for its common book program, Go Big Read. Skloot, author of the “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” will be here for three days, including a speech at the Kohl Center tonight.The funds are coming from the chancellor?s office.
A prominent New York City attorney and his wife have bequeathed a major private collection of 20th century sculpture to the Chazen Museum of Art at UW-Madison, a gift valued at $30 million, museum officials announced Monday. The collection from the estate of the late Terese and Alvin S. Lane includes more than 70 sculptures and 250 preparatory drawings from artists such as Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, David Smith and Christo. “I wouldn?t hesitate to say that, as far as 20th century modernism, this makes us a major study center,” said Russell Panczenko, museum director.
UW-Madison will be hosting author Rebecca Skloot Monday night at the Kohl Center. Skloot penned “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” which tells the story of an African-American cancer patient who was the unwitting donor of the “HeLa” cells — which were used to further numerous advances in modern medicine.
Skloot will lead a community discussion which will touch on a range of issues related to bioethics and diversity. The event starts at 7 p.m.
It?s rare to ask an author whom she would like to play her in a movie being made from her book. But Rebecca Skloot is in a position to speculate on such things. The author of ?The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks? and the featured presenter for UW-Madison?s Go Big Read selection, has experienced a surge of exposure since publishing the story of the forgotten woman behind one of the most important tools in modern medicine.
Academy Award-winning documentarian and 1969 UW-Madison alum Errol Morris spoke Thursday at a Humanities Without Boundaries Event as part of the university?s Year of the Arts.
Renowned filmmaker and writer Errol Morris shared his career inspirations and experiences on the Wisconsin Union Theatre stage Thursday night as part of the Memorial Union Directorate?s Distinguished Lecture Series.
She unknowingly boosted medicine into the 20th century, becoming a martyr for science. And for decades, the heroine?s identity was as much a mystery to the public as her unwitting scientific contributions were to her own family.
