Series Events | Series Sponsors
Home is a simple word, but the experience of finding home is personal, complex, and always evolving.
From fall 2025 and continuing statewide through the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary in July 2026, the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters invites people across Wisconsin to explore what it means to find home through the lenses of science, arts, history, literature, and civil discourse.
In every region of the state, people shape their sense of home through cultural expression, ecological knowledge, and community care. Many are also noticing changes in the places they know best, from shifting seasons to new pressures on land, housing, and water. Finding Home programs explore how people respond with creativity, stewardship, and resilience.
At its core, Finding Home brings people with different perspectives together with the goal of deepening understanding and identifying shared values and common ground. Through public programs, exhibitions, workshops, publications, and local partnerships, Finding Home invites reflection and participation. All events are open to the public, with hybrid and virtual options available.
Series Events
Weeds Walk with Jill Sebastian
Wednesday, September 10, 2025, James Watrous Gallery, Overture Center for the Arts, Madison
A guided neighborhood walk with artist Jill Sebastian using GPS to map, document, and gather samples of plants volunteering in the urban landscape. Following the walk, participants returned to the gallery to research the history and usage of these plants and use drawing and creative writing to respond to the experience.
Finding Home through Climate Success Stories: meeting with WICAN
Monday, October 6 - Tuesday, October 7, 2025, Stevens Point
WICAN s annual in-person, statewide gathering lifted up progress, identified opportunities, and recognized challenges in climate action, deepened connections and facilitated collaboration among Navigators, and accelerated climate action work by Navigator organizations. The Academy organized an evening activity to identify and gather climate success stories from around the state from the WICAN network to share with others.
A Storytelling Experience: Sharing Reflections on Land, Migration, Labor, and Memory
Tuesday, October 14, 2025, 5:30-7:30 pm, Catholic Multicultural Center, 1862 Beld St., Madison
A partnership with Wormfarm Institute, Puentes/Bridges, and Dane Arts
Join Wormfarm Institute and artist Maria Patricia Tinajero for an evening of storytelling, art, and reflection. This workshop grows out of Tinajero's recent project Historias en movimento / Stories in Motion: Walking + Talking, which invites people to share their experiences of the land, migration, labor, and memory. Tinajero will read from a newly published zine that shares stories gathered through this project, after which she will open space for conversation and shared reflection through writing and drawing. This is not about polished art or perfect words. It is about sharing what matters, listening deeply, and creating together. Whether you come to read, to write, to draw, or just to listen, your presence is part of our story.
Fuerza: Women's Stories of Strength and Sacrifice from Rural Mexico to the Midwest
October 14 - November 4, 2025, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Eau Claire
A partnership between the UW-Eau Claire History Department, Wisconsin Latinx History Collective, and Puentes/Bridges
This mobile exhibition tells the story of women who remain in rural Mexico when their loved ones come to the U.S. to work on dairy farms in western Wisconsin and southwestern Minnesota. The exhibition gives a view of immigration on both sides of the border and focuses on our shared human experiences of struggle, strength, survival, and love.
Seventh Generation Wisdom: Finding Home in Indigenous Ethics
Saturday, October 18, 2025, Milwaukee Public Library, Milwaukee
As part of the Finding Home series, the Wisconsin Academy is proud to partner with the Milwaukee Public Library to present a special event with Dr. Patty Loew (Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe), acclaimed author, journalist, and scholar of Indigenous studies and environmental justice.
Held in celebration of the paperback release of Seventh Generation Earth Ethics: Native Voices of Wisconsin, this event highlights the deep ties between ecological knowledge, cultural values, and place. The book features twelve Indigenous leaders one from each of Wisconsin s Native Nations whose stories illuminate pathways of sustainability, stewardship, and resilience rooted in long-standing traditions.
What's Happening with Housing?: Causes, Impacts and Solutions to Dane County's Housing Crisis
Thursday, October 23, 2025, Middleton Public Library, Middleton
Most people in our community know that we've got a housing problem. Prices are up, options are limited and solutions seem hard to come by. But trying to make sense of it all can feel overwhelming. Why has housing gotten so challenging here? How do these challenges play out in the lives of people in our community? And what can we do about it?
In partnership with WayForward Resources and the Middleton Public Library, the Academy presents a community dialogue. Join local leaders and experts as they dive into this complex issue. Learn about the causes of the housing crisis, what the impacts really look like, and how we can come together as a community to address the problem. Jocelyne Sansing, Middleton Library Director, will facilitate a panel of guests including Daphne Xu, City and Zoning Administrator from the City of Middleton, Taylor Rozman, Housing Stability Director at WayForward Resources, Amy Poole, Families in Transition Coordinator with the Middleton Cross Plains Area School District and Nicole Solheim, Senior Vice President, Development for Cinnaire Solutions.
The Home of Joy: Exhibition of Añamarié America Edwards
October 31 - January 11, 2026, James Watrous Gallery, Madison
Throughout a series of works, Edwards highlights joy not only as a source of healing, but as an act of resilience. For Black and Brown communities, cultivating joy is a way of resisting erasure, reclaiming space, and affirming life in the face of struggle. This exhibition positions joy as a radical practice as well — one that carries memory, strengthens connection, and opens pathways for collective future-making.
Homecoming: Exhibition of Warren King
October 31 - January 11, 2026, James Watrous Gallery, Madison
This exhibition explores King’s family origins in Shaoxing, China, their journey to the suburbs of Wisconsin, and how to understand this in light of his own Western upbringing. King’s sculptures often combine thematic and aesthetic elements from Chinese and Western traditions, masterfully working cardboard into life-size figures and wall pieces that recall traditional lacquerware and woodcarving.
The Edmund Fitzgerald and the Meaning of Home in the Great Lakes
Saturday, November 15, 2025, Milwaukee
Marking the 50th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, this special program—presented in partnership with the Milwaukee Public Library—explored how collective loss and regional identity shape our understanding of home. Dr. Steve Ackerman, Wisconsin Academy Fellow and atmospheric scientist, guided attendees through the weather science, ship design, and cultural legacy behind one of the Great Lakes’ most enduring maritime stories.
Rooted in both science and storytelling, the event considered how the Great Lakes have shaped our sense of place and belonging—and how vulnerability to environmental forces continues to connect us across time and region.
An Evening with Mike Taylor: In conversation with Adam Carr
Friday, November 21, 2025, Near West Side Partners, Milwaukee
Join us for a deeper conversation with Mike Taylor, our cover story on the fall issue of Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine. Taylor will be talking with writer and friend, Adam Carr, about his vision for the next chapters of his career and hometown. Come and hear from the basketball star and community advocate about what inspires him today and how he finds a sense of home in Milwaukee.
A limited number of free issues of Wisconsin People & Ideas magazines will be available to attendees. Additionally, photos from artist and photographer Nicole Acosta will be on display, including outtakes from Acosta’s sessions with Taylor.
Poetry & Pi(e): A Taste of Home
Monday, March 14, 2024, 4:00-6:00 PM, L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Eau Claire.
A night of poetry and pie in partnership with Chippewa Valley Writers Guild, and the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, featuring Former Wisconsin Poet Laureate; Max Garland, Wausau's outgoing Poet Laureate; Tiffany Rodriguez-Lee and Eau Claire local poet; Meghan Bennett.
Finding Home Among the Stars
Thursday March 19, 2026 at 6:30pm at Mead Public Library, Sheboygan
The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, in partnership with the Mead Public Library, invites the public to a hybrid in-person and online program exploring how people across cultures have looked to the stars for direction, meaning, and a sense of home. The evening will feature Travis Novitsky, an Anishinaabe photographer and night-sky advocate from the Grand Portage Nation, alongside Robert Mathieu, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a Wisconsin Academy Fellow. Through story, imagery, and science, Novitsky and Mathieu will explore how Indigenous star knowledge and modern astronomy have shaped human movement and a sense of belonging across time.
Finding Home in Wisconsin: Perspectives from Academy Fellows
Monday, March 23, 2026 at 6:30pm at Monona Terrace, Lecture Hall
The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters will celebrate and announce the newly nominated class of Academy Fellows, at a special public event. This inaugural announcement event is a complement to the Fellows Induction Gala in Fall 2026. This extraordinary evening will feature a distinguished panel of Fellows, John Gurda, Richard J. Davidson, Katherine Cramer, and Karen Ann Hoffman—each sharing a singular perspective from history, neuroscience, political science, and the arts and moderated by Steve Paulson.
Science + Literature: The Science of Hope
Thursday, April 9, 2026 at 7:00pm at Madison Central Library, Madison
Presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation, Wisconsin Book Festival, and Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
As part of the Finding Home series, author Kimberly Blaeser will be in conversation with Sean Hill. Free copies of Blaeser's award-winning book of poetry, Ancient Light, will be given to attendees with a book signing following the program.
Growing New Roots: Women Writing About Home and Belonging
Sunday, April 19, 2026 at 2:00pm at Middleton Public Library, Middleton
Home is a concept that has particular associations for women. Join University of Wisconsin Press authors Alison Townsend and Catherine Jagoe for a discussion of rootlessness, connection, gender, and the natural world in their writing and placemaking. Townsend’s memoir The Green Hour: A Natural History of Home explores the role of motherloss and multiple uprootings before moving to Wisconsin, while Jagoe’s Unbelonging: A Life in Search of Home examines belonging as an immigrant and translator. The conversation will be moderated by Jessica Becker, editor of Wisconsin People & Ideas, and both writers will read short excerpts from their memoirs, followed by the opportunity to ask questions and consider personal memories and experiences of home.
Joy Harjo: Inhabiting Home on Earth
Wednesday May 20, 2026 & Thursday May 21, 2026
As part of our Finding Home series, the Wisconsin Academy presents two signature events featuring acclaimed poet, musician, and former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. Through poetry and conversation, Harjo will illuminate the layered meanings of home, drawing on themes of land, memory, ancestry, and healing. Join us on May 20th in Milwaukee or May 21st in Madison as we explore what it means to belong to a place, a people, a history, and a future. Registration open soon.
SPONSOR THE SERIES
If you'd like to support this series financially, please contact Executive Director, Erika Monroe-Kane.
Boldt Family Fund, Inc.
Angela Trudell Vasquez, Madison Poet Laureate 2020-2024
