Cook named executive director of Arts Institute

Susan C. Cook, professor of music and director of Graduate Studies at the School of Music, has been named executive director of the University’s Arts Institute.

“Professor Cook will be an excellent new leader for the Arts Institute,” says Charles Read, dean of the School of Education and chair of the Institute’s Deans Council. “I know she will consult a broad sample of faculty and staff in the arts as she seeks to enhance the institute’s contributions to our programs.”

The institute’s executive director position is held by a full-time faculty member on a half-time, nine-month basis, with one-month summer support. Cook’s appointment, effective May 23, is for five years, with reappointment possible.

The Arts Institute was created as an intercollege unit, sponsored by the College of Letters and Science, the School of Education and the School of Human Ecology, “to speak as a collective voice of the arts to the university and external constituents.” The institute funds and supports interdisciplinary artist residencies, fellowships and awards, public programming and outreach for the university and general public.

“Professor Cook has been a leader for some time, both within the School of Music and on campuswide initiatives,” says Gary Sandefur, dean of the College of Letters and Science. “I look forward to working with her in this new role.”

Cook succeeds Tino Balio, retiring professor of communication arts, who has led the Arts Institute since its inception in 1998. “Tino Balio created and guided the Arts Institute through its first seven years, and we’re very grateful to him,” Read says.

“I am delighted that a scholar of Professor Cook’s caliber will be offering her leadership to the Arts Institute,” says Robin Douthitt, dean of the School of Human Ecology. “I expect that she will build on the strong foundation created by Professor Balio.”

“The Arts Institute has established itself through its exciting series of arts residencies that have brought performers, scholars, writers, composers and artists to campus to carry out their interdisciplinary work both in the classroom and in public events of all kinds,” Cook says. “The AI also boasts a number of other important programs, such as Arts Night Out and the Wisconsin Film Festival, that have helped to highlight the multiplicity of the arts on campus, as well as their importance to the mission of the university and the state.”

The institute sponsors the Arts on Campus Web site in cooperation with campus arts units and organizations, and with support from the Evjue Foundation.

“My vision for the AI is to continue a vigorous advocacy for the arts on this foundation of residencies and through expanded programs,” Cook says. “We must continue to attract the most interesting artists to campus, as well as to continue to draw attention to the wealth of campus-based arts activities currently undertaken by faculty and students.”

Cook also hopes to expand the institute’s interarts and interdisciplinary presence. “I would like to see the AI provide new models for interdisciplinary teaching and to be at the forefront of reshaping curriculum – arts and otherwise – in the university setting, in ways that reduce the barriers that prevent us from working across disciplinary boundaries.”

Cook earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Michigan and taught for six years at Middlebury College before joining the UW–Madison faculty in 1991. Her teaching and research focus on 20th century, contemporary and American music of all kinds and reflect her abiding interest in feminist methodologies and cultural criticism. She also holds an appointment in the university’s Women’s Studies program, where she serves as associate chair.

In spring 2003, she held the Walt Whitman Chair in American Culture in the Netherlands through the Fulbright Senior Distinguished Professor program, and taught courses on American music as part of the American Studies program at the University of Nijmegen.

Cook most recently contributed chapter-length essays to “The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music” and “The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Music.” She co-edited and contributed to the award-winning collection of essays, “Cecilia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music” (1995).

Cook has done extensive study of 19th-century and early 20th-century vernacular and social dance. She currently is completing a book on the gendered and racialized meanings of ragtime social dance, titled “Watching Your Step: Ragtime Dance and American Culture.” An excerpt from “Watching Your Step” won the Lippincott Prize from the Society for Dance History Scholars for the best dance publication of 1999.

She also is a harpsichordist – having begun her studies as an undergraduate at Beloit College and continuing through graduate school – and performs on occasion.