Arts & Culture
Wisconsin appreciates the arts—film, music, dance, writing, and the visual arts. You’ll find it all on campus, every day. We have ten museums and galleries, five theaters, and five concert halls. There are more than 1,500 performing arts events on campus each year. Artists, speakers, politicians, and writers regularly visit the university. The city of Madison supplements the campus art offerings with a variety of events and venues, most notably the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and the Overture Center.
Arts Night Out!
Arts Night Out! is a campus arts festival for students, and especially those new to campus, as well as the general public. On a single weekend day and evening, this event samples the wide array of arts programming regularly offered by campus galleries, theaters, and music and arts groups. Join us on Saturday, October 13, for this year’s Arts Night Out!
Chazen Museum of Art
The Chazen Museum of Art is first and foremost an educational resource for UW–Madison students and faculty. The museum actively cooperates with academic departments and faculty members to integrate its collections, exhibitions, and programs with their curricula. The museum has 26,000 square feet of exhibition space dedicated to the exhibition of its permanent collection, which includes American and European paintings, sculpture, drawings and watercolors, prints, applied and decorative arts, and over 300 photographs postdating World War II.
Cinematheque
The Cinematheque is a coalition of UW–Madison academic departments and student film groups dedicated to showcasing films that would otherwise never reach Madison screens. Every Friday and Saturday night during fall and spring, the Cinematheque screens films for free in one of the finest projection facilities in Wisconsin. It regularly showcases archival and other rare prints from around the world.
Dance Program
The UW–Madison dance program is a leader and innovator in the field of dance and takes the concept of the “thinking dancer” into the twenty-first century. In the Spring of 2009, the program held in its Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space events as diverse as a Spring Student Concert choreographed by undergraduates, a Spring Program Concert choreographed by guest artist in residence Scott Wells, and an evening of solo works performed by Li Chiao-Ping. You can visit the program’s current calendar here.
School of Music
The UW–Madison School of Music is the home to a comprehensive selection of performance ensembles, bands, and programs such as the Black Music Ensemble, Concert Band, Concert Choir, Javanese Gamelan Ensemble, Marching Band/Varsity Band, Symphony Orchestra, University Opera, and Wind Ensemble, just to name a few. Many of these ensembles and bands are open to nonmajors as well as majors and host numerous on-campus performances.
University Theatre
The University Theatre presents stimulating theatre for audiences of all types and ages. The Theatre produces plays from ancient to modern times and integrates them into the academic curriculum. It also provides laboratory opportunities for student and faculty actors, designers, directors, and technicians.
Wisconsin Film Festival
Presented by the UW Arts Institute, this four-day festival features more than 150 films. Tickets cost $4 and give students the opportunity to experience new American independent and world cinema premieres.
Wisconsin Union Theater
The Wisconsin Union Theater is Madison’s historic hall located on Lake Mendota, right next to the Memorial Union’s famed Terrace. The greats have been playing and speaking here since 1939, and in the 21st century, the Union Theater hosts a diverse set of events that change yearly. The 2009–10 program includes a concert series, world music and dance, the Isthmus Jazz series, films, and special events.
