Welcome to the 2025 Creative Arts Awards, hosted by Dr. Amy Gilman, Senior Director for the Arts and Media, and Director of the Chazen Museum of Art, with special guest Provost Charles Lee Isbell Jr.
- Creative Arts Award Video by Aaron Granat, featuring Diya Abbas and Douglas Rosenberg
- Welcome & Land Acknowledgement
- Committee & Donor Acknowledgement
PERFORMANCE: You Must Meet My Wife
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler
Madison Barrett, voice
Alexander Cook, voice
Frankie Bones, piano
The Studio Creative Arts Awards
Special shoutout to Ammo Eisu, tireless cheerleader and program manager of The Studio
Lincoln Dillavou, Glass Bodies, Concrete Jungle
Octavia Ikard, Our Antique Suffering, My Glass Heart
Carson Klamert, The Juneau Protocol
Sabrina Ortiz, Kalipsaw: The Ripple Effect
Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Arts Award
Ava Albelo, Perestroika
Ava Schueller, Visible Mending
Lyman S.V. Judson and Ellen Mackechnie Judson Undergraduate Student Award in the Creative Arts
Kristyn Dallmann, The Forest of Dreams
Ronald W. Hevey Scholarship
Electra Cordes, Art Education
Leslie Watkins Visual and Performing Arts Scholarship
Malik Taylor, Theatre & Drama
Division of the Arts Campus and Student Support
Wisconsin Science Festival, Wisconsin Institute of Discovery
Wisconsin Union Directorate, APAP Student Conference
Emerging Creatives Summit, a2ru/Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives
Marissa Bode, MLK Keynote Speaker, Black Cultural Center
Antoine Hunter, McBurney Resource Center, Dance Department
Jane Hirschfield, UW Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
Arts Career Exploration Spotlight (ACES) Program, Overture Center for the Arts
Eileen Tull’s Too Fat To Run, Women and Gender Studies Consortium & Conference
Earth Fest events and field trips, Allen Centennial Gardens
Diya Abbas, Rhino Poetry, AWP Conference
Fundamentally Sound (RSO), Battle of the Vox
Bo Owen, Crossroads: A Convening of Queer Midwest Curators
Pitches & Notes (RSO), Midwest Tour
Anne E. Stoner, The Disabled Wandering Atlas
Benjamin Carlee, Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá
Ellena Hein, I Know the End
Bri Bernard, Tales of Black Motherhood
The Black Voice | Kamyia Denson, magazine publication
Arts Business Competition
in partnership with Bolz Center for Arts Administration
1st Prize – Kristen Diederichs, Storybook Music Project
2nd Prize – Sydney Prather, Hilary Falk, & Hailey McLaughlin, Friday the Furbteenth: Pride Edition
3rd Prize – Eliana Wasserman, Go Figure
PERFORMANCE: Chants de la Terre by Ayser Vançin
Kristen Diederichs, oboe
FACULTY & STAFF AWARDS
Joyce J. and Gerald A. Bartell Award in the Arts
Chell Parkins, UW Dance Exchange
Emily Mead Baldwin Award in the Creative Arts
Derrick Buisch, Public Address
Erika Meitner, Assembled Audience
Creative Arts Award
Aaron Greer, Morning Moon
WITH GRATITUDE
Thank you to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration for the faculty and staff appreciation initiative that subsidized over $94,000 in ticket revenue for theater, dance, and music performances across campus.
We are also grateful to the International Division for supporting the Division of the Arts’ International Visiting Artist Program, which brings global artists to campus who might not otherwise have the opportunity. Thank you for recognizing the critical value that international perspectives bring to this campus.
SAVE THE DATES
Arts Forward Together — September 11, 2025 at the Chazen Museum of Art
A2ru Conference “Creative Futures: Driving Interdisciplinary Innovation Through the Arts” — October 23-25, 2025
Lyman S.V. Judson and Ellen Mackechnie Judson Graduate Student Award in the Creative Arts
Fatemeh Fani, Echoes of Silence
Carly “Car” Riegger, Imagining Our Stories Voiced by Us
David and Edith Sinaiko Frank Graduate Fellowshop for a Woman in the Arts
Baran Ataei Ardestani, The Other Side of Light
Graduate Student Creative Arts Awards
Jackelin Espinosa Moyotl, No nos Descubran
Mariah Moneda, Magmula Sa Lupa
Keslie Pharis, Musical Landscapes and Reminiscence
Blue Rachapradit, Threading the Warm Dark
Noa Rickey, Irish Lace and Storytelling
Orion Risk, How You Are My Friend
Anne E. Stoner, Nervous System
PERFORMANCE: Release Me by Octavia Ikard & Olani Aboro
Octavia Ikard, voice
Olani Aboro, voice
Josiah Jenkins, beats
Ceremony Close
With Gratitutde
Thank you to the 2025 Creative Arts Awards Selection Committee:
Dr. Amy Gilman (committee Chair); Faisal Abdu’Allah (Art); Florence Hsia (History); Patrick Jackson (Human Ecology); Grant Nelsestuen (Letters & Science); Jen Plants (English) and Douglas Rosenberg (Art).
The Creative Arts Awards are made possible by the Emily Mead Baldwin Professorship Fund, Joyce J. and Gerald A. Bartell Award for Arts Faculty and Staff Fund, the Bassett Foundation, Suzanne and Roberto Freund, Lyman S.V. Judson and Ellen Mackechnie Judson Award Fund, Emily Nissley, David and Edith Sinaiko Frank Fund, Edna Wiechers Arts in Wisconsin Fund, and the Division of the Arts.
Special thanks for funding goes to the International Division, Ronald W. Hevey and the Ronald W. Hevey Scholarship Fund, donors to the Leslie Watkins Visual and Performing Arts Scholarship Fund, Joan Spero and C. Michael Spero, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education with funding from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Additional Credits
Stage Manager: Alissa Berman
WUT Production Manager: Zane Enloe
Division of the Arts Staff
Dr. Amy Gilman, Senior Director for the Arts and Media
Samara Frame, Associate Director
Lisa Spierer, Administrative Manager
Haylie Hart, Event Assistant
Peter Kleppin, Communications Director
Aaron Granat, Videographer
Maggie Ginsberg, Writer
Rainer Carboni, Social Media Specialist
Ammo Eisu, The Studio Program Manager
Marcia Miquelon, Arts Outreach Project Coordinator
Liz Root, Arts Recruitment Coordinator
Guy Thorne, Arts Residency Programs Coordinator