Arts Institute announces awards recipients

The UW Arts Institute has selected recipients of several major annual awards:

Gerald A. Bartell Award in the Arts
Harv Thompson, professor of Theatre Arts in the Division of Continuing Studies, received the Bartell Award, which honors the achievements of UW–Madison faculty and staff in the creative arts, outreach, public service, and/or other activities involving the larger community.

During more than 30 years with the university and through his work as a teacher, theatre director and producer and administrator, Thompson has demonstrated outstanding commitment and passion in support of the arts for theatergoers and actors of all ages and backgrounds. Thompson, who also is chair of the Department of Liberal Studies, began his career with a charge from Professor Robert Gard to look at the state of community theatre in the state and figure out how the university could respond to the needs. That resulted in the formation of the Wisconsin Theatre Association, now the largest state theatre organization in the nation. Thompson was executive director for 10 years.

Throughout his career, Thompson has tirelessly devoted his energies to lifelong learning and to the development of arts in numerous communities and through a range of educational programs. He has served on the Wisconsin Arts Board, as a consultant to the Department of Public Instruction, on the Boards of the Alliance for Wisconsin Theatre Education, and the Wisconsin Alliance for Arts Education, as chair of the Dane County Cultural Commission and as President of the American Community Theatre organization.

Creative Arts Award
Steve Feren, Department of Art professor, received the Creative Arts Award provides $30,000 of general support for a period of three years to a recently tenured or a mid-career faculty member in the creative arts. The Bassett and Evjue foundations fund the award.

Feren is known for his outstanding achievements in visual arts. Feren has worked with a variety of materials, including steel, bronze, aluminum, plaster, wood, and especially, glass. For the last 20 years, he has focused on transparent and translucent materials, and how light can be used as an artistic medium. He is interested in work that is “physically rooted, yet speaks to the spirit; work that is straightforward, but can operate mysteriously.”

Feren has exhibited his sculptures, mosaics and other work across the country. In recent years, he has developed a system to create blown glass sculpture activated with fiber optic systems, suitable for interior exhibitions but too fragile to be used for exterior art pieces.

Feren plans to use the Creative Arts Award to research processes for casting acrylic sculpture with integrated fiber optic systems, to create works with transparent elements yet durable enough to be used for outdoor public art projects. Currently, he is working on three projects in Milwaukee.

Feren is also known as a leader and teacher in the public art field, and has participated extensively in the Wisconsin Arts Board Percent for Art program.

David and Edith Sinaiko Frank Graduate Fellowship for a Woman in the Arts
Briony Jean Foy, a special committee master of fine arts candidate in Textiles and Design, Department of Environment, Textiles and Design, received the David and Edith Sinaiko Frank Graduate Fellowship for a Woman in the Arts, which carries a grant of $1,200. The award is designed to support and encourage women musicians, dancers, artists, actors and creative writers by providing them with an opportunity to present their work in public.

Foy’s work explores the physical structure of cloth by experimenting with the characteristics and interactions of various types of fibers and finishing treatments such as cloqué (shrinking) and devoré (burnout) as well as color and texture through dyeing, printing and collage to create visual depth and layering.

Foy’s primary interest is in constructing cloth that finds its own form and shape in the finishing process after it is “released from the strict, flat, repetitive grid system of the loom.” Foy expects to present her graduate show in late summer.

The Emily Mead Baldwin Bell-Bascom Professorship in the Creative Arts
Stephanie Jutt, School of Music professor, received the Emily Mead Baldwin Bell-Bascom Professorship in the Creative Arts, which is open to tenured members of the UW–Madison arts faculty in the areas of art, communication arts, dance, design, music, and theater.

The professorship has a term of two years and carries a grant of $16,000 paid in two annual installments. The grant may be used for general support activities such as travel, supplies, books, and equipment.

Jutt is principal flutist for the Madison Symphony Orchestra, founder and artistic director of Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, and member of the Wingra Woodwind Quintet. Jutt has focused her career primarily on in-depth exploration of the classical flute repertoire and has performed virtually of the standard flute repertoire in concerts around the world.

Jutt has been a vocal champion of new music for the flute and has commissioned, performed and recorded works by numerous composers, most recently a work for flute, piano, percussion and electric guitar from the New York composer William Rhoads. In addition, she has “mined” for “flute gems” by lesser composers and transcribed music originally conceived for instruments other than the flute.

With the support of this new professorship, Jutt will work to create a larger body of flute repertoire, through transcription of clarinet and violin sonatas and songs by Brahms, Mozart and Strauss; perform these transcriptions in recitals at UW System campuses and across the country; and record and produce CDs of these transcriptions, publicizing and marketing the work she has created.

In addition, she will enrich the research and learning opportunities for UW–Madison students by maintaining a file of the transcribed repertoire and offering a course in the process and practice of transcription.

Arts Institute Student Award for Special Service: Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program
Carolyn Kallenborn, an MFA candidate in Textile Art and Design, Department of Environment, Textiles, and Design, received the Arts Institute Student Award for Special Service: Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program.

The award recognizes her outstanding work and contributions to the success of the fall 1999 residency of Nick Cave, performing and visual artist. Kallenborn coordinated a gallery show, “Extending the Body: Experiments in Clothing,” served as contact person and contributor for the catalogue, and provided invaluable support for Cave’s class and students, among other contributions.

Kallenborn’s public art commissions include a banner installation for the Dane County Regional Airport, a collaborative project with Julie Moehn, and for the UW–Madison Sesquicentennial Celebration.

All awards will be presented Friday, April 28 by the Arts Institute, a unit of the College of Letters and Science, the School of Education and the School of Human Ecology. Governed by arts faculty and staff, its develops, promotes and administers interdisciplinary artist residencies, fellowships and awards, public programming, and outreach for the university and public.