2023 Creative Arts Awards Program

Amanda Grant

Amanda Grant will use The Studio Creative Arts Award: Best Service Project to undertake conservation projects for church altars in Amanda’s hometown of Clayton, Wisconsin, in an effort to revitalize the town with art. Grant is an undergraduate student majoring in Art History.

Ahema Odeng-Otu

Ahema Odeng-Otu will be use The Studio Creative Arts Award: Best Research Project to create a program that includes an interdisciplinary mini art gallery followed by a lecture to educate the community on how African stories are told visually—traditional symbols, sculpture, architecture, and art—and how these forms have been realized in contemporary black art today. Odeng-Otu is an  undergraduate student majoring in Art.

Maile Evelyn Llanos

Maile Llanos is a junior studying at University of Wisconsin–Madison as a Bachelor of Arts major and Spanish minor. Growing up in the northwoods of Wisconsin, she has an appreciation of the many plants and flowers of the region. Maile enjoys painting and creating botanical-inspired art. In high school, she became interested in creating arrangements when working at a greenhouse as a floral designer. She currently works at UW–Madison at the Chazen Museum of Art assisting with educational and musical events. In addition, she teaches painting and assists open studio hours at Wheelhouse Studio inside Memorial Union. Maile is passionate about environmental issues, sustainability initiates, and equity. After graduation, Maile hopes to find a position at a regional museum working on gallery installations, curation, or event management. Maile’s work has been displayed at the Peninsula School of Art’s Big Little ArtShow, and the Office of Financial Aid at UW–Madison.

The award supports Plants of Wisconsin. In an effort to increase awareness and encourage protection of wild plants and flowers native to Wisconsin, Plants of Wisconsin will include a series of paintings, drawings, and educational materials with hopes to publicly display in gallery exhibits around the state of Wisconsin.

Maia Therese Rauh

Maia Rauh is a junior at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Maia initially was studying to receive her Bachelor of Fine Art within the School of Education. However, after discovering her passion for weaving after her first semester sophomore year, Maia transferred into the School of Human Ecology’s Textile and Fashion Design Program in January of 2022. Interested in continuing her studies within the Art Department, she completed a certificate in Three Dimensional Design. Within the School of Human Ecology she has declared to take the Textile Design path with a concentration in Weaving. Within Professor Marianne Fairbanks’ weaving course, Maia received second place in the Annual Sergenian’s Rug Design Competition and the Janet L. Birch Professional Development Fund in Weaving and Textile Design. Maia received the Chipstone-CDMC Undergraduate Research Fellowship in which she presented on the Works Projects Administration’s Milwaukee Handicraft Project. Maia currently works as Fairbanks Research Assistant primarily in the Hemp Research Lab.

The award supports research focused on creating sculptural weavings using stretchable material, in particular, spandex. The work is on exhibit in Pieced Together: Perspectives in Textiles and Fashion Design in the Ruth Davis Design Gallery at Nancy Nicholas Hall, part of the Center for Design and Material Culture, until May 14.

Katie Ryann

Katie Ryann is a rising choreographer who is inspired by shared and unique feminine experiences; the good, the sad, the ugly, the seductive and the dramatic. In 2019, she decided to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Dance at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. At UW–Madison, Katie studies Contemporary dance and Ballet and has since performed in and choreographed six of her own works titled Stained Glass, Both Sides, In Bloom, Trail of Glamor, Paths, and FREQUENTLY: A LOVE LETTER TO MAN. Throughout her three years at UW–Madison, Katie has specialized in exploring feminine perspectives and interdisciplinary art projects. These projects include her dance film, Both Sides, where she collaborated with film maker Ari Cavaliero as well as her collaboration project, Paths, with trumpet performance major Nick Hill.

The award supports the creation of an interdisciplinary physical performance, The Renaissance Woman: THE BODY, which will deconstruct the role of the female body as “a muse,” often illustrated in Italian Renaissance Art.

Bordando Memorias (Embroidering Memories) | Maria Amalia

Bordando Memoras is a community art project led by Maria Amalia during her 2022-2023 art residency at Synergy Ventures Foundation. Latina immigrants are invited to embroider and share their life journeys as they make art and community.

Madison Journal of Literary Criticism, fall 2022 edition | Ria Dhingra for the Madison Journal of Literary Criticism

The theme of this issue of the Madison Journal of Literary Criticism is “Consciousness.” As an abolitionist effort, the publication invites creators and readers alike to tune into a moment when they first become conscious towards institutions of systemic harm, oppression, or activist initiatives.

Success in Reentry: A Documentary Film | Mabel Malhotra

This 30-minute documentary film will explore the stories of several Madison locals who have experienced incarceration and their current engagement with their communities. The filmmakers will facilitate conversations between reentry-focused professionals and formerly incarcerated individuals, touching on their experiences before and during their time in the Wisconsin prison system and their journey after leaving.

Chai Stories 2.0 | Praveen Maripelly

Chai Stories is a place where people come together and create dialogue while having vegan Chai in order to provide a space to build community. This iteration will broaden social interactions by engaging in a particular story each time.

The Long Leaving feature film | Saoirse Bryn

The Long Leaving is a dark comedy telling the story of a young woman with children who has to leave her husband and all of the struggles that follow that decision.

Documentary Short: Remembering Ike | Kyla Pollard

This experimental documentary explores loss and grief as well as joy and nostalgia.

Teaching the Trans and Non-Binary Voice: Workshop for Students and Educators with Liz Jackson Hearns | James Carl Osorio for the Music Teachers National Association: UW–Madison Collegiate Chapter

Directly responding to the growing need for visibility for trans, queer and non-binary individuals, especially in the performing arts, this workshop-based event aims to create and spark awareness of shifting perspectives in pedagogies.

Networking through the Arts Mixer | Terjuan Short for the Gamma Epsilon Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha

This mixer will present artwork by and to an underserved, diverse student community.

Formless: An Artivism Concert | Madelyn Vilker in partnership with the Social Justice Hub and Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee

Now in its second year, Formless exemplifies the intersections of art and activism by supporting underrepresented identities and giving them a space to perform. The March 2023 showcase included spoken word, dancers, musicians, designers and artists of other mediums to foster community-building through art.

Let It Burn | Diya Abbas

In collaboration with the Madison Public Library’s Teen Bubbler Program, this project presents a series of writing workshops for middle and high school students in local juvenile detention centers, using creative writing and poetry as a therapeutic tool they can carry with them throughout their lives.

Madison Journal of Literary Criticism, spring 2023 edition | Ria Dhingra for the Madison Journal of Literary Criticism

The theme of this issue of the Madison Journal of Literary Criticism is “Renaissance.” As an abolitionist effort, the publication aims to inspire and encourage readers to use art as the creative basis to reimagine and re-invent institutions of harm.

The Issue 002 | Robyn George for The Issue

The Issue a student-run organization and publication on the UW–Madison campus covering style, arts, culture and current events, presents their second issue, “Land Acknowledgement,” in collaboration with a number of Indigenous student artists and student organizations to advance more inclusive, diverse, equitable and accessible community practices on campus.

Monty Little

Monty Little, MFA student in Art, won the 2023 Chazen Museum of Art Russell and Paula Panczenko Master of Fine Arts Prize. His exhibit, Premonitions, is on at the Chazen through July 9. Monty Little is Diné, originally from Tuba City, Arizona, located in the Navajo (Diné) reservation. He received a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2015. Little is also an Iraq War veteran who served in the Marine Corps with the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines from 2004 to 2008. Little has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the National Veterans Art Museum, International Print Center New York, Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts, Ralph T. Coe Foundation, Wisconsin Veterans Museum, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, and Rainmaker Gallery. Little is currently an MFA student in printmaking at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He and his family reside in Madison.

Anna Jansson

Anna Jansson is double majoring in Neurobiology and Chemistry with a Certificate in Theatre, and is one of three recipients of the Sherry Wagner-Henry Scholarship in the Creative Arts and Entrepreneurship. Her entrepreneurial passion relates to her family’s Wensydale sheep. Her business, Naughty Sheep Fiber, uses various social media platforms and in-person outreach to sell wool from her flock and engage communities in the Midwest with local agriculture. In addition to content on sheep care, she highlights specific fiber arts techniques for animal and fiber enthusiasts. In her free time, she is also a member of the Undergraduate Neuroscience Society and the Women in STEM Education and Research organization, and last spring, was the assistant director for Heathers: The Musical through University Theatre. Additionally, she is a member of the Jackson lab, doing research on short term synaptic plasticity in parvalbumin interneurons in mouse cortex. After graduation, along with continuing her business, she is pursuing graduate school in neuroscience research.

Isabella Heller de Messer

Isabella Heller de Messer is majoring in International Business and Marketing with a Certificate in 3D Studio Design, and is one of three recipients of the Sherry Wagner-Henry Scholarship in the Creative Arts and Entrepreneurship. Currently, Isabella works in the ceramic studio where she is learning how to make glazes, load and fire kilns, and do general clean up. Outside her time in school and working at the studio, she loves to hike and spend time in nature. Isabella also enjoys spending time in art workshops and clothing swaps as part of the Re-Wear It Wisconsin Club. In addition to this scholarship, Isabella will receive an Undergraduate Emerging Artist Award at the 2023 Arts Business Competition.

Jack Ohly

Jack Ohly is double majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Communication Arts: Radio, Television & Film. Ohly is one of three recipients of the Sherry Wagner-Henry Scholarship in the Creative Arts and Entrepreneurship. To Jack, these seemingly disparate pair of majors make perfect sense together. Jack has a lifelong passion for making, and his initial interest in both engineering and film came from his hobby of creating replica film props.  Some of his recent projects include a replica HAL 9000 from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and a Doctor Octopus costume from Spider-Man comics.  In order to continue to pursue the combination of his two passions, Jack plans to build on his current portfolio by completing projects for student films, fellow movie lovers, or anyone who needs a prop and will use the scholarship to develop clientele and expand operations. Jack will also receive an Undergraduate Emerging Artist Award at the 2023 Arts Business Competition.

3rd Prize: Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival | Sahada Buckley, Master of Music student, Violin Performance & Trace Johnson, Doctoral of Musical Arts student, Cello Performance

The Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival is a professional chamber music series in Fairhope, Alabama that will inspire community involvement in contemporary and classical chamber music at every socioeconomic level by making all festival performances free of charge.

2nd Prize: Dane County Artist Directory | Augusta Brulla, MA: Arts and Creative Enterprise Leadership student

The Dane County Artist Directory is a user-friendly comprehensive online directory of Dane County’s visual artists, which will break down barriers to connection by providing an easy and affordable way to connect with local visual artists.

1st Prize: The Big Gay Market | Oliver DiPietro, MA student in Gender and Women’s Studies and Certificate in Leadership & Ashley Shaw Adams, freelance artist

The Big Gay Market, an organization that focuses on hosting accessible and inclusive LGBTQ+ friendly markets in the Madison area, organizes quarterly markets that feature LGBTQ+ makers and allies in a safe, accessible, and comfortable space for everyone.

Trace Leighton Johnson

Trace Johnson is a cellist known for his effortless musicality and fierce commitment to music making of all styles and genres. Trace has appeared as a chamber musician, soloist, and orchestral musician in a wide variety of settings in the United States and around the world. Equally at home teaching in the studio or performing on stage, Trace is a devoted and thoughtful communicator who enjoys a varied career as a cellist, teacher, and musician. Trace holds a section cello position with the Sarasota Orchestra in Sarasota, Florida and has also recently appeared with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Sarasota Opera. Trace is a Collins fellow in the DMA program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Trace received his Bachelor’s of Music Performance degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music in Cleveland, Ohio and Master’s of Music degree from Lynn Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida.

Ruth Llana

Ruth Llana (Asturias, Spain) is the author of Tiembla (Point de Lunettes, Sevilla, 2014), winner of the University of Granada “Federico García Lorca” Poetry Prize in 2013; the artisanal chapbook Estructuras (Ejemplar Único, Valencia, 2015), in collaboration with artist Gabriel Viñals; Umbral (Malasangre, Oviedo, 2017); and La primavera del saguaro (EditorialUltramarinos, Barcelona, 2021). Her work has been translated in both English and Portuguese. Having joined UW–Madison as a Ph.D. student in Latin American literature in 2015, she is now finishing her dissertation in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese with a minor specialization in the Interdisciplinary Study of Visual Cultures. Llana has an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the university of Granada (2014, Granada, Spain), and an M.A. in Teaching Spanish as a Second Language from the UNED (2016, Madrid, Spain). Her main areas of artistic practice are poetry, creative non-fiction, and short narrative. Her research interests include poetry, art, cinema, photography, and translation. Llana’s dissertation focuses on the intersections between Visual Studies, Queer Theory, Critical Life Studies and Affect Theory within the Latin American artistic and literary context. At UW–Madison, she was also involved with the student-run creative writing journal Zona de carga until 2020. Her Spanish translation of Mei Mei Berssenbrugge’s poetry collection, I Love Artists: New and Selected Poems, was published in 2019 by Kriller 71 in Barcelona. In collaboration with Jesse Lee Kercheval, she has translated from Spanish to English, For the Seals/Para las focas, a chapbook by Uruguayan poet Juan Manuel Sánchez, published by Toad Press in 2019. In 2022, she published her Spanish translation of Muriel Rukeyser’s poetry collection US1 with Editorial Ultramarinos. Her research has been awarded with numerous accolades such as the Chancellor’s Dissertation Fellowship (2021), the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Dissertation Write-Up Award (2020), and the Tinker Nave travel grant (2018) with which she conducted dissertation research in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Matthew Francis Ludak

Matthew Ludak is a second-year MFA Candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who began his graduate study in the Fall of 2022. Before attending Madison, Ludak completed a certificate program in Documentary Studies from the International Center for Photography in New York City. While there, he was awarded the George Moss Scholarship and the Director’s Fellowship. In 2021 Ludak received an Artist Fellowship from New Jersey State Council on the Arts. In 2022 his work was shown in the Wisconsin Biennial at the Museum of Wisconsin Art and the Soho Photo Gallery in New York City. In 2022 he had his first solo and international exhibition in Braga, Portugal, as part of their annual Photography and Visual Arts Festival. In October of 2022 Ludak was invited to attend the prestigious Eddie Adam’s workshop in Calicoon, New York where he received the National Geographic award for his work. Ludak’s photography is a combination of his interests in documentary practices. His work explores quiet moments in small towns, rural communities, and cities across the United States.

Orion Lee Risk

Orion Risk (they/them/he) is a Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies and MA student in Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, specializing in performance studies and feminist care theory. Most generally, their work explores discourses of care in gender, communication, and performance, taking performance as method and object. Orion’s practice-based scholarship through the UW Center for the Humanities featured nationally (Fringe PVD; Free Fringe Philly; Rising Fire Theatre; Minnesota Fringe). Key recognition: UW’s Excellence in Engaged Scholarship Graduate Student Award; National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Scholar. Research honors: Mid-America Theatre Conference (Emerging Scholar); National Communication Association, Performance Studies Division (Top Student Paper). A co-authored article is in press with international journal Performance Research. Orion holds a MA in Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies (UW–Madison) and an interdisciplinary BA in culture and performance (University of Northern Iowa). Orion began studies at UW–Madison in fall 2019.

Sachie Ueshima

Sachie Ueshima, soprano, a native of Japan, began pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts in vocal performance at University of Wisconsin–Madison in Fall 2020, studying with Dr. Julia Rottmayer. Her principal area of arts practice is in classical vocal study and she is also pursuing a doctoral minor in choral conducting. She holds an Artist Diploma, Master of Arts in Music, and Bachelor of Music degrees from Queens College/City University of New York. She recently performed the role of Krystyna Zywulska in Heggie’s Two Remain (Out of Darkness) with University Opera at UW–Madison. Her other operatic credits include Soeur Constance in Dialogues des Carmélites, Drusilla in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Pamina and Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte, and Lady with a Hand Mirror in Postcard from Morocco. She recently received a second place award in the Women in Art Song & Oratorio Professional Division of the American Prize.

Ueshima will use the award to commission Japanese composer Mari Kostkyy to write Last Letters Home: Voices of Japanese Soldiers in WWII. This song cycle in Japanese contains five to six pieces based on testaments or correspondence written by Japanese soldiers during World War II, and will be performed at Sachie’s DMA lecture recital.

James Carl Lagman Osorio

James Carl Osorio is a Master’s student in piano and historical musicology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He received his undergraduate degree at Roosevelt University with a major in piano performance and a minor in history. A native of the Philippines, he has presented lecture-recitals on inclusive music pedagogy and Filipino classical music around the United States. The American Music Teacher, a peer-reviewed journal, published his article on the pedagogical value of AAPI repertoire in their February/March 2023 issue. He is currently working on his graduate recital and thesis on musicking within different camps in various locations during the Second World War. Previously, he has served as a pianist for numerous ballet schools and companies in Chicago. He is also a resident music director at Forestburgh Playhouse in New York. He has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at Ganz Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Harpa Concert Hall. Last year, he won several grants including the MWSOM Graduate Student Grant, Artivism Student Action Program Fund, and the inaugural Joan Spero and C. Michael Spero Graduate Student Award. He currently serves as a Teaching Assistant at the Mead Witter School of Music from which he received a 2022-2023 Innovation in Teaching Award from the UW–Madison LS Campus Wide TA Awards. He is a student of Professor Martha Fischer and an advisee of Dr. Nadia Chana.

The award supports “Pagbabagong-anyo” (Transformation): Rediscovering Nicanor Abelardo’s Violin Sonata. The project will focus on restoring the surviving manuscript, resulting in an album and public performances, exposing audiences to the music of Abelardo, and by extension, the classical music of the Philippines.

Emily Wang

Emily Wang ’24 is an art history and economics double major. In Spring 2023, she studied abroad in Paris at the Council on International Education Exchange. She has worked for the Chazen as a Print Room Assistant since June 2021. She is also a tour guide and a research assistant for the African book history project. In Spring 2023, Wang was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and has won various scholarships, including the Draminski Economics Scholarship (Spring 2023) and the William F. Vilas Scholarship (Fall 2022). As the Spero fellow for the 2023-24 academic year, Wang will conduct additional research on artworks recently acquired from the collection of C. Michael and Joan E. Spero and other related artworks in preparation for the Chazen’s planned permanent collection reinstallation.

Sahada Jewel Buckley (group applicant)

Sahada Buckley is a violinist and interdisciplinary artist from Fairhope, Alabama. Sahada earned Bachelor degrees from the University of Georgia in violin performance and music theory. Currently, she is pursuing a Masters degree in violin performance at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, studying under David Perry. Sahada is a member of the graduate quartet, the Marvin Rabin String Quartet. Sahada won first place in the University of Georgia Concerto Competition in 2018. She has studied at institutions like the Interlochen Arts Academy, Meadowmount School of Music, BUTI Tanglewood, Atlantic Music Festival, and Decoda Chamber Music Festival. In April 2022, she performed with her duo, Girls With Hands, at the New York City Electroacoustic Improvisation Summit. An avid hiker, she through-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2019 carrying a violin. Sahada is the Artistic Director of Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival, which will present its inaugural season in June 2023 in Fairhope, Alabama.

The award supports the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival, a classical music series that presents free professional chamber music performances in Fairhope, Alabama. Concert programs highlight works by women and BIPOC composers, bringing less represented voices to the forefront. The inaugural season will be May 28 through June 11.

Esther Jihye Cho

Esther Cho is a Korean-American interdisciplinary artist, designer, and papermaker based in Madison, Wisconsin. Her research-based studio practice focuses on devising narrative installations for archiving the history and retelling the stories of Asian Americans, children of immigrants, and Asian diasporas to consider the experience of identity, gender, loss of lineage, and cultural disconnect. She holds a BFA in both Craft & Material Studies and Interior Design from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MFA in Woodworking and Furniture Design from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (2022). In 2017, she received the Windgate-Lamar Fellowship from the Center of Crafts to travel to South Korea to study the process of making hanji (Korean paper) and its related craft forms. She is currently attending the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she is pursuing her second Master of Fine Arts degree in Design Studies with a focus on papermaking and material culture.

With the award, Cho produced and documented Silent Sufferings, a performance piece using her body as both a tool and a metaphor for femininity as emotionally fraught, domestic, and intimate, during spring 2023 gallery night at the Common Wealth Gallery.

Ben Ferris

Ben Ferris is a bassist, composer, and educator from Madison, Wisconsin. A student of NEA Jazz Master Richard Davis, he graduated with a music-education degree from UW–Madison where he is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in String-Performance with Peter Dominguez. He leads, composes, and arranges for many ensembles, releasing his debut album, Home in 2016 featuring all original compositions. A founding member of Mr Chair, a contemporary chamber quartet with two records of original music, Ben also performs with Darren Sterud, Jon Hoel, Gabe Burdulis, and more. Ben was a finalist in the 2017 International Society of Bassists Jazz Performance competition. As an educator, Ben teaches private bass students and K-12 music in public schools for seven years. He is on the board of directors and faculty for the Richard Davis Foundation for Young Bassists. Ben is a NS (Ned Steinberger) Artist.

The award will support the Roland Hanna Bass Concerto Project. The preservation, engraving, study, performance and recording of the only existing copy of Sir Roland Hanna’s Chant will have broad and lasting impacts.

Trace Leighton Johnson (group applicant)

See Lyman S.V. Judson and Ellen Mackechnie Judson Graduate Student Award in the Creative Arts panel. This award supports the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival, a classical music series that presents free professional chamber music performances in Fairhope, Alabama. Concert programs highlight works by women and BIPOC composers, bringing less represented voices to the forefront. The inaugural season will be May 28 through June 11.

Sophie Loubere

Sophie Loubere is a Master of Fine Arts candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her work is interdisciplinary and research-based, focusing on printmaking, book arts, photography, textiles, and creative writing. She received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Additional education includes Northern Illinois University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Loubere is an award winning artist. Most recently, she was awarded the Caxton Club Grant for a project in book arts. She has taught classes, workshops, and demos at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Gage Academy of Art, Editions Studios, and Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.

Loubere’s MFA thesis exhibition, Trespasses, explores the American West through prints, handmade paper, literary vignettes, and installations that reflect our deep time, near history, and present day, and is on display at Tandem Press through May 19.

Praveen Maripelly

Praveen Maripelly is an Indian artist who is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in 4D at University of Wisconsin–Madison. He also obtained a Master’s degree in Visual Arts (Printmaking) from the Faculty of Fine Arts of M.S University of Baroda, India in 2009. Also, he has a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts (Painting) obtained from P. S. Telugu University in Hyderabad, India in 2007. He also received Yoga Teacher training certificate, Yoganiketan, Vadodara, India (2010-11). Praveen has received numerous grants, scholarships and awards including the Graduate Student Creative Arts Award (2022), the Artivism Student Action Program Award (2021 and 2022), Marie Christine Kohler Fellow (2022-2023), Inlaks Fine Art Award (2012), National Academy Award (2009), H. K. Kejriwal Young Artist Award (2010), 8th Bharat Bhavan Biennale Award (2008), Lalit Kala Akademy Grant for his solo exhibition, an HRD Scholarship by Ministry of Culture (2009-2011), and the Krishna Kriti Foundation Scholarship (2006-2009). Since 2009, Praveen’s artworks have been widely exhibited both locally and internationally, in particular in Kunst Nacht, 2019 (Kempten, Germany), Städtische Kunstsammlung Zwickau Max-Pechstein-Museum, 2015 (Zwickau, Germany), IPCNY-2011 (New York, USA), Poly Art Center-Cornell, 2012 (UK), Art at Wharepuke-2015 (New Zealand), NGMA-2013 (Mumbai, India), Project 88 Gallery, 2009 (Mumbai, India), KHOJ, 2011 (New Delhi, India), and Art Konsult (New Delhi, India). The artist has also held residencies inside India such as Sandarbh and Inlaks collaboration residency, Space 118 (2012), PEERS (KHOJ) (2011), and Lalit Kala National Painting & Printmaking Camps (2012 & 2018). The works of Praveen are held in prominent public collections such as Multi Cultural Centre, Business School, UW-Madison, G3 Collections (USA), and Waswo X Waswo print collection (India).

The award supported his MFA exhibition, Vasudaiva Kutumbhakam (The World Is One Family), about building community between the United States and India through live performances and workshops, videos, installations, assemblages, audio, and images to establish inclusion, equity, and diversity.

Skyler Simpson

Skyler Simpson works with graphite, gouache, and oil paint to create narrative portraits of women. Situated between memory and mythology, her intricate paintings pull from personal and imagined experiences to explore tension in the home. After earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln in 2018, she worked as a painting intern at Anderson Ranch Arts Center during the summer of 2019. She is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison with an expected graduation in 2024. Simpson has exhibited work throughout the United States.

Simpson will create a series of paintings that explore the dichotomy between the home as a refuge and the burdens of domesticity. Dream House will be exhibited in spring 2024.

Anamika Singh

Anamika Singh (b. 1995 in India, lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin) is an artist whose work analyses the spatial and operational conditions of carceral economies and contested necropolitical histories. She received her BFA from Cooper Union School of Art and is currently a 4D MFA candidate at UW–Madison (2025). Situated at the intersection of video, sculpture, poetry, and conflict studies, her practice asks: “How and why are particular histories of violence rendered familiar or abstract to us?” Singh has been a recipient of the Benjamin Menschel Fellowship, Ashkal Alwan HWP fellowship and Futuress Design Fellowship. Her work has been screened at the South Asia Institute Chicago, Fracto Film Festival in Berlin and Angkor Photo Festival in Siem Reap. Singh has been a visiting professor at Rutgers University-Newark, guest lecturer at the Architectural Association, London and a guest critic at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York.

The award supports the project FIRE ON THE WATER, which explores how oil exploration and extraction has shaped our socio-economic structures and underscore our possibilities for imagining a future without petroleum dependency. It will culminate in a body of multimedia work, weaving together multichannel film, sculptures incorporating both industrial and organic material, and a lecture-performance in addition to a book of essays and poems.

The Kiekhofer Award, which honors an assistant or associate professor in the College of Letters & Science, was established as the UW’s first teaching award shortly after legendary economics professor William “Wild Bill” Kiekhofer’s death in 1951.

Mark Vareschi

Mark Vareschi is an Associate Professor of English. His first book, Everywhere and Nowhere, explored anonymous publication in eighteenth-century Britain. His current book project explores the intellectual and rhetorical histories of surveillance technologies.

Established by former UW–Madison chancellor Edwin Young in 1973, the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award honors six faculty members for their excellence in teaching.

Lyn van Swol

Lyn Van Swol, Professor in the Department of Communication Arts, researches information sharing in groups, utilization of advice, and deception in negotiations. All of her research shares the theme of examining what factors are likely to increase acceptance of information during an interaction. Professor Van Swol researches on information sharing in group examines how people share information with each other in order to persuade and come to consensus in groups. She is especially interested in the role of information members all know and share in common before having a group discussion.

The Vilas Associate Awards, funded by the William F. Vilas Estate Trust, recognize “new and ongoing research of the highest quality and significance.”

Jacee Cho

Jacee Cho, founder and director of the SLA Lab at UW Madison, is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and a member of the Second Language Acquisition Program’s Steering Committee. Since completing her PhD at the University of Iowa in 2012, she has published numerous articles and given a number of presentations on the acquisition of articles, definiteness and specificity, covert and overt features. Her current work focuses on the second language acquisition of English articles by Russian and Korean speakers.

Allison Prasch

Allison Prasch, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Arts, specializes in U.S. presidential rhetoric, foreign policy, and the Cold War. Her first book, The World Is Our Stage: The Global Rhetorical Presidency and the Cold War, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2023.

Jennifer Nelson

Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History Jennifer Nelson is interested in early modern Christendom, with a focus on the sixteenth century in Europe and its outposts. Nelson’s art history incorporates the history of science and technology, theology, disability studies, and literary studies, among other fields. An early result is the book, Disharmony of the Spheres: The Europe of Holbein’s Ambassadors (Penn State UP, 2019). Nelson also co-founded Selva: A Journal of the History of Art.

The Vilas Faculty Early Career Investigator Awards recognizes research and teaching excellence in faculty who are relatively early in their careers.

Jennifer Nelson

See Vilas Associate Awards panel.

Ainehi Edoro

Ainehi Edoro is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where she teaches and researches on African literature, political theory, and literature in social media. Edoro is the founder and Editor of Brittle Paper, a leading online platform dedicated to African writing and literary culture. Her current book project is titled Forest Imaginaries: How African Novels Think. She also writes essays and commentaries about contemporary African literary culture in mainstream publications such as The Guardian and Africa is a Country.

The Vilas Faculty Mid-Career Investigator Awards recognize research and teaching excellence.

Tom Jones

Professor in the Art Department Tom Jones‘ artwork is a commentary on American Indian identity, experience and perception. He examines how American Indian culture is represented through popular culture and raises questions about these depictions of identity by non-natives and Natives alike. He continues to work on an ongoing photographic essay on the contemporary life of his tribe, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. Jones co-authored the book People of the Big Voice, Photographs of Ho-Chunk Families by Charles Van Schaick, 1879-1943.  He is the co-curator for the exhibition and contributing author to the book, For a Love of His People: The Photography of Horace Poolaw for the National Museum of the American Indian. Jones’s work is the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, Polaroid Corporation, Sprint Corporation, The Chazen Museum of Art, The Nerman Museum, and Microsoft. He received his MFA in Photography and a MA in Museum Studies from Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. Jones is a Professor of Photography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and represented by Sherry Leedy Contemporary.

Ahna Skop

Ahna Skop, a Professor in the Department of Genetics, has been at UW–Madison since 2004. Her lab seeks to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie cell polarity and cell division during embryonic development using the nematode, C. elegans as a model system. Failures in asymmetric cell division often lead to birth defects, age-related diseases and cancer. Understanding how cells divide asymmetrically is highly dependent on in vivo microscopy and large amounts of visual data, which dovetails perfectly with one of her other passions, art. The combination of scientist and artist inspires her to think differently and maintain an open mind. In 2008, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from the College of St. Benedicts and was named a Remarkable Women in Science from the AAAS. Her science and art have been featured by Apple and Science. Ahna, who is part Cherokee, works actively to mentor underrepresented high school and college students; encouraging them to pursue scientific careers.

Finally, the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professorships recognize distinguished scholarship as well as standout efforts in teaching and service.

Douglas Rosenberg

See Creative Arts Award panel.

Theresa Delgadillo

Theresa Delgadillo is Professor of English and Chican@ & Latin@ Studies. Her research focuses on religion and spirituality in Chicana/o and Latina/o texts and contexts, Latinas/os in the Midwest and Afro-Latinidad. Her books include: Latina Lives in Milwaukee. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2015; and Spiritual Mestizaje: Religion, Race, Gender, and Nation in Contemporary Chicana Narrative. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011.