Artist/activist to be in residence Sept. 24-Oct. 6

Performance artist Tim Miller, a champion of free speech, will be in residence Sept. 24-Oct. 6.

Performance artist Tim Miller is one of the “NEA Four” artists who challenged revocation of their grants by the National Endowment for the Arts because of gay themes.

Miller and the others initially won a settlement equaling the grants, plus court costs. However, last year the U.S. Supreme Court overturned part of the decision on the grounds that “standards of decency” are constitutional. Miller has vowed to fight on for his right to freely express himself through his art.

“Art and cultural agitation can create a ripple that really can alter the context we live in,” he says. “In my work I reach many thousands of people each year. They in turn reach lots more. Social and cultural changes take a lot of these building blocks.”

During his residency, Miller will build some blocks with UW–Madison students as together they develop a new experimental performance piece. The ensemble will present their work in a free performance Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. in Hemsley Theatre, Vilas Hall.

Sally Banes, the UW–Madison professor of theatre and drama instrumental in bringing Miller here, says Miller has a gift for teaching which came to her attention during a Miller residency in the UW–Madison Dance Program in 1992.

“He’s particularly effective in helping students tell their own stories. Several of the students he worked with during his last residency told me Tim had changed their lives,” she says.

In addition to collaborating with students, Miller will draw on his own experiences for “Shirts and Skins,” a theater piece based on his book of the same name. He will present the work, which contains nudity, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Mitchell Theatre of Vilas Hall. Tickets, $7, are available at the Vilas Hall Box Office, (608) 262-1500. # # #