By Kari Dickinson As the Dance Department celebrates its centennial, it is also looking to the future with the launch of a new Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Dance program. The first students will arrive in fall 2026. This fully funded, two-year degree gives outstanding artists opportunities to push the boundaries of their creative …
By Maggie Ginsberg, Division of the Arts Last summer, during the first week of the Madison Metropolitan School District’s Summer Arts Academy, the gymnasium inside Thoreau Elementary School was crawling with restless second graders. They were hot, distracted, and a little shy. “Let’s form a circle,” said lead teaching artist Abbey Brooks, who wore a …
By Kari Dickinson More than 100 years ago, Margaret H’Doubler taught the first dance courses on the UW–Madison campus. At the time, the idea that dance was suitable for academic study was nothing short of radical. From those first improvisational classes in 1917 grew the nation’s first dance major, formally approved on June 8, 1926. …
By Karen Rivedal, Office of Research and Scholarship As multilingual learners make up a growing share of U.S. classrooms, educators face increasing pressure to support students who are learning academic content and the language of instruction at the same time. In response, a recent working paper from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER), part …
DATE: Sept. 17, 2025 TIME: 10:24 a.m. PLACE: Humanities Building Meri Lau leads a workshop on developing elementary art curricula with UW–Madison art education majors. Lau — a recently retired art teacher from the Madison Metropolitan School District and longtime cooperating teacher — focuses on unit planning, sharing three lessons she designed around the theme “Dogs in Art.” …
I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on the impact of our School. Attempting to wrap my mind around the enormity of the past, present, and future work of our community and all of the lives it touches is humbling, to say the least. We are artists, educators, and health care providers in many forms and, …
Lead the Way Brenna says she was 3 years old when she first knew about her autism. “I’ve lived it,” she said. “This program helped me feel confident in it.” Now 20 years old, Brenna was one of 25 young people who attended the Wisconsin Youth Leadership Forum (YLF), a six-day program in July that …
By Hannah Haynes, WIDA Communications Jenni Torres has built her life on a simple but powerful belief: Language is a bridge. As the new executive director of WIDA, she brings that conviction to the forefront of a national and global effort to engage, equip, and inspire the educators who impact the lives of multilingual learners. …
By Sarah Fuelleman Norm and Barbara Berven are proud of UW–Madison and its School of Education. Barbara’s eyes shine when she talks about the School’s No. 1 rankings from U.S. News and World Report — its overall standing as the top school of education in the nation and its No. 1 graduate program in rehabilitation …
School of Education faculty member Colleen Conroy, an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Drama, is among 13 UW–Madison faculty members selected this year as recipients for Distinguished Teaching Awards, an honor established in 1953 to recognize some of the university’s finest educators. Conroy is being honored with the Chancellor’s Inclusive Excellence Teaching …