Learning about the state we serve
Dispatches from Our Own Wisconsin: A profile series showcasing fresh stories and insight from our Wisconsin Idea Seminar partners facing, engaging, and addressing critical issues in their communities As our Wisconsin Idea Seminar team works remotely during Wisconsin’s ‘Safer at Home’ order, we are seeing how Wisconsinites across the state are showing remarkable resilience …
Mitch Breunig, third-generation farmer at Mystic Valley Dairy in Sauk City, and Kent Weigel, livestock geneticist and chair of UW–Madison’s dairy science department, passionately explained some current struggles associated with dairy farming in a recent article for Wisconsin State Farmer. Breunig welcomed the Wisconsin Idea Seminar to his 400-cow operation in 2018, where Weigel helped …
As an American Indian curriculum consultant at UW–Madison’s School of Education, Omar Poler helps integrate concepts of Native history, culture and tribal sovereignty into the curriculum. Poler is a member of the Mole Lake Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and leverages his training in library science to support tribal archivists across Wisconsin. Most recently he …
Mitch Breunig, third-generation farmer and UW–Madison alumnus, was elected as chair of the Dairy Innovation Hub advisory council. In this new position, Breunig will work to assemble the council, set agendas, and provide guidance to the Dairy Innovation Hub’s faculty director: UW–Madison dairy scientist and WIS’13 alumna Heather White. In 2018, the Wisconsin Idea Seminar visited …
Beginning on February 1 and extending until May 10, the Faculty Exhibition 2020 will be on display in the Pleasant T. Rowland Galleries and throughout the Chazen Art Museum. Wisconsin Idea Seminar participant Tomiko Jones (WIS ’19) is showing three tricolor gum prints over cyanotype, inspired by a collection of Japanese ukiyo-e prints in the Van …
Sarah Bartlett, Water Resources Specialist at NEW Water — a water resource utility serving Northeast Wisconsin that cleans 38 million gallons of clean water per day — is collaborating with the Wisconsin Idea Seminar to bring the 2020 Bay Tour to Green Bay. Bartlett received her B.S. from UW–Madison, her M.S. from UW-Milwaukee, and her …
Titus Seilheimer, Fisheries Specialist at the Wisconsin Sea Grant, is collaborating with the Wisconsin Idea Seminar to bring the 2020 Bay Tour to Two Rivers, Wisconsin, where participants will learn about commercial fishing operations. Seilheimer received his B.A. from Lawrence University and his Ph.D. from McMaster University. In this interview, Seilheimer discusses non-native species in …
Marianne Fairbanks, textile artist and assistant professor of Design Studies, recently launched a new weaving loom in response to a previous social practice project. Her new hand-held looms work to extend access to weaving so that new ideas can be explored in relation to textiles, community, and making. Fairbanks teaches a weaving course, where students …
Tomiko Jones, assistant art professor at UW–Madison and 2019 Wisconsin Idea Seminar participant, recently received a Seed Grant Award for the Arts. Titled “These Grand Places”, the photography-based narrative communicates a socially engaged public land project. Jones’s project documents the lived experience and connections between land and people, working with experts across the nation. Two …
Water@UW–Madison hosts an annual photo contest, accepting submissions for both artistic photos and pet photos. This year, the top 3 images in the artistic category were won by 2019 WIS participant Christian Andresen and WIS intern Bethany Prochnow. In first place was Andresen’s “Wisconsin Veins”, followed by Prochnow’s second-place “Trout Lake Sunset”, and Andresen’s “Arctic …