Arts Institute, Overture Foundation launch UW course

A first-time, hands-on course will allow UW–Madison students to study, during its construction, what will be one of the major public buildings of Madison and Wisconsin, the Overture Center for the Arts.

The UW–Madison Arts Institute and the Overture Foundation will launch the course together Friday, Sept. 6.

“This is a fantastic and rare opportunity for our students to get the chance to learn from some of the top cultural arts facility designers and professionals in the world,” says Tino Balio, professor of communication arts and executive director of the Arts Institute.

“Given our commitment to having the Overture Project serve as a learning laboratory for area students, we’re thrilled to be working with the University of Wisconsin on this unique collaboration,” says George Austin, president of the Overture Development Corp., the nonprofit entity that is developing the visual and performing arts facilities in downtown Madison.

“We see this as ‘The Wisconsin Idea’ in action, and we hope the course will help train our country’s next crop of leading arts management and design professionals,” adds Austin.

Austin will kick-off “Overture: The Art and Design of a Cultural Arts Center,” an interdisciplinary studies in the arts course, with an opening overview session, noon-2 p.m., Friday, Sept. 6, 4070 Vilas Hall. Members of the media are welcome.

The course will augment Overture’s educational collaboration with the Madison Metropolitan School District, “Building Madison’s Future.” This effort, using aspects of the Overture Project as a case study, is introducing area high school students to careers in construction, architecture and engineering.

During the 12-week UW course, about 60 upper-level undergraduate and graduate students will tour the work site and have presentations from international members of the design team and local experts in addition to Austin including:

• Architects from Cesar Pelli & Associates, the design architect.
• The theater design consultant from Theatre Projects Consultants
• The lead project acoustician from Kirkegaard Associates.
• The lighting designer from Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design, Inc.
• The lead graphics and signage consultant from Pentagram Design.

Others include Russell Panczenko, director of the Elvehjem Museum of Art; Steve Fleischmann, director of the Madison Art Center; Bob D’Angelo, director of the Madison Civic Center; Andrew Taylor, director of the UW Bolz Center for Arts Administration; Michael Goldberg, director of the Wisconsin Union Theater; Ralph Jackson of the local design team of Potter Lawson & Flad, LLC; and Larry Thomas of J.H. Findorff & Son, Inc., construction manager.

Additional faculty from various UW–Madison departments, including Theatre and Drama, Art, Environment, Textiles and Design and the School of Music, will participate in the course.

“We’re very grateful that the speakers will be donating their time and we thank Overture’s leaders, especially Ralph Jackson, executive architect at Potter Lawson & Flad, for their hard work in making this a reality,” adds Balio.

The Overture Center for the Arts is the result of a major civic gift by Jerome Frautschi, given to stimulate Madison’s downtown renaissance through excellence in the arts. Phase I is scheduled for completion in 2004 with Phase II to follow in 2005.