Agrace News: February 2023

Volunteers Needed in Dane County

Volunteers are needed to assist customers, operate the cash register and sort donations at the Agrace Thrift Store; pack donated items in donors’ homes for the thrift stores’ Donation Transportation Service; or provide companionship to clients at the Agrace Adult Day Center.

Agrace will host orientation for new volunteers Tuesday, March 28, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at its Madison campus. Pre-registration is required. To register, call (608) 327-7163 or visit Agrace.org/Volunteer and fill out an application.

Agrace Offers Opportunities for Grief Support in March

In March, Agrace is offering one-on-one grief support, and professionally led grief support groups to anyone, even if the person who died did not have hospice care.

• Journey Through Grief is a six-week grief support group series for adults. It meets Wednesdays, March 1 to April 5, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Agrace Grief Support Center in Fitchburg.

• Bridges is for adults grieving the death of any loved one. Meetings are held every other Wednesday and pre-registration is required. In March, in-person meetings are March 1 and 15, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Virtual meetings are March 8 and 22, from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.

There is no fee for these programs if a participant’s family member was in hospice care in the past 12 months; fees for others can be lowered or waived, if needed. Call (608) 327-7118 with questions, to register or make an appointment.

Agrace Adult Day Center Offers Daytime Care

Do you care for or know an older adult who cannot—or chooses not to—stay alone all day? The Agrace Adult Day Center in Madison gives seniors the reassurance and comfort of having others with them throughout the day. It’s especially helpful for people who have dementia or trouble with their memory, and can be a welcome break for family caregivers, too. Learn more at (608) 327-7303 or Agrace.org/AdultDayCenter.

Monona Terrace Call for Sculpture Artist Submissions

The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison, WI is soliciting submissions for its 2023 sculpture exhibition. We seek works that engage visitors and complement the organic architecture of Wright’s glass-centric façade.

The exhibition will include five sculptures from regional artists. The four sculptures chosen for the rooftop will be exhibited from May – October 2023. Selected rooftop artists will receive a $1,350 stipend for loaning their work for the exhibition. One sculpture will be chosen for the Olin Terrace and exhibited from May 2023 – April 2024. The Olin Terrace artist will a stipend of $2,400 for loaning their work.

• Sculptures will be located in high traffic public environment with unsupervised audiences and must be original, created within the past five years, appropriate for visitors of all ages, considerate of the safety of the audience.
• Soundly and professionally constructed of durable and safe components and require no maintenance during the display period.
• Suitable for outdoor display in adverse weather conditions.
• Meet the physical installation restrictions of the rooftop, including being under 200 pounds and able to be physically lifted into raised garden beds and attached to 48” diameter concrete pads.

Anticipated Timeline:

• Deadline for entries: March 1, 2023
• Artists notified: March 8, 2023 
• Sculpture Installation: May 1-4, 2023
• Opening Reception: Gallery Night, Friday, May 5, 2023
• Rooftop Sculpture Removal: November 1-3, 2023
• Olin Terrace Sculpture Removal: April 8-11, 2024

See past Art on the Rooftop exhibitions at https://www.mononaterrace.com/art-on-the-rooftop/. For full submission details see the Call for Artists PDF.

Contacts

• Kristen Durst, (608) 261- 4011, kdurst@mononaterrace.com
• Rosemary Bodolay, Art Industry, rosemary@artindustry.org

Division of the Arts Celebrates Artistic Achievement at UW–Madison with the 2023 Creative Arts Awards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Media contact: Kate Lochner, Marketing & Communications Manager, Division of the Arts, krlochner@wisc.edu

URL: go.wisc.edu/ArtsAwards

Read online: https://artsdivision.wisc.edu/2023/02/01/caa-recipients-2023/ 

Media: https://uwmadison.box.com/s/0v5o05xe6dn4juyj67uovyeqemvxfoh3 

Division of the Arts Celebrates Artistic Achievement at UW–Madison with the 2023 Creative Arts Awards

Madison, Wis. – The UW–Madison Division of the Arts announces the recipients of the 2023 Creative Arts Awards, who will be recognized at an award ceremony on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. These awards celebrate artistic achievement, recognize service to the arts and support arts research. Nine awards were open to a variety of arts practitioners, researchers, students, staff and faculty from any area including arts academic departments and programs. This includes Art, Art History, Arts Administration, Communication Arts, Creative Writing, Dance, Design Studies, Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies, Music and Theatre and Drama. Applications and nominations for these awards were juried by a panel of seven committee members including previous recipients of the awards and campus arts research administrators.

This year, the Division was able to provide two new awards for students. The Joan Spero and C. Michael Spero Graduate Student Award supports graduate students in developing arts programming and is presented in collaboration with the Chazen Museum of Art. The Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Arts Award supports undergraduate students working across disciplines to create work and/or to conduct scholarly research.

The Division encourages staff, faculty, students and community members to attend the ceremony this May at the Mitchell Theatre, Vilas Hall (821 University Avenue), which will feature student performances and showcase the arts on campus. The Division also thanks the donors who make the awards possible as well as members of the 2023 Creative Arts Awards Selection Committee, including Wei Dong (Design Studies), Daniel Grabois (Music), Florence Hsia (History), Baron Kelly (Theatre and Drama), Beth Nguyen (Creative Writing), Darcy Padilla (Art), Marlene Skog (Dance).

Additional information about the recipients may be found online.

Faculty Arts Research

Creative Arts Award

Douglas Rosenberg, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Art
Project title: “The Sea”

Emily Mead Baldwin Award in the Creative Arts
Finn Enke, Professor
Project title: “With Finn and Wing: Archive of an Amphibious Childhood in a Nuclear Age”

Mimmi Fulmer, Professor
Project title: Women’s voices then and now: at the center of Finnish music as artists, activists, and muses

Helen Lee, Associate Professor
Project title: “Present Tense: A Decade of UW Glass”

Staff and Faculty Arts Outreach

Joyce J. and Gerald A. Bartell Award in the Arts

Spatula&Barcode: Laurie Beth Clark, Professor, and Michael Peterson, Professor

Edna Wiechers Arts in Wisconsin Award
Michael Velliquette, Assistant Professor of Art Foundations
Project title: “Embodied Looking // Embodied Making”

Graduate Student Arts Research and Achievement

David and Edith Sinaiko Frank Graduate Fellowship for a Woman in the Arts
Sachie Ueshima, DMA student, Music Performance 
Project title: Last Letters Home: Voices of Japanese Soldiers in WWII

Lyman S.V. Judson and Ellen Mackechnie Judson Graduate Student Award in the Creative Arts
Trace Leighton Johnson, DMA student, Music Performance 
Ruth Llana, Ph.D. candidate, Spanish with a Minor in Transdisciplinary Study of Visual Culture
Matthew Francis Ludak, MFA student, Art
Orion Lee Risk, Ph.D. student, Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies 

Joan Spero and C. Michael Spero Graduate Student Award
James Carl Lagman Osorio, MM student, Piano and MA student, Historical Musicology
Project title: “Pagbabagong-anyo” (Transformation): Rediscovering Nicanor Abelardo’s “Violin Sonata”

Graduate Student Creative Arts Award
Sahada Jewel Buckley, MM student, Violin Performance & Trace Leighton Johnson, DMA student, Music Performance
Project title: Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival

Esther Jihye Cho, MFA student, Design Studies
Project title: “Silent Sufferings”

Ben Ferris, MM student, Music Performance
Project title: Roland Hanna Bass Concerto Project

Sophie Loubere, MFA student, Art
Project title: “Trespasses”

Praveen Maripelly, MFA student, Art
Project title: “Vasudaiva Kutumbham” (The World Is One Family)

Skyler Simpson, MFA student, Art
Project title: “Dream House”

Anamika Singh, MFA student, Art
Project title: “FIRE ON THE WATER”

Undergraduate Student Arts Research and Achievement

Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Arts Award

Maile Evelyn Llanos, Undergraduate, Art
Project title: Plants of Wisconsin 

Maia Therese Rauh, Undergraduate, Textiles and Fashion Design and Certificate in Studio Art
Project title: Exploring Structural Weavings Using Elastic Yarns

Katie Ryann, Undergraduate, Dance and Environmental Studies
Project title: The Renaissance Woman: THE BODY

Donors that support the awards include the Joyce J. and Gerald A. Bartell family, Suzanne and Roberto Freund, Bassett and Evjue Foundations, Edna Wiechers Arts in Wisconsin Fund, Emily Nissley and Joan Spero and C. Michael Spero.

###

Wisconsin Union Theater: Jazz Singer, Composer Cécile McLorin Salvant Will Showcase Rich Vocals and Stories During Feb. 7 Performance at Memorial Union

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 31, 2023

Contact Information:
Shauna Breneman, Communications Director
Email: sbreneman@wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-8862

DOWNLOAD PHOTOS: cecilemclorinsalvant.com/photos.

READ RELEASE ONLINE: union.wisc.edu/about/news/salvant.

JAZZ SINGER, COMPOSER CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT WILL SHOWCASE RICH VOCALS AND STORIES DURING FEB. 7 PERFORMANCE AT MEMORIAL UNION

MADISON – Three-time GRAMMY Award-winning composer, jazz singer and musical storyteller Cécile McLorin Salvant will blend sounds that reimagine the jazz genre when she performs at Shannon Hall in Memorial Union on Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m. CST. Salvant’s concert is part of the Wisconsin Union Theater’s 2022-23 Jazz Series.

Patrons can purchase in-person or virtual tickets to Salvant’s performance through the event webpage, by phone at (608) 265-2787, or at the Memorial Union Box Office. Wisconsin Union lifetime and annual members, patrons under the age of 18, and University of Wisconsin–Madison students, staff and faculty can purchase tickets at a discounted rate.

Salvant discovered her passion for music at a young age, beginning piano lessons at 5 years old, joining a children’s choir at the age of 8, and enrolling in classical voice training as a teenager. Since her early music education, she has shifted her focus from classical music to jazz and has established herself as one of the most highly acclaimed jazz singers of her generation.

Stylistic experimentation, heartfelt storytelling and velvety vocals characterize Salvant’s unique sound. Salvant considers herself an “eclectic curator,” as she draws connections between genres and time periods usually considered distinct, including vaudeville, blues, jazz, baroque and folkloric music.

Salvant’s repertoire contains new takes on jazz standards along with many original compositions. During her Feb. 7 concert, Salvant will perform a 90-minute set featuring songs from her 2022 album “Ghost Song,” which explores themes of love, loss and life, as well as selections from her previous discography. The New York Times recently named “Ghost Song” the Best Jazz Album of 2022.

Over the course of her extensive career, Salvant has received an array of prestigious awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship, the Doris Duke Artist Award, and GRAMMY Awards for best jazz vocal album.

“I have major respect for Cécile with her unapologetic rejection of jazz standards without alienating the traditional jazz audience,” Wisconsin Union Theater Director Elizabeth Snodgrass said. “She is remarkably talented and creative. Sometimes, the industry shapes the artist, but Cécile is one of those artists who is shaping the industry. I’m so glad we could have her back to the Wisconsin Union Theater.”

Remaining Wisconsin Union Theater 2022-23 season events include Pilobolus’s “Big Five-Oh!” on Feb. 1; Imani Winds on Feb. 5; Samara Joy on Feb. 16; Immanuel Wilkins on March 25; Anthony McGill with the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra on April 4; and the Danish String Quartet on April 18.

Click here for more information about the Feb. 7 performance by Salvant.

-###-

About the Wisconsin Union Theater

For more than 80 years, the Wisconsin Union Theater has served as a center for cultural activity in the heart of the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. The Theater hosts performances in multiple locations, including Memorial Union, and has an extensive history of remarkable performances. The Wisconsin Union Theater is committed to social justice and works to create an equitable, diverse, and inclusive place for all who engage with the Theater’s programming, events, and activities. The Wisconsin Union Theater is part of the Wisconsin Union, a membership organization that blends study and leisure to create unique out-of-classroom opportunities. Learn more: union.wisc.edu/wisconsin-union-theater.

About the Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee

The Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee is part of the Wisconsin Union’s leadership development program for UW–Madison students and supports the Wisconsin Union Theater’s mission of serving students through the performing arts. By helping to program the Theater’s annual season of performing arts presentations, the students learn about program curation, relationship-building, marketing, communications, budgeting, and production. Learn more: union.wisc.edu/get-involved/wud/performing-arts.

UW–Madison to host Porsha Olayiwola and Eve L. Ewing for Spring 2023 Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, January 26, 2023

Media Contact: aryn kresol, Arts Residency Programs Coordinator at UW–Madison Division of the Arts, akresol@wisc.edu

URL: artsresidency.wisc.edu

Link to media assets: https://uwmadison.box.com/s/j0964y9njsyyt2p3be0e3oucmyi3axv9 

Link to article: https://artsdivision.wisc.edu/2023/01/26/iarp-spring-2023/ 

UW–Madison to host Porsha Olayiwola and Eve L. Ewing for Spring 2023 Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program

Madison, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of the Arts and the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) welcome Porsha Olayiwola and Eve L. Ewing as the spring 2023 Interdisciplinary Artists-in-Residence. 

An academic year-long partnership between the Division of the Arts and OMAI, the collaboration presents a series of short-term residencies with interdisciplinary artists. Launching in October 2022 with artist-collaborators Jay Adana and Zeniba Now, each artist-in-residence in the series represents the three pillars of OMAI: academics, arts and activism. Each residency also includes presentations and conversations in partnership with arts departments on campus.

Writer, performer and playwright Porsha Olayiwola will be on campus February 24–March 4, 2023. Olayiwola’s residency will include participation as a performer in the annual “Moonshine – A Black History Month tradition” presented by the Dance Department, and a panelist at the Division of the Arts’ February Arts Together event on Friday, February 24. Olayiwola will also be interviewed on Badger Talks Live on Tuesday, February 28 and appear as the featured artist at OMAI’s Just Bust! Open Mic on Friday, March 3 and Workshop on Saturday, March 4.

Writer, scholar and cultural organizer Dr. Eve L. Ewing will be on campus March 29–April 1. As part of the residency, Ewing will be the featured performer at the annual Line Breaks Festival, and engage in public conversations with UW–Madison faculty.

Public Events: Porsha Olayiwola

Friday, February 24 | 3:30 p.m.

Moonshine – A Black History Month tradition

Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space, Lathrop Hall (1050 University Avenue)

“Moonshine” is a traditional performance gathering in celebration of Black History Month featuring dance, spoken word and experimental contemporary performance.

Friday, February 24 | time TBD

Arts Together with the Dance Department

Virginia Harrison Parlor, Lathrop Hall (1050 University Avenue)

Following “Moonshine – A Black History Month tradition,” join the Division of the Arts for Arts Together, a reception and panel discussion with Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Porsha Olayiwola and others. Arts Together events bring faculty and staff together to meet each other, share in collaborative ideas and explore opportunities for funding creative research as we celebrate the arts on campus.

Tuesday, February 28 | 12 p.m.

Badger Talks LIVE Quick Picks: The Impact of Interdisciplinary Arts

Live on Facebook

A short-form (15 min) virtual talk series featuring talent from the University of Wisconsin-Madison which brings exciting happenings, resources and talent to the people of Wisconsin and beyond. This Black History Month, the Division will highlight the various ways in which the arts create and activate spaces of belonging at UW–Madison, and in turn, improve individual wellbeing through conversations with arts faculty and staff, guest artists, and students. In this talk, learn about the Arts Residency Programs and the impact of interdisciplinary arts at UW–Madison through a conversation with Black, queer performing artist Shasparay Irvin and Black writer, performer, playwright and current Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Porsha Olayiwola.

Friday, March 3 | 8–10 p.m.

Just Bust! Open Mic

Wisconsin Historical Society (816 State Street)

Madison’s long-running, all-ages open mic, Just Bust! Open Mic, includes community performances, First Wave and alumni spotlight performance and a performance by Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Porsha Olayiwola. Interested in performing during the open mic portion of the event? Sign up (in-person) begins at 8 p.m. and goes on throughout the night until all slots are filled. Make sure to arrive early to guarantee a spot in the lineup! Free, all ages and open to the public.

Saturday, March 4 | 1–3 p.m.

Just Bust! Workshop

The Bubbler at Madison Public Library (201 W. Mifflin Street)

An artistic workshop led by Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Porsha Olayiwola. 

About the Artists

Porsha Olayiwola is a native of Chicago who writes, lives and loves in Boston. Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses Afrofuturism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman and queer diasporas. She is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the founder of the Roxbury Poetry Festival. Olayiwola is Brown University’s 2019 Heimark Artist-In-Residence as well as the 2021 Artist-in-Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She is a 2020 Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. Olayiwola earned her MFA in poetry from Emerson College and is the author of “i shimmer sometimes, too.” Olayiwola is the current Poet Laureate for the city of Boston. Her work can be found in or forthcoming from with “TriQuarterly Magazine,” “Black Warrior Review,” “The Boston Globe,” “Essence Magazine,” Redivider, The Academy of American Poets, Netflix, Wildness Press, The Museum of Fine Arts and elsewhere.

Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a Chicago-based sociologist of education. She is the award-winning author of four books, including a book for young readers, “Maya and the Robot;” the poetry collection “1919,” the nonfiction work “Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side” and her first book, the poetry collection “Electric Arches,” which was named one of the year’s best books by NPR and the “Chicago Tribune.” She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall, assistant professor of English at UW–Madison) of the play “No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks.” She also wrote the Ironheart series and the Champions series for Marvel Comics. Ewing is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.

About the Presenters

The Division of the Arts’ Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program (IARP), originated through the Cluster Hiring Initiative of the Office of the Provost, brings innovative, world-class artists to the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. Since 1999, the program has hosted over 40 residencies involving more than 100 guest artists from 20 different countries, engaging over 60 university units and community organizations. 

All residencies center interdisciplinary arts, recognizing that interdisciplinarity can break down barriers and silos, advance intellectual artistic diversity and give opportunities to people who do not fit into the traditional modes of inquiry and practice (see the Division of the Arts’ guiding principle of The Arts for Everyone, Everywhere). The program often brings together artists, faculty, staff and students from various disciplines across the arts, sciences and humanities. Integrated with curricular activities, all arts residencies in this program are proposed by academic departments or officially recognized interdepartmental programs, centers or institutes at UW–Madison.

While in residence, artists teach interdisciplinary workshops and participate in public programming with campus and Madison communities. The program provides students with extended learning experiences with a working artist, including options to earn course credit; increases diversity of teaching staff on campus; and strengthens programmatic ties among individual departments, programs and other campus and community arts entities.

The Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) within the Division of Diversity, Equity, & Educational Achievement provides culturally relevant and transformative arts programming to promote positive social dialogue and to give cultural art forms a legitimate academic forum. By harnessing the broad cultural influence of spoken word, hip hop and emerging as well as traditional art forms, OMAI’s events and programming create learning environments that directly affect UW–Madison’s campus climate, improving retention and graduation success, preparing future leaders to reinvest in their communities. By continually refreshing this paradigm that integrates traditional academics and cutting edge arts activism, OMAI empowers transnational leaders with new tools for inclusive community building.

One of OMAI’s most prominent initiatives is the First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Learning Community, a cutting-edge multicultural artistic program for incoming students which offers a four-year full tuition scholarship to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Bringing together young artists and leaders from across the United States and beyond, the First Wave Learning Community offers students the opportunity to live, study and create together in a close-knit, dynamic campus community. First Wave is the first university program in the country centered on urban arts, spoken word and hip-hop culture.

###