(L to R) Jill Deupi, executive director of the Lowe Art Museum and artist Petah Coyne

Petah Coyne explains her 20234–2024 work Untitled #1563 (Zora Neale Hurston).

Untitled #1408 (The Lost Landscape), 2015–2018, left, and Untitled #1379 (The Doctor’s Wife), 1997–2018, right, frame the artist Petah Coyne at the Lowe’s gala opening reception.

Museum visitors check out the catalogue for Petah Coyne: How Much A Heart Can Hold, published by the Chazen Museum of Art.

Petah Coyne (with microphone) discusses her work Untitled #1379 (The Doctor’s Wife), 1997–2018. All photos courtesy the Lowe Art Museum.

Petah Coyne, left, and Untitled #1378 (Zelda Fitzgerald), 1997–2013.

Artist Petah Coyne tells stories about her sculpture Untitled #720 (Eguchi’s Ghost) 1992/2007.

The post <em>Petah Coyne: How Much A Heart Can Hold</em> Opens in Miami appeared first on Chazen Museum of Art.

Every fall, the Chazen Museum of Art employs graduate students in key roles that support the museum’s mission of connecting people and art through teaching, research, and community programming.

For the 2025–26 academic year, three talented scholars—Tarah Connolly, Richard Ellis, and Xiaoyan Jiang—have come to the Chazen as a public engagement fellow and project assistants. Their work ranges from developing digital resources and gallery interpretation to facilitating class visits and contributing to curatorial projects. With backgrounds in education, art history, and interdisciplinary museum practice, they add to the richness and quality of the Chazen’s work while gaining hands-on experience that will shape their future.

“The work of our project assistants and engagement fellow is so important to the Chazen’s mission,” said Chief Engagement Officer Berit Ness. “They not only strengthen our capacity to serve students, faculty, and the public, but also enrich our team with fresh ideas, research expertise, and a spirit of curiosity.”

Tarah Connolly

Tarah Connolly

A third-year PhD candidate in curriculum and instruction in the School of Education, Tarah Connolly is beginning her dissertation on museum education, with a particular focus on children’s museums and  their role in broader educational ecosystems.

At the Chazen, Connolly will work with Ness in supporting efforts to design interactive spaces in the soon-to-be reinstalled collection galleries, as well as develop new guides to support the overall visitor experience.

This work expands her experience beyond children’s museums and science centers into the world of art museums. “I see myself pursuing a variety of career paths related to museum education, but I value being at the intersection of research and practice. An academic museum is the right place to explore that,” she says.

Connolly is especially excited to test new strategies for playful, hands-on engagement. “I’m looking forward to prototyping ideas with visitors and developing ways to spark curiosity in the niches, hallways, and mezzanines of the museum.”

Her position is co-supported by UW–Madison’s Center for the Humanities.

Richard Ellis

Richard Ellis

As an academic engagement project assistant, Richard Ellis will collaborate with Ness and Academic Coordinator Mieke Miller to support university class visits to the museum’s galleries and study rooms. Using methods in object-centered learning, he will focus on collaborating with instructors to develop class visits tailored to the goals of an individual class.

Ellis is a second-year PhD candidate in art history whose research interests include Islamic art and architecture, Persian manuscripts, and contemporary and modern art from the Middle East. This position is a direct bridge to his long-term aspirations. “This role provides me with hands-on experience leading educational programming that is integral to the mission of the Chazen, and it directly relates to my career goals of becoming both a museum professional and an educator,” he says.

Ellis is eager to work across disciplines: “I’m really looking forward to collaborating with students and instructors from other fields to discover new ways of engaging with objects in the museum’s collection.”

Xiaoyan Jiang

Xiaoyan Jiang

Now entering her third year of a PhD program in art history, Xiaoyan Jiang’s research interests include twentieth-century European visual culture, with a focus on German modernism and its circulation through migration and diaspora.

At the Chazen, Jiang will work with Chief Curator Katherine Alcauskas, Van Vleck Curator of Works on Paper James Wehn, and Permanent Collection Reinstallation Project Associate Janine Yorimoto Boldt to support the reinstallation of the Chazen’s permanent collection galleries. She will research artworks and collaborate with curators to shape gallery projects and assist Chazen curatorial staff in organizing scholarly bibliographies for each gallery, which will later be made available to faculty and instructors.

“We’re thrilled to have Xiaoyan return for a second year as a project assistant,” said Alcauskas. “With her knowledge of German, Chinese, and Russian, Xiaoyan has made invaluable contributions to our understanding of the artworks in our collection and their interpretation.”

Jiang said her role at the Chazen strengthens her ability to bridge scholarship with exhibition development—skills that are increasingly valuable for careers integrating teaching, research, and curatorial practice.

For Jiang, the year ahead holds dual promise: advancing dissertation research while contributing to the reimagining of the Chazen’s permanent collection. “This work allows me to engage with a wide range of objects and narratives, expanding both my scholarly perspective and the scope of my research.”

The post Welcoming the Chazen’s 2025–26 Engagement Fellow and Project Assistants appeared first on Chazen Museum of Art.

We join the scores of art organizations, artists, and—we’re sure—everyone who knew Anwar Floyd-Pruitt in mourning his recent death. Chazen staff met Floyd-Pruitt as the 2020 winner of the Russell and Paula Panczenko MFA Prize during the Covid pandemic, which necessitated postponing his exhibition. Floyd-Pruitt went above and beyond to bring his art to the audience anyway, hosting “Family Friday,” and “Our Kind of Happy Hour,” online.

We’d like to share remembrances from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee Magazine, the Museum of Wisconsin Art, and Saint Kate-The Arts Hotel about Anwar Floyd-Pruitt, a beloved artist and community member.

The post Anwar Floyd-Pruitt appeared first on Chazen Museum of Art.

Jeannette K. Goldenson, the namesake of the museum’s student programming.

Born October 5, 1907, in Chicago, Goldenson lived her entire life in the city but formed a deep connection to Wisconsin through her brother’s farm in Cambridge, where she created much of her artwork. As her granddaughter, Karen Ver Voort, shares, the farm was “her rural happy place.”

A watercolorist who began painting in her fifties, Goldenson created award-winning works—many inspired by Cambridge—that remain cherished by her family. But her talents stretched far beyond painting. She was a musician and also wrote poetry. Before turning to visual art, Goldenson was a professional dancer in Chicago and even, in a now-rare performance art, a professional whistler.

Her curiosity and courage were lifelong. In the 1950s, she took an unconventional path at the time, leaving Chicago for a semester at the University of Colorado in her late 40s Reflecting on her grandmother’s legacy, Ver Voort recalls, “She taught us all not to be afraid.”

Though not a teacher by profession, Goldenson shared what she learned with others, encouraging them to embrace new experiences. “She would have absolutely loved making a museum feel welcoming to everyone, even people who maybe at some point thought museums are for other people,” said Ver Voort. “If anything, she lived with joy in the world, joy and connectedness.”

Jessie, a Maltese-mix dog with Dogs on Call gets pets from student Grace Ruo during Study Day at the Chazen Museum of Art (Photo by Althea Dotzour / UW–Madison)

The family’s decision to honor their matriarch through student-centered programming at the Chazen came naturally. Ver Voort and her husband are UW–Madison alumni, as is one of their children, and the Cambridge connection made the museum a fitting partner. “We thought, you know, what would be a good way to honor her, that my mother would love? Things that welcome students from everywhere and every type of background—I think she would have adored it,” Ver Voort said.

For Berit Ness, the Chazen’s chief engagement officer, the initiative is a natural fit. “The Jeannette K. Goldenson Student Program Series will allow us to enhance our signature student events, like Back to School Bash and Study Day, while expanding and enriching other student offerings over the next several years,” Ness said. “It’s a meaningful way to connect students to the museum and to each other.”

Students enjoy arts and crafts at the Chazen’s annual Back to School Bash event.

Goldenson passed away on March 26, 1988, remaining, as Ver Voort recalls, “lucid and sharp and funny until the day she died.” Decades later, her family continues to feel connected to her through her art. “It’s like you’re looking through her eyes,” said Ver Voort. “This is a tribute to her—and that’s where we want the focus to be.”

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The Hollaenders later went on to leave more than 250 artworks, many from the CoBrA  group of Modernist artists, to the Elvehjem Museum of Art (now the Chazen).

“Ever since my schooling, I dreamed I would someday be in a position to do something like that,” said Moilanen, who went on to earn his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees at UW–Madison.

That day has arrived. The retired art education professor has donated a painting by Indian artist Jivya Soma Mashe to the Chazen. Mashe, who died in 2018, was an important artist who is credited with bringing the Warli tribal art form to global awareness.

Jivya Soma Mashe (Indian, 1934–2018), Untitled, ca. 2006, pigment and paint on cloth, 15 x 21 1/2 in., gift of Dr. Mark Moilanen, (University of Wisconsin–Madison, B.S., 1981; M.A., 1982; Ph.D. 1989), 2025.10.

Traditionally, Warli art was done by women. They painted symbolic, geometric designs on the reddish-brown clay walls of their huts with a white paste made from rice flour, documenting important events like harvests, weddings, and festivals as a ritual practice.

Mashe was born in 1934 in a coastal village in the west central Indian state of Maharashtra. It’s said that he lost his mother at age seven and became speechless, drawing figures in the dirt to communicate and refining his skills over the years. He recovered his speech and took up traditional painting as an artistic practice, eventually moving to acrylic paint as a medium. As an adult, he was discovered by Indian government officials looking to preserve traditional art forms. As his fame grew, he exhibited internationally, was praised by Indian prime ministers, and received a state funeral when he died.

Chazen Chief Curator Katherine Alcauskas said the Mashe painting will help bolster the museum’s holdings of South Asian artwork. “Our collection of Indian miniature painting is already a point of pride, but this gift introduces to the collection a vibrant painting tradition historically rooted in the region,” she said.

In 2006, the first US exhibition of Mashe’s art was held at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, where Moilanen was director of K-12 art education. For the exhibition, Moilanen produced a K-12 lesson plan on Warli art and distributed it to all the state’s schools. Part of the lesson plan encouraged teachers to send their students’ work to Moilanen, who then arranged their pieces in a huge spiral in the campus gallery, echoing an important symbol in Warli art. “It was wonderful!” he said.

Moilanen acquired a piece by Mashe, had it framed, and hung it on the wall in his home. Over time, though, he thought about the lessons learned in that museum training and connoisseurship class. “It made me appreciate the idea of not keeping art to oneself, but trying to have it reach its broadest audience possible,” he said. “To hold this great art piece solely for my own eyes, in my own apartment, is wrong.”

Moilanen says he’s just glad his career path allowed him to follow the Hollaenders’ example in some way. “Today, to have that happen, makes me very happy and extremely proud.”

The post Undergrad Experience Inspires Gift of Important Warli Artwork appeared first on Chazen Museum of Art.

MADISON, Wis. — Embark on an immersive creative journey that engages the senses and sparks the imagination with “Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within,” on view Sept. 8-Dec. 23 at the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW–Madison). The first retrospective of Takaezu’s work in 20 years, “Worlds Within” illuminates her hybrid practice with over 100 objects, encouraging visitors to immerse themselves in the beauty of her vibrantly glazed ceramic sculptures and her transportive weavings and paintings. Visitors will also be invited to listen and imagine what fills the space inside her signature closed ceramic vessels — a hidden world that held great importance for the artist.

“This chronological exhibition will acquaint visitors with the innovation and multisensory experience that marked Toshiko Takaezu’s groundbreaking practice,” said Amy Gilman, director of the Chazen Museum of Art and senior director for the arts and media at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “Historically, UW–Madison has been a hub for renowned artists who shared their expertise with aspiring artists. Takaezu Toshiko was among those instructors, teaching courses early in her career in the mid-1950s. Presenting the exhibition at the Chazen is especially significant given the artist’s connection to UW–Madison and the University’s continued commitment to the arts, and we look forward to celebrating her enduring legacy as both an artist and mentor.”

Toshiko Takaezu (1922-2011) is best known for creating expressively glazed “closed form” ceramic sculptures that ranged in scale from palm-sized works to immersive sculptural environments. Seeking to harness the expressive potential of both abstract painting and sculpture, Takaezu radically reimagined the vessel form as a pliable three-dimensional canvas and as site for limitless experimentation. Of Okinawan heritage and born in Hawai‘i, Takaezu’s phenomenal hybrid practice was informed both by her cross-cultural heritage and deep appreciation for the living environment.

The exhibition will include a vast collection of ceramic sculptures including her signature “closed forms,” Moons, Garden Seats, Trees and monumental pieces from her acclaimed “Star” series. Visitors will also see Takaezu’s rarely exhibited acrylic paintings and fiber works. Installations inspired by those Takaezu created during her lifetime — including a set table of functional wares from the early 1950s and an inviting constellation of enormous ceramic forms from the late 1990s to early 2000s — will transport visitors to the artist’s immersive worlds and offer a comprehensive look at Takaezu’s evolution. Sound will also play an important role in this exhibition as many of Takaezu’s closed ceramic forms contain unseen “rattles.” “Worlds Within” will give visitors a chance to explore these hidden soundscapes with videos developed by composer, sound artist and exhibition co-curator Leilehua Lanzilotti.

Takaezu’s journey into ceramics began in 1940 at a commercial studio in Honolulu. She honed her skills at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the University of Hawai‘i before furthering her studies at the prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Art. An eight-month trip to Japan in 1955 profoundly influenced her practice. In addition to working as an artist, Takaezu was a prolific instructor, teaching ceramics at several institutions including the University of Wisconsin–Madison.  In 1975, she established a live-in apprenticeship program in her Quakertown, New Jersey studio where she mentored students through lessons of technique and self-discovery. Today, her home still serves as a creative workspace for artists and students.

“Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within” is organized by The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, with assistance from the Toshiko Takaezu Foundation and the Takaezu family. The exhibition and its national tour have been made possible through lead support from the Henry Luce Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

At the Chazen Museum of Art, the exhibition is supported by the Anonymous Fund.

The exhibition is co-curated by Noguchi Museum Curator Kate Wiener, independent curator Glenn Adamson, and sound artist and composer Leilehua Lanzilotti. The exhibition was conceived and developed with former Noguchi Museum Senior Curator Dakin Hart.

Following the exhibition’s presentation at the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, “Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within” will travel to the Honolulu Museum of Art (Feb. 13-July 26, 2026). The exhibition tour also included The Noguchi Museum (March 20-July 28, 2024), Cranbrook Art Museum (Oct. 9, 2024-Jan. 12, 2025) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (March 2-May 18, 2025).

The post Retrospective Positions Toshiko Takaezu Among the 20th Century’s Most Innovative American Artists appeared first on Chazen Museum of Art.

“They basically said, ‘The Chazen wants to know more about who’s coming to events — and who’s not,’” Michalski recalled. “Who are they? Do they like the events? What do they want more of?”

These questions fueled Michalski’s yearlong project as part of UW–Madison’s accelerated master’s degree in arts and creative enterprise leadership. Run through the Bolz Center for Arts Administration, the program places students in embedded roles across Madison’s arts landscape. For Michalski, it meant diving headfirst into a complex audience data challenge.

Berit Ness, chief engagement officer at the Chazen, said Michalski’s placement was just the latest collaboration with Bolz Center students. Past projects have included student audience development and events programming connected to the Chazen Café. “The fresh perspectives and dedicated work of students like Anna bring inquiry and analysis that truly improves our understanding of our community,” she said.

Arts and numbers

Michalski’s twin interests in art history and analytics may seem uncommon, but it feels natural to her. “Honestly, I’ve always been kind of a nerd about tracking things,” she said. “Movies I’ve watched, books I’ve read — I like to analyze what I take in. People think that the arts and numbers don’t go together. I’ve tried really hard this year to make them go together,” she said.

Together, Michalski and Chazen staff members decided to focus on standardizing data collection, analyzing demographics and satisfaction of event attendees, and tracking event marketing efforts.

Michalski first conducted an audit of existing audience data collection—everything from event post-signup surveys to informal feedback—and found there were inconsistencies and gaps. “Something I was really big on was if we really want to know the answers to these questions, we need to ask them the same way, and we need to ask them for every event,” she said.

From there, Michalski spearheaded the implementation of post-event satisfaction surveys. “Everyone who registers for the event receives a follow-up email that links to a survey,” she explains. Keeping it short was key to maximizing responses. “We tried to keep it really brief, because we wanted as many people as possible to answer.” The response rate, with six hundred replies across the year’s events, provided a valuable snapshot of attendee experiences.

Bolz Center for Arts Administration graduate student Anna Michalski (left) surveys a gallery visitor as part of her year-long project studying audiences at the Chazen Museum of Art.

Face to face

Venturing beyond digital data, Michalski took to the museum floors, conducting in-person surveys. “I stood in the galleries, and interviewed every third visitor,” she noted, emphasizing the importance of mitigating bias. “If they said they hadn’t attended an event before and they lived in Madison, I asked why not, and it was really interesting,” she said. “I was surprised. The most common reason people gave is they don’t have anyone to go with and they’re afraid to go alone.” That social context helped the Chazen see its audiences through a more empathetic lens.

She also challenged assumptions about who was attending. “I assumed we’d see a ton of students,” she admitted. “But across most general events, the audience is really balanced, with many attendees from the broader Madison community.”

Tracking what works

Perhaps the most complex piece of her work focused on tracking marketing effectiveness. “We created individual links so we could tell who was clicking to register and if that was converting into any tickets sold,” she explained. This involved a deep dive into social media, QR codes, and website analytics. While the website appeared to be a significant driver, Michalski observed, “I think that’s because a lot of people probably see something on social media or see it a few times, they don’t click the link, but it’s in their head, and then they Google it and go to the website. It’s harder to track what led them to the website.”

Some findings were relatively predictable — Facebook remained a strong performer — while others surprised her. One event saw an unusual number of sign-ups through Threads, Meta’s fledgling social platform. “We were all like, ‘Who are these people on Threads? Why this event?’ ”

Takeaways

But the biggest takeaway wasn’t tied to any one platform. “You can’t really give one channel full credit,” Michalski said. “People might see a post on Instagram, think about it, then Google it days later and register on the website. That last click doesn’t tell the whole story.”

Looking ahead, Michalski sees a promising intersection of her art history training and analytical skills in the job market. “I think it is a thing that is not as popular in the arts yet,” she observes, particularly within smaller organizations. “They might feel like they don’t have the bandwidth to do that. So I really become interested in ways to make it automated, or semi-automated, so there’s very little upkeep after setting it up,” she said.

For the Chazen, Michalski’s yearlong data dive has provided more than just numbers. It has illuminated a clearer picture of its audiences, fostering a deeper understanding of who walks through its doors.

“Working with the Bolz Center and having Anna embedded in our team has been so helpful,” Ness said. “Her work helped us ask smarter questions, and she helped us build tools to start finding some answers.”

The post Decoding the Crowd: How One Graduate Student Helped the Chazen See Its Audience in a New Light appeared first on Chazen Museum of Art.

MADISON, Wis. — Grapple with the Caribbean’s complex contradictions and engage its diverse cultural matrix in “cuestiones caribeñas/caribbean matters: assemblage and sculpture by pablo delano.” The exhibition, on view Aug. 11-Nov. 30 at the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, considers contemporary Caribbean reality through the juxtaposition of appropriated photographic images, archival documents and found objects. With irony and wry humor, visual artist and photographer Pablo Delano (b. 1954 San Juan, Puerto Rico) subverts longstanding stereotypes and questions historical narratives while also affirming and celebrating the region’s global impact and resistance.

Colonialism and conquest shaped the Caribbean, creating ethnic diversity and social hierarchies. This historical impact is reflected in the archipelago’s distinct cultural and national identities but also in a common Caribbean ethos shared across the former and current Spanish, British, French, Dutch, Danish and U.S. territories. In his first solo exhibition since his participation in the 60th International Art Exhibition at the 2024 Venice Biennale, Delano ponders these Caribbean commonalities, critiquing past and current systems of oppression but also building solidarity rooted in shared histories.

Exhibition co-curators and UW–Madison faculty Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, assistant professor of history, and Aurora Santiago Ortiz, assistant professor of gender and women’s studies and Chicane/Latine studies, are confident “cuestiones caribeñas/caribbean matters” will spark dialogue across disciplines at UW–Madison, from art history and photography to anthropology and gender and women’s studies.

Pablo Delano, “la fuente – the source,” part of “cuestiones
caribeñas / caribbean matters”, 2025, proposed site-specific installation.
Courtesy of the artist.

“During this time, it is especially important to center and bring forth the narratives and experiences of migrants and underscore the significance of understanding history and knowing why we are where we are today. It is more important now than ever to recognize our past to critically think about our present and our future,” said Santiago Ortiz.

Delano, the Charles A. Dana professor of fine arts at Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut) and a co-founder of Trinity College’s Center for Caribbean Studies, conceptualizes “cuestiones caribeñas/caribbean matters” as a meditation on the Caribbean condition. The exhibition is informed by Delano’s childhood memories growing up in a tumultuous Cold War-era Puerto Rico; extensive travel and research in Trinidad and throughout the extended Caribbean; and his love of Caribbean literature, film and music. The exhibited works reference a range of themes including migration, tourism, labor, gender, race and debt.

“Caribbean history is global history. It is the place where the different empires merged, and it helped develop the global north. Having an exhibition that critically examines this without pushing a narrative allows people to create and develop their own interpretations of this fractured, complicated and complex past,” said Meléndez-Badillo.

Pablo Delano, “porto rican laundries” part of “cuestiones
caribeñas / caribbean matters”, 2025, proposed site-specific installation, dimensions variable.
Courtesy of the artist.

Meléndez-Badillo and Santiago Ortiz have been following Delano’s work for several years, notably “The Museum of the Old Colony.” The art installation examines the United States’ enduring influence and oppression in Puerto Rico through the creation of a performative, fictional “Museum” that includes reproductions of archival photos, original video pieces made from historic film footage as well as sculptural tableaus. Delano named the exhibition after Old Colony, a U.S.-brand soft drink popular in Puerto Rico since the 1950s. The sarcastic reference emphasizes Puerto Rico’s long and ongoing history of colonial rule — first under Spain and then under the United States. Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director of the 2024 Venice Biennale, saw an earlier version of “The Museum of the Old Colony” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Juan, resulting in the work’s inclusion in the Biennale, themed “Foreigners Everywhere.”

Delano learned photography from his father, renowned photographer Jack Delano. After attending Tyler School of Art at Temple University and Yale University, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in painting, Delano returned to photography. He photographed New York’s Caribbean communities of the Lower East Side and Washington Heights. Starting in the late 1990s, he spent a decade photographing in Trinidad and Tobago. There, his fascination with that nation’s process of post-colonial nation-building led to the production of his acclaimed black and white photo book “In Trinidad” (2008). He has been working conceptually, constructing installations and assemblages with appropriated imagery and objects for the last 10 years.

“‘cuestiones caribeñas/caribbean matters’ emphasizes the complexity of the Caribbean’s history,” said Meléndez-Badillo. “It is joyous, but it is also painful and personal.”

# # #

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Corpus: An Exhibition by Anamika Singh is on view in the Chazen’s Garfield Galleries through July 13.

In this interview, Singh shares the inspiration behind her exhibition, reflects on the experience of seeing it come to life, and discusses what she hopes audiences will take away. Portions of this article are drawn from a conversation with Blue Water Communications.

Tell us about the overall theme of Corpus.

While this work begins with familial histories, it really quickly unravels into looking at much vaster histories of the Indian subcontinent, specifically of North India, where I’m from, through the monumental life of my granduncle, who was Sheetla Singh, a prominent editor, journalist, and union leader in North India. I’ve really been able to explore the transformation of the region and the nation itself. But in short, the work really reckons with this continuity of violence that’s unfolding in many, many different forms.

This work centers on the 1992 destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, Faizabad. Can you explain its significance for those who are less familiar with the history of India?

The desecration of the Babri Mosque completely shifted the axis of not just Indian politics, but the greater subcontinent. This moment marked a rapid rise of the Hindu nationalist movement and the violence that unfolded afterward continues to deeply impact political and social relations. Within Uttar Pradesh now, numerous mosques are contested, with calls for archaeological surveys of them. This is a phenomenon that has grown out of the violence of 1992. These have been very tense situations, often resulting in state violence and communal violence, while these surveys are accompanied by the displacement and destruction of marginalized communities. Erasure in such political projects precedes the assertions and claims of a singular dominant history and identity, in this case of a modern Hindu nation-state.

How did you develop this body of work?

Corpus comes from over three years of artistic research, which included site visits and field research in India for several weeks at a time. That would usually involve interviews and visits to different places, and archival research at the newspaper. During this time, I was also filming Sheetla, an experimental film about my granduncle. So, the work has really come together through a lot of different methods, some of which are academic and ethnographic methods, but also at the same time just playing around and experimenting in the studio. It really brings together these two very different ways of making work, while at the same time thinking about the volatility of the material itself.

What will people see when they walk through?

This is an intermedia exhibition, so there’s installation, much of which is using concrete, stainless steel, and a lot of different materials. There’s photography in the show and also quite a bit of moving imagery, both projection and monitors. Visitors can interact with both the moving images from the documentary and from my field research, but also with the sculptures that were synthesized in my studio. One thing I’m really hoping is for visitors to really have a chance to sift through the debris. My work really looks at ideas of construction and destruction, and the tension between them.

What do you hope audiences will take away from the exhibition?

I would want for visitors to think critically about things like how value is assigned, be it to a body of knowledge or to an object, and to think about these hierarchies and things that cross geopolitical boundaries. I would also want them to question ideas of development and construction that are driving our current world, this rapid transformation and change of the landscape.

I think art has the power to generate both new language, to address our experiences of the world, and address really uneasy things, like legacies of violence. But I think it also has the power to really challenge dominating systems of knowledge. Especially in this context, I think about colonial violence. I think about nationalist violence. Art has the freedom of material form and process that other disciplines are constrained by, which really gives artists the tools to move beyond totalizing narratives.

What were some of the curatorial decisions made as Corpus was coming together in the galleries?

I wanted to take the audience through a journey I had taken myself as I returned to the Awadh and experienced it amongst massive transformation and increasing communal strife and tensions. So, the first gallery space which houses the large-scale installation, resurrected corpus; in the aftermaths of empire, is an ode to that. There are also several thresholds you cross in the space, such as The Gates, that invite you into the space but also the audio, designed by X Medianoche, which sits between the two galleries, permeating both. As visitors move from the first gallery into the second, I wanted to bring them into the space of offices and archives. In a way, I wanted them to experience the many modes in which power and subjugation manifests itself, to draw the parallels between physical erasure and the erasure of memory and knowledge.

How did it feel to walk through the exhibition for the first time?

It’s hard to describe. It’s incredibly moving. There is both a sense of relief in bringing the work to fruition, but in some sense a sadness as you depart with the work. Much of this work has lived in my studio and in some ways, I lived with them. So, your relationship with the work changes as you step back and experience it as the audience might. The conversation unfolding between the different media and materials in the space has been very generative for me. It affirms my affinity to keep working in this way.

The Panczenko Prize is offered by the Chazen and the UW–Madison Art Department with support from the Russell and Paula Panczenko Fund for Excellence in the Visual Arts.

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Visiting the Chazen’s galleries and study rooms, classes engaged with paintings, sculpture, and works on paper to explore subjects as diverse as nineteenth-century visual culture, environmental humanities, and world history. The impacts lasted well beyond a day’s visit to the museum.

Study room visits are “unfailingly inspiring, fun, and transformative for my students, and so powerfully shape the work we do together for the rest of the semester,” says Sarah Ensor, assistant professor in the English department.

Seeing Climate Change Through Art

In English/Environmental Studies 153: Introduction to Environmental Humanities, Ensor’s students considered how art, literature, and film can deepen understanding of environmental crises. One visit to the Chazen invited them to approach artworks as primary sources, documenting their observations and drawing connections to key course themes.

Jane Hammond (American, b. 1950, Atlas, 2022, digital inkjet print with rice paper, methyl cellulose, acrylic paint, modeling paste, peacock feathers, and archival foam core, Jade glue, and graphite, 9 3/4 x 9 3/4 in., gift of the Madison Print Club, Madison, Wisconsin, 2023.26.2

“In this most recent visit, I loved watching one of my students, an entomology major, spend forty minutes with a classmate looking at Jane Hammond’s 2022 work Atlas, which complexly plays on the image of a moth pinned behind glass,” Ensor said. “It was so inspiring to see her bring experiences from her other classes and labs to bear on this one, and to watch, too, as she let her own presumptions about her field be complicated as she saw it given back to her in new terms.

“Part of what I love about the Chazen is that it meets my students and me where we are—in our passions and interests and fields of knowledge and habits of attention—and then inspires us to make something new with, and of, them, by virtue of our conversations over these amazing works of art.”

Portraits of Power in Austen’s England

Dr. Amanda Shubert’s English 345: The Nineteenth-Century Novel brought students face-to-face with the visual culture of Jane Austen’s world. As the class read Pride and Prejudice, they visited the Chazen to study early nineteenth-century English watercolors, beginning with a slow-looking exercise that encouraged deep visual analysis.

John Scott (British, 1850–1918/1919), Woman Seated in an Interior, n.d., watercolor, 16 1/8 x 10 7/16 in., gift of James Jensen, 1994.82

John Rubens Smith (American, b. England, 1775–1849) Portrait of Joseph Ellis Bloomfield (1787–1872), ca. 1818, transparent and opaque watercolor on paper mounted on thick card, 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 in., gift of D. Frederick Baker from the Baker/Pisano Collection, 2018.14.42

Students focused on two portraits with stark contrasts: one, Woman Seated in an Interior, formal and decorative; the other, Portrait of Joseph Ellis Bloomfield, a dark, commanding portrayal of a man who dominates the frame. The class used these comparisons to spark discussion about gender, class, and power—themes that also permeate Austen’s writing.

“Looking closely at objects teaches students fundamental skills of observation, description, analysis, and contextualization—the building blocks of literary interpretation,” Shubert said. “Taking students to the Chazen also builds their confidence in cultural spaces like museums, which can seem inaccessible to people who did not grow up in families that used or felt welcome in such spaces.”

Tracing Global Histories Through Objects

In HIST 130: An Introduction to World History, History Lecturer Paul Grant used a Dutch oil painting and an African religious sculpture from the Chazen’s collection to explore how global encounters are reflected in art, analyzing them through themes like trade, religion, and cultural exchange.

Frans Jansz. Post (Dutch, ca. 1612–1680), Village of Olinda, Brazil, ca. 1660, oil on canvas, 32 1/2 x 51 1/2 in., gift of Charles R. Crane, 13.1.16

One painting, Village of Olinda, Brazil by Dutch artist Frans Jansz. Post, shows enslaved Africans socializing in the foreground of an exoticized landscape. Another object, a Yorùbá figure clad in cowrie shells, reflects African artistic traditions and complex spiritual symbolism. Students analyzed the complicated significance of cowrie shells, which were used for centuries as currency in Southeast Asia before they were introduced to West Africa by the Portuguese. Much commerce—including of enslaved humans—was transacted in cowries. They later became a symbol of wealth and prosperity in West Africa, especially among the Yorùbá.

Unknown (Nigerian, Yorùbá People), Cowrie Garment (èwù ìlèkè) for Twin Memorial Figure (ere ibéjì), early twentieth century, cowrie shells and fabric, gift of Drs. James and Gladys Strain, thanks to Jerry and Simona Chazen for their generosity to the University of Wisconsin, 2013.52.2

“Many students, especially those in the hard sciences, feel the need to reduce history to a formula that might be solved for zero,” Grant said. “Studying objects makes that approach harder, because students are forced to recognize that life is full of contradictions and complications.”

Grant said his first time bringing a class to the Chazen “went smashingly well. Since the visit, the students really began to take more risks and using their imagination to understand the people we are reading about, who lived in very different worlds. It won’t be my last visit!”

A Living Collection, A Living Classroom

From collage to cowrie shells to canvases, the Chazen Museum’s permanent collection is helping UW–Madison faculty turn their courses into immersive, interdisciplinary experiences.

Want to bring your students into the Chazen’s study room? Learn more about faculty resources, object-based learning sessions, and teaching support at https://chazen.wisc.edu/learn.

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