Essay | Page 2 | wisconsinacademy.org
Your shopping cart is empty.

Essay

Lake Superior's South Shore. Photo by Hope McLeod

The creative sector of Northern Wisconsin, prior to the pandemic, was supported primarily by visitors searching for escape and enchantment.

A good death means finding peace at the end of one’s life, and it is part of the beauty of the full cycle of life, something to strive for, for ourselves and for those we love.

Thwaites (right) and a colleague digging a test pit in search of drift north of Bonduel, July 17, 1928. Image courtesy Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

In much of the state, these rocks are hidden from view, covered by a deposit called “drift.”  Understanding the nature and source of drift was one of the first strands of our landscape web that nineteenth century geologists needed to untangle.

Spray paint cans in car trunk

Milwaukee muralist Aisha Valentín vividly remembers the first time she picked up a can of spray paint.

Mary Lou Williams sitting at a piano

A centennial celebration of the First Lady of Jazz reveals the surprising role that Madison plays in the life and music of legendary jazz artist Mary Lou Williams. 

The installation of sculptures by Nek Chand at the Art Preserve is suggestive of the way the artist layered his work at his Rock Garden in Chandigarh, India

Ruth DeYoung Kohler's visionary Art Preserve, the first musem of its kind in the counry, promises to be an unconventional art destination.

Wisconsin printmaker William Weege’s legacy lies with the artists he worked with and the land he restored, as well as in his own groundbreaking creations. Photo copyright © 2021 by Richard Graves. Used by permission.

Wisconsin printmaker William Weege’s legacy lies with the artists he worked with and the land he restored, as well as in his own groundbreaking creations.

A 1995 photo of the artist Arthur Kdav in Lake Geneva, Illinois. Photo by Heather Swan.

My dad, the artist Arthur Kdav, didn’t tell anyone when he noticed the first signs of his disease.

The cover of the Spring 1983 issue of Wisconsin Academy Review (today’s Wisconsin People & Ideas) featured a fold-out reproduction of Warrington Colescott’s 1982 large color intaglio print, The Hollandale Tapes: The Court Is Now in Session. As an Academy Board member in the 1980s, Colescott actively encouraged and contributed to the Academy’s work in the visual arts.

It took nearly eighty years after its founding for the Academy to give more than lip service to the arts.

Robert Gard visits with farmers on May 9, 1955. Gard traveled across the state (note the Wisconsin Idea Theater logo painted on the side of his truck) to promote and cultivate the theatrical arts in rural communities. Gard was a well-known figure in Wisconsin through his travels as well as his WHA-Radio program, and later WHA-TV program, “Wisconsin Is My Doorstep.”  UW Digital Collections/ID S15183

Imagine a theater whose walls are the boundaries of the State of Wisconsin, whose stage is as large as all the stages in the state put together.

Contact Us
contact@wisconsinacademy.org

Follow Us
FacebookTwitterInstagram

Wisconsin Academy Offices 
1922 University Avenue
Madison, Wisconsin 53726
Phone: 608.733.6633

 

James Watrous Gallery 
3rd Floor, Overture Center for the Arts
201 State Street
Madison, WI 53703
Phone: 608.733.6633 x25