Category: Arts & Humanities

â??Woodrow Wilson,â? John Milton Cooper Jr.â??s monumental new biography, seeks to revive Wilson for the 21st century â?? not simply to narrate a presidential life, but to explain why he deserves our national esteem.

Thursday night I and various notables in the local arts scene attended an intriguing talk by Douglas McLennan, founder of ArtsJournal.com and director of the National Arts Journalism Program, called â??Arts Journalism 2.0: The next wave in arts conversations.â? It was a public event associated with UW-Madisonâ??s Arts Enterprise: Art as Business as Art course.

Intellectuals donâ??t make good executives, Woodrow Wilson maintained, unless they take measures to stop their “everlasting disposition to think, to listen â?? and not act.” And so, as president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey, he had trained himself, when his mind “felt like deciding, to shut it up My decision might be right, it might be wrong. No matter, I would take a chance and do something.”

Rock and classical music may seem like strange bedfellows, but if you examine the evidence, theyâ??ve been having a love affair for quite some time.In the 1970s, prog-rock bands began using orchestrasâ?? epic sounds to lure listeners into intricate rhythms and harmonies. In the past decade, KISS, Metallica and Sigur Rós have collaborated with some of the worldâ??s finest symphonies. But while orchestras have influenced the local music scene through chamber-pop groups like Pale Young Gentlemen and Fermata, UW-Madisonâ??s string ensembles havenâ??t been staging major rock-outs.

Jim Gillâ??s portrait photographs of Vietnam War veterans are large-scale, arresting and full of harrowing humanity. To confront these images is to come face-to-face with men and women whoâ??ve seen and experienced things most people can only imagine. Nearly 30 of Gillâ??s portraits are on display until Jan. 3 in the exhibition â??Back in the World: Portraits of Wisconsin Vietnam Veteransâ? at UW-Madisonâ??s Chazen Museum of Art.

When scholars play “rate the presidents,” Woodrow Wilson typically winds up just below the deities of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and FDR. He generally ranks in the “near great” category, neck and neck with his great rival, Theodore Roosevelt.

What does a 12th-century rabbi in Egypt, arguably the greatest thinker in Jewish history, have in common with a 17th-century Jewish philosopher in Amsterdam who was â??expelled from the people of Israelâ? for â??abominable heresies and monstrous deedsâ? and who would go on to become the most radical philosopher of his time? And what could their philosophical differences and similarities possibly have to do with us, many centuries later?

Author: Steven Nadler is chair of the department of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of â??The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Story of Philosophers, God, and Evilâ? (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008).

Itâ??s been 35 years since the first time Ben Sidran didnâ??t meet Bob Dylan.

….When Sidran was an artist-in-residence at the UW-Madison in 2003, he taught a course about Jewish-American musicians entitled â??Jews, Music and the American Dream: From Irving Berlin to the Beastie Boys.â? Heâ??s now in the middle of writing a book on the subject.

â??I love it and itâ??s the hardest thing you can do,â? he said. â??Iâ??m totally captured by the ideas. I love the freedom to spend my time with ideas. It feels as good as playing piano in a club.â?

Of course, Dylan himself will play a major role in the book. And, if Sidranâ??s personal brushes with the man wonâ??t make it into the book, perhaps the insight he gained from living inside his songs for a while will have an influence.

The City of Madison is exploring if, and how, it can preserve a 75-foot-mural at the Madison Central Library by noted artist Aaron Bohrod when the library is demolished and replaced with a new $37 million facility.The mural, which features a series of fantasy-like animals in soft earth tones, is valued for its place in the library and for being a creation of Bohrod, a UW-Madison artist in residence and nationally-known figure who was prolific as a painter, sculptor, print maker, ceramicist and illustrator.

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein has been playing, recording and living with J.S. Bach’s music for years. When Dinnerstein comes to the Wisconsin Union Theater on Friday, Dec. 4, she’ll play a program including Aaron Copland’s Piano Variations, four impromptus by Franz Schubert, Phillip Lasser’s Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach and Bach’s own French Suite.

From the wassail to the flaming figgy pudding, Tudor Dinners at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Union present an evening thatâ??s positively feudal.

What better time than Thanksgiving week to offer thanks to a Wisconsin treasure.

That would be Jim Fleming, the Wisconsin Public Radio personality who has greeted thousands of state residents weekday mornings with his silken voice and upbeat spirit as he ladles out classical music. Fleming announced his retirement recently. His last â??Morning Classicsâ? broadcast will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Dec. 3.

Innovative choreography, live music and new collaborations will mark the UW-Madison Dance Program Fall Faculty Concert (“SPLASH!”) this Saturday, 8 p.m. at the Wisconsin Union Theater.

Doris K. Hembrough opened her fine art gallery, the Hembrough Gallery, in Mazomanie in June 2008. A photographer with an eye for sharp, contrasting textures in ordinary scenes, Hembrough said she is sensitive to patterns in light. Hembrough returned to Wisconsin, where she earned a degree in art history at UW-Madison, from Taos, N.M., in 2006.

The Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission has awarded 50 grants totaling more than $124,000 for community arts, cultural and local history programs, in the third and final grant cycle of 2009.

The county grants this year were matched by more than $910,000 from local foundations and funds, including the Evjue Foundation, the charitable arm of The Capital Times; the American Girlâ??s Fund for Children; the Endres Manufacturing Co. Foundation; Madison Community Foundationâ??s Arts Access Fund; the Overture Foundation; and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.

Forty-four project grants totaling $109,700 were awarded in four areas, including visual arts, music, dance and arts in school.

(Among the recipients are UW Cinematheque, the UW-Madison Arts Institute, Li Chiao-Ping Dance, Jin-Wen Yu Dance, and the Wisconsin Union Theater.)

Memorial Library accepted WYOU Community Televisionâ??s donation of â??Nothing to Hideâ? videotapes Friday, creating the largest cable access video archive of a show centering on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender topics in the nation.

Chris Newbold, a 1993 UW-Madison graduate, recognized the wide appeal of Bucky Badger (Bucky has more than 18,000 fans on Facebook) and turned his passion for his alma mater into “The Big Bucky Badger Mystery” (University Pride Publishing, $21.95). Writing a children’s book with Bucky as the main character was “the perfect project,” Newbold said in a phone interview from his home in Missoula, Mont. “It’s a way to give back to the community and the UW, while at the same time bringing smiles to kids’ faces.”

“The theater is our laboratory. Itâ??s where our students do their work, where they learn. Our audiences are doubly important in that regard. “So says David Furumoto, the new head of the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s University Theatre, and a tenured associate professor of acting in the department of theater and drama. Itâ??s safe to say thereâ??s never been another UT director quite like Furumoto. How many kabuki experts do you know who are also accomplished bagpipers?

This weekend, the University Theatre opens Federico Garcia Lorcaâ??s “Blood Wedding,” a dark, passionate tragedy set in the Spanish countryside, complete with a love triangle and a deep-seated family feud. It marks the debut of the UW-Madisonâ??s MFA acting class of 2012.

Economic struggles were just one of the many subjects filmmakers shed some light on over the weekend at the UW Madison campus. The Tales From Planet Earth Film Festival showcased 50 eco-friendly films from around the world aimed to inspire viewers to take action in their communities.

Writer Dave Eggers and the South Sudanese man whose story he told in his 2006 book “What Is the What” were at UW-Madison on Wednesday to talk about the pairâ??s work in Sudan and to urge the overflow crowd to get involved in efforts to bring peace to the country.”What is the What,” a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award, is a fictionalized account of Valentino Achak Dengâ??s experience as a refugee from Sudanâ??s civil war. Proceeds from the bookâ??s sale fund a foundation he runs that focuses on increasing educational opportunities in his home village of Marial Bai. Much of Tuesdayâ??s talk and an accompanying slide show concerned Dengâ??s work to build a secondary school in the remote village.

Writer Dave Eggers and the South Sudanese man whose story he told in his 2006 book “What Is the What” were at UW-Madison on Wednesday to talk about the pairâ??s work in Sudan and to urge the overflow crowd to get involved in efforts to bring peace to the country.

Up until just a few years ago, you knew what you were getting into when you walked into a so-called “environmental film.” Some dewy-eyed shots of trees and birds. Maybe a Joan Baez song on the soundtrack. And, above all, youâ??d be getting a stern lecture on how mankind is squandering its earthly resources and must mend the error of its ways.

Wisconsin Public Radio’s Jim Fleming has soothed us with the classics, read to us and informed us. Now, after nearly 40 years, the Madison native is retiring.

NBC 15 anchor and University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate Carleen Wild has a new country band called Main Street Wisdom.

WYOU Community Television is giving 800 video tapes of “Nothing To Hide,” the late David Runyonâ??s long-running cable access television show, to UW-Madisonâ??s Memorial Library.

UW-Madison alumnus Jeff Skubal makes fight scenes on stage look realistic in  his career as a fight choreographer.

Pianist Christopher Taylor, an associate music prof at the University of Wisconsin, performs the Goldberg Variations on Friday at the University of Chicago. An opportunity to see the Goldbergs is always a treat, and Taylor is an outstanding pianist – his performance of Messiaenâ??s complete, immensely challenging “Vingt Regards sur lâ??Enfant-Jésus,” one of his specialties, last year as part of the Messiaen Festival was one of the most remarkable shows Iâ??ve ever seen.

Moliere named his last comedy “The Imaginary Invalid,” referring to Argan, an elderly hypochondriac. But on stage in the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Mitchell Theatre, “Invalid” is Toinetteâ??s show.

For those unfamiliar with capoeira, the tradition – rich in Afro-Brazilian roots – spans five centuries and is known for its ritualistic movements, combining the two contrasting worlds of dance and martial arts.

The rush of landing a lead role in an opera is often quickly replaced by another cocktail of emotions, with elation giving way to nervousness and fatigue.

University Opera reduces the stress and doubles the opportunities for the young singers at UW-Madison by double-casting its starring roles. And “Thaïs,” an opera by Jules Massenet, has a peach of a lead: a charismatic, priest-seducing courtesan with a heart of gold.

Myths about the arts, business and lifestyle choices emerged during a recent brainstorm in a class at Grainger Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. At the top of the list, guest lecturer Lisa Sonora Beam wrote the biggest, scariest myth of all:

“Artists starve.”