University of Wisconsin–Madison
How a job at the Chazen is reshaping one UW–Madison junior’s relationship with art in unexpected ways. Story and photos by Jakob Miller Most visitors move through the Chazen Museum of Art in under an hour. They drift from painting to painting, take a photo or two, and leave. But for UW–Madison junior Claire Hoppe, the galleries are …
Maryhilda Obasiota Ibe, the UW Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing’s 2025 Hoffman-Halls Emerging Artist Fellow, isn’t ready to leave just yet. By Maggie Ginsberg, Division of the Arts In 2023, Maryhilda Obasiota Ibe packed up her life in West Africa and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to begin her MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. …
Two years after beloved pianist Sarah Jamieson’s passing at age 103, seven doctoral students will take the bench of her prized Steinway and reprise her 1951 senior concert. By Maggie Ginsberg, Division of the Arts When the opening notes of Bach’s Fantasia in C minor cascade through Music Hall on October 12, one wonders if the historic theater will somehow recognize …
This UW–Madison double major is making the most of his junior year by taking on every opportunity that comes his way. By Jakob Miller Since his first theatrical performance in third grade, Jameson Milhaupt knew he wanted to be an actor. But the UW–Madison junior double majoring in theater and political science never imagined all the …
Four Textiles & Fashion Design students are back in Wisconsin after a new internship in Vietnam reconnected them to the Hmong diaspora. By Maggie Ginsberg, Division of the Arts This summer, four UW–Madison School of Human Ecology students stepped off the plane into the extreme humidity of Hanoi, Vietnam, more than 24 hours into a journey …
Madelyn Stewart (MA ’25) shares how her Bolz Center for Arts Administration master’s degree helped her gain valuable skills and insights, and what she’s giving back to Madison’s arts community in return. By Maggie Ginsberg, Division of the Arts Madelyn Stewart (MA ’25) first came to Madison from out of state in 2024 because the Bolz Center for …
Now in its third summer, UW Dance Exchange is bringing dance instruction into public schools. Dance Department Teaching Faculty Chell Parkins hopes to keep it there for good. By Maggie Ginsberg The gymnasium inside Thoreau Elementary School is crawling with restless second graders. It’s the middle of summer and they are hot, distracted, and a …
‘Living, Not Just Surviving,’ an exhibition featuring Cass Downing — a.k.a. Cass Marie Domino — is now open at Memorial Union. By Maggie Ginsberg Usually she struts. Ever-fierce and fabulous in a tiara and heels, Cass Marie Domino knows how to command a room. But on this quiet day in early June, she wears no makeup, …
Six beats with keyboardist Isaiah Dobbins, the double neurobiology and jazz studies major who is improvising life as he goes. By Maggie Ginsberg, Division of the Arts The fingers on Isaiah Dobbins’ left hand run scales along his knee while he speaks, providing a silent bass line to his thoughts. I’ve asked him what motivates him, …
Erika Meitner, one of this year’s Creative Arts Award recipients, talks about going analog, changing minds by breaking hearts, and the power of telling our own stories. By Maggie Ginsberg When Professor Erika Meitner first stepped onto campus more than two decades ago as the 2001-02 Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, …