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 Kutumbhakam”
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.