Wisconsin People & Ideas – 150th Anniversary Issue by Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters

SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

CONGRATULATIONS ON 150 YEARS! Thank you for sharing the work of Wisconsin artists.

OV E RT U R E.O R G Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters is a resident organization of Overture Center for the Arts. The James Watrous Gallery is located on Overture Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s third floor.

WISCONSIN ACADEMY STAFF Jane Elder • Executive Director Breeanna Dollak • Head Gallery Attendant, James Watrous Gallery Chelsea Chandler • Director, Environmental Initiatives Jody Clowes • Director, James Watrous Gallery Catie DeMets • Program Assistant, Environmental Initiatives Tina Ignasiak • Development Assistant Bethany Jurewicz • Director, Operations & Events Alex Paniagua • Editorial Assistant, Wisconsin People & Ideas Matt Rezin • Building Manager & Membership Coordinator Amanda E. Shilling • Director of Development Jason A. Smith • Associate Director and Editor, Wisconsin People & Ideas Nikita Werner • Administrative & Strategic Projects Coordinator Chrissy Widmayer • Historical Communications Specialist Ann Wilson • Business Manager OFFICERS OF THE BOARD Patricia Brady • President Tom Luljak • President-elect Tim Size • Immediate Past President Richard Donkle • Treasurer Roberta Filicky-Peneski • Secretary Steven A. Ackerman • Vice President of Sciences Malcolm Brett • Vice President of Arts L. Jane Hamblen • Vice President of Letters Freda Harris • Foundation President STATEWIDE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Tina Abert, Madison Kimberly M. Blaeser, Burlington Frank D. Byrne, Monona Joe Heim, La Crosse Jane Elder, Madison B.J. Hollars, Eau Claire Catherine Gunther Kodat, Appleton Robert D. Mathieu, Madison Michael Morgan, Milwaukee Dipesh Navsaria, Madison Chan Stroman, Madison Kevin Reilly, Verona Linda Ware, Wausau OFFICERS OF THE ACADEMY FOUNDATION Foundation Founder: Ira Baldwin (1895–1999) Freda Harris • Foundation President Andrew Richards • Foundation Vice President Richard Donkle • Foundation Treasurer Arjun Sanga • Foundation Secretary FOUNDATION DIRECTORS Mark J. Bradley Patricia Brady Kristen E. Carreira Jane Elder Jack Kussmaul Tom Luljak Tim Size

From the Director

magine what it was like on that February afternoon in 1870, when hundreds of people crowded into Wisconsin’s State Agricultural Hall for the convention to organize the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. Wisconsin was a young state, and the nation was imagining a brighter future in the wake of the Civil War. Possibility was in the air. In his spirited call to meeting, Wisconsin educator and statesman John Wesley Hoyt urged his fellow citizens to establish an academy of their own—and not just for science, but also for the arts and letters. Hoyt declared that this new organization would “contribute to the social progress of the state” by “awaken[ing] a scientific spirit in all inquiring minds, and thus lead to a more fruitful intellectual activity among the people at large and to a wider diffusion of useful knowledge.” He also asserted this academy “would associate artists of every class [and] bring together men”—yes, only men at the beginning—“of letters and promote advancement … of the literary and aesthetic culture of the people.” Less than a month later, on March 16, the state legislature approved the charter for the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. We have been committed to this ambitious form of “social progress of the state” ever since. Progress is rarely linear, and it often leaps forward at catalytic moments. But the capacity to make these leaps comes from deep and often behind-the-scenes investments in research, collaboration, and creative risk-taking that has ideas primed and ready to go when the tectonic plates of science, culture, or politics suddenly shift. Over the course of our venerable history, Academy leaders have embraced these deep-yet-almost-invisible investments with the confidence that they fuel the knowledge and creativity it takes to make a state, and a people, better. And, as Hoyt put it, “to insure Wisconsin an advanced position among the most enlightened communities of the world.” But Hoyt wasn’t talking about competition—he was talking about Wisconsin as a global leader. As we stand on the threshold of our next 150 years, the Academy remains committed to fostering deep investments in Wisconsin ideas that lead to breakthroughs across the sciences, arts, and letters— progress—for Wisconsin and the world. Wisconsin was, is, and should continue to be known as a place that provides fertile ground for fresh and powerful ideas that move the world forward. Looking ahead, I’m excited about the myriad ways the Academy can serve as a catalyst for ideas of the future. Thank you to our many members, donors, leaders, artists, writers, scientists, partners, and friends who have brought us forward through the decades into this new era. Together, we are making a brighter future inspired by Wisconsin ideas—and that’s something to celebrate! Patrick Stutz Photography

WISCONSIN ACADEMY

OF SCIENCES, ARTS & LETTERS

Jane Elder, Executive Director

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Thank you! TO ALL OF OUR PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS

150 TH ANNIVERSARY SPONSORS & PARTNERS

Additional funding for events at Overture Center for the Arts comes from the Great Performance Fund at the Madison Community Foundation

GALA150 SPONSORS

Photos by Althea Dotzour, Jesse Paucek, and Andrea Paulseth

FOUNDATION

of Legacy

rom our beginning in 1870, Academy founders recognized that our work would be enhanced by the creation of a permanent endowment fund to be applied to Academy operations. Yet throughout most of our history, the endowment was relatively modest. This changed in the 1970s thanks to the generosity of University of Wisconsin biochemist and Academy member Harry Steenbock (1886–1967), whose estate gift paved the way for a better future for the Academy—and Wisconsin. Steenbock’s gift was the catalyst for purchasing the Academy’s first permanent home (the Steenbock Center), hiring our first paid staff member, expanding public programming and outreach, increasing fundraising efforts, and growing our endowment to over $1 million. The Steenbock gift ushered in a new era for the Academy. As investments in the endowment grew, so did our asset management needs. Through the guidance and leadership of two Academy members—Ira Baldwin and Terry Haller—we established the Wisconsin Academy Foundation to manage and steward the Academy’s endowment funds. Seeded with $1 million (including a portion of the original Steenbock estate gift), over the last 28 years the endowment has grown to provide a legacy that will support generations to come. As we celebrate the accomplishments of the Academy over the past 150 years, we are also thinking about the future of the organization. What’s next for the Academy? How might you be part of the Academy’s legacy—and our future accomplishments?

FULL CIRCLE SOCIETY Thank you to our Full Circle Society members for leaving a legacy gift. Every planned gift has the power to complete the circle required for a strong foundation of legacy. Ira Baldwin*

Carroll Heideman

Nancy Rae Noeske*

Ann Bardeen-Henschel*

Joseph D. & Patricia M. Heim

Jim and Joy Perry

Ron & Dorothy Daggett*

Gunnar & Lorraine Johansen

Elizabeth Souter*

Mary & Jerry Foote

Jack Kussmaul

Harry Steenbock*

Constance & Dudley Godfrey*

David Lundahl

Linda L. Ware

Terry Haller

Elizabeth McCoy*

Patricia Weisberg* *Gift has been realized

NAMED ENDOWMENT FUNDS The Terry Haller Fund for the Arts The Thomas Pleger Memorial Fund

or 150 years the Wisconsin Academy has remained true to its original mission: to gather, share, and act upon knowledge for the betterment of our state. In this year of celebration, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to acknowledge and remember those who helped us to reach this milestone. Thank you to our visionary founders, extraordinary board leaders, and the hard-working staff members and volunteers, without whom the Academy would not exist. Thanks are also due to the Academyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s generous donors and financial supporters, as well as those who have contributed their creative talents and brilliant ideas to our programs and publications. And last, but not least, we need to thank our steadfast members. As the Academy has evolved over time, there is one thing that has been a constant: the enthusiastic support of our members. Over the years the names may change, but the core of why someone becomes a member does not. Our members find themselves drawn to the Academy because they value curiosity, critical thinking, creativity, and civil discourse as means to navigate the world and open new opportunities to learn. Our members truly believe in a brighter future inspired by Wisconsin ideas. For this, and so many other reasons, we are grateful.

ACADEMY MEMBERS WHO HAVE BEEN WITH US FOR OVER 50 YEARS 70+ YEARS

Jerry W. Apps

Marlin Johnson

James Dogger

Dennis & Naomi Bahcall

Kenneth W. Korb

Wayland Noland

Steven Billmyer

Duane W. Kuehl

John Burr

Kenneth & Esther Lange

60+ YEARS

Kenneth Connors

Elinor Loucks

Lee Holt

Jean Cronon

Gene Musolf

Howard & Nancy Mead

Daniel Loren Dettwiler

Edward & Dianne Peters

Helmut Mueller

Margarette Erdman

Paul & Thea Sager

Philip Orpurt

Ray & Mary Evert

William Schmitz

Theodore A. Peterson

James Evrard

Robert Schoeneman

Robert Ragotzkie

Mary Foote

Richard Schoofs

Ray W. Stubbe

Robert Freckmann

Kenton Stewart

Connie Threinen

Thomas Grittinger

Wayne Stroessner

Neil Harriman

G. Thomas Tanselle

50+ YEARS

Robert Hirschy

John Thayer

Karl Andersen

William Jaffarian

D.W. & J.S. Thomson

Norman C. Anderson

Edward Johnson

John D. Wasserstrass

TO OUR SUPPORTERS, MEMBERS & FRIENDS

Thank you!

CONTENTS From the Director

01 150 Years of Progress for Wisconsin

Jane Elder

Fellows

08 Meet the 2020 Academy Fellows

Essay

14 On The Threshold: The Academy at 150

Chrissy Widmayer

Report

24 Wisconsin Strategy Initiatives: A History of Impact

Curt Meine, Bill Berry & Chelsea Chandler, with foreword by Jane Elder

@ Watrous Gallery

44 Collections & Connections Instruments such as this compound microscope revealed new worlds to early naturalists.

Jody Clowes & Martha Glowacki

Poetry

Poems by the Wisconsin Poets Laureate 22 “Today an Overture of Geese,” by Ellen Kort 22 “Conger Road, Hayward, Wisconsin,” by Karla Huston 55 “150 Years Tall,” by Margaret Rozga 56 “On Mapping Ideas,” by Kimberly M. Blaeser

SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

On the cover: Our special 150th anniversary issue cover features influential Wisconsin Academy members: (clockwise from upper left) naturalist and Academy founder Increase Lapham, biochemist Harry Steenbock, microbiologist Elizabeth McCoy, artist (and gallery namesake) James Watrous, and zoologist Harriet Bell Merrill.

WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS

VOLUME 66 · NUMBER 1 WINTER 2020

Wisconsin People & Ideas (ISSN 15589633) is the quarterly magazine of the nonprofit Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. Wisconsin Academy members receive an annual subscription to this magazine. Since 1954, the Wisconsin Academy has published a magazine for people who are curious about our world and proud of Wisconsin ideas. Wisconsin People & Ideas features thoughtful stories about our people and culture, original creative writing and artwork, and informative articles about Wisconsin innovation. The magazine also hosts annual fiction and poetry contests that provide opportunity and encouragement for Wisconsin writers. Copyright © 2020 by the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Postage is paid in Madison, Wisconsin.

Flip over this special 150th anniversary issue of Wisconsin People & Ideas and find “The You Issue” with interesting things to do, people to meet, and ideas to share! From the Editor

01 Welcome to the You Issue Jason A. Smith Profiles

02 Ones to Watch Exclusive New Fiction

08 Foxx Finds a Tree

Nickolas Butler

Poetry

15 Carbon

Max Garland

WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS

New Works

JASON A. SMITH editor

16 Cover Art

ALEX PANIAGUA editorial assistant JEAN LANG copy editor JODY CLOWES arts editor

You Issue Bonus: Look on page 25 for a 2020 calendar of events to celebrate our 150th anniversary year along with a special bonus poster featuring "Wisconsin Myths, Monsters & Legends."

CHARLOTTE FRASCONA cold reader HUSTON DESIGN design & layout facebook.com/WisconsinAcademy twitter.com/WASAL instagram.com/WatrousGallery

WISCONSIN ACADEMY OFFICES 1922 University Avenue • Madison, WI 53726 ph 608-733-6633 • wisconsinacademy.org

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Fellows

WISCONSINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BEST AND BRIGHTEST

MEET THE 2020 ACADEMY FELLOWS Established by the Wisconsin Academy in 1982, the Wisconsin Academy Fellows Award recognizes educators, researchers, mentors, artists, and civic or business leaders from across Wisconsin who have made substantial contributions to the cultural life and welfare of our state and its people. Anyone in Wisconsin age eighteen or older can nominate someone for the Wisconsin Academy Fellows Award. Fellows award nominees generally demonstrate careers marked by an unusually high order of discovery; invention; technological accomplishment; creative productivity in literature, poetry, or the fine or practical arts; historical analysis; legal or judicial interpretation; philosophical thinking; or public service. Wisconsin Academy Fellows also frequently participate in Academy programs, sharing their knowledge, talent, and other gifts with the people of Wisconsin. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re pleased to introduce the 2020 Fellows Award winners, who represent some of the best and brightest people our state has to offer today.

WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS

Fellows

SARA BALBIN Visual Artist

As a creative force, community leader, and bridge between cultures, Sara Balbin has had an enormous influence on the Upper Midwest. Her large metal, stone, and wood sculptures are found in public places, businesses, and homes, regionally and around the world. These dynamic creative works, instantly recognizable as hers, interpret humanity and the surrounding environment. They illuminate the places and actions shaping life in the region. Balbin’s commissions have come from museums, colleges, businesses, town governments, tribal entities, and nonprofit organizations, as well as individuals. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Wisconsin Arts Board, Wisconsin Humanities Council, EAA Aviation Museum, Chequamegon Bay Arts Council, foundations, and patrons of the arts. Balbin’s activities across northern Wisconsin have opened new opportunities for artists. As founder and first president of the Cable Hayward Area Regional Arts Council (CHARAC), she brought a focus for community arts activities to Ashland, Bayfield, Sawyer, and Washburn counties. In another initiative, Balbin’s enthusiastic support encouraged the conversion of Hayward’s closed Park Theatre into the Park Center, a performing arts venue that has hosted weekly events for more than a decade. She has also had a long working relationship with the Bayfield/Ashland/Washburn-based Chequamegon Bay Arts Council, participating in and supporting shows, workshops, and performances. Since 2018, Balbin has written a column for the regional Forest & Lakes Monthly magazine titled, “For the Love of Art,” that advocates for artists, events, councils, and the health benefits of art. While working as a certified art therapist, Balbin recognized the need for and benefit of meaningful creative work for individuals with disabilities. Collaborating with existing vocational and social service programs in Ashland and Hayward, she helped develop two nonprofit card businesses that integrated and supported the organization’s clientele. Taking this focus on disability a step further, in 2012 she co-founded See My Art Inc. (SMART), a nonprofit organization designed to integrate artworks by disabled artists into websites, events, public venues, and even a grant-funded coloring book. Balbin’s artistic links through her Cuban heritage led to presentations for the National Council of La Raza, shows in the U.S. with other Cuban-American artists, and participation in a 1997 invitational art show in Cuba. Balbin’s long relationship with the Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) community has informed and inspired what may be her most meaningful work. The LCO Tribal Government commissioned thirty-two tribal elder oil portraits. On permanent exhibit in the tribal government buildings, Balbin’s detailed and imaginative paintings tell the story of each individual. The collection represents the generational heritage of this unique community. With biographies and illuminating essays, her art was shared in the book Spirit of the Ojibwe: Images of Lac Courte Oreilles Elders (Birchbark Books, 2012).

Sara Balbin

Kimberly M. Blaeser

KIMBERLY M. BLAESER Poet

Kimberly M. Blaeser is a poet, photographer, and scholar. A Wisconsin Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2016, she is currently a Professor of English and Indigenous Studies at UW—Milwaukee and a faculty member for the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. Of Anishinaabe ancestry and a native of White Earth Reservation in northwestern Minnesota, Blaeser crafts poems that dwell deeply on a complex, natural world—a world that includes the power of human imagination. She is author of four poetry collections, most recently Copper Yearning (Holy Cow! Press, 2019) and Apprenticed to Justice (Salt Publishing, 2007), and served as editor of the anthology Traces in Blood, Bone, and Stone: Contemporary Ojibwe Poetry (Loonfeather Press, 2006). Her work is widely anthologized and has been translated into several languages, including Spanish, Norwegian, Indonesian, and Anishinaabemowin. Blaeser has performed her poetry around the globe, having given readings of creative work at over two hundred venues in a dozen countries, including performances at the Borobudur Temple in Indonesia and in a Fire-Ceremony at the Borderlands Museum Grounds in arctic Norway. Blaeser is active in service to literature, the arts, and social justice. She currently serves on the boards of the Wisconsin Academy and the Aldo Leopold Foundation, and on the editorial board for the American Indian Lives series of the University of Nebraska Press, and the Native American Series of Michigan State University Press. She has served on the advisory board for the

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J. Val Klump

Sequoyah Research Center and Native American Press Archives, on the Poetry Fellowship Panel for the National Endowment of the Arts, and has been a member of the Native American Alumni Board for the University of Notre Dame. Blaeser initiated the Milwaukee Native American Literary Cooperative, which helped to bring 75 Native American writers to Milwaukee for the 20th Anniversary Returning the Gift Festival of Native Writers and Storytellers in 2012, and continues to sponsor events each year.

RICHARD R. BURGESS Molecular Biologist

Richard R. Burgess grew up in Seattle, Washington, and received a BS in Chemistry in 1964 at Caltech, where he played varsity basketball. In 1969 he earned a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University, where he studied with James Watson. After a postdoc in Geneva, Switzerland, he joined the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at UW–Madison in 1971. He is internationally recognized as the discoverer of the first positive transcription factor, sigma factor, and of the subunit structure of the centrally important enzyme, RNA polymerase. His research career focused on the protein machinery of RNA synthesis and on the understanding of how genes are regulated in both normal and cancer cells. Much of the subsequent research in this area is based on his pioneering discoveries. Burgess has received numerous awards

WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS

Hallet J. “Bud” Harris

Mik Derks

Richard R. Burgess

Nasia Safdar

for his research contributions, including the 1982 Pfizer Award, 1996 USDA Award, and 1999 Waksman Medal, and was elected a 2003 Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and a 2011 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. In the course of his research, Burgess became one of the leading experts in the science of protein purification. His extensive teaching, writing, and editing in this area has spread this expertise to a wide international audience. He has mentored 32 PhD students, 9 MS students, and over 70 postdocs, visiting scientists, and undergraduates. After a Guggenheim Fellowship sabbatical in a Seattle biotech company in 1983–84, he returned to UW–Madison to found the UW Biotechnology Center, which he directed until 1996. By providing shared instrumentation resources to the campus, to other universities in Wisconsin, and to the growing number of state biotech company start-ups, the Center allowed them access to state-ofthe-art research tools to carry out cutting-edge research and remain competitive for scarce federal funding. Burgess also stimulated several multidisciplinary research programs, taking advantage of the diverse expertise on campus to do basic research on practical problems of importance to Wisconsin. This work led him to join the Wisconsin Academy Board in 2007, where he served until 2018. To better educate the general public about the benefits of biotechnology, Burgess co-founded the Center for Biology Education and initiated, with UW–Extension, an education program. He also worked to commercialize biotech-related products, traveling locally

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and internationally to promote business development based on university research discoveries and encouraging researchers to consider entrepreneurial activities. Burgess and his wife, Ann, love living in Madison where they raised two children. He enjoys rockhounding, amateur archaeology, winemaking, traveling, and playing with his four grandchildren.

MIK DERKS Documentary Producer

Mik Derks has been telling stories in Wisconsin for nearly five decades. Before joining PBS Wisconsin in 1995 to produce documentaries, he made the rounds of other communications media. He began his career writing and directing for film (Poster/Derks Moving Pictures), then moved on to directing mime productions (Wisconsin Mime Company), writing for radio (Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, Wisconsin Public Radio), print (Petersen’s PhotoGraphic Magazine, Lens, American Cinematographer), and directing theater (American Players Theatre). Along the way, his productions have won five Midwest Emmys in addition to awards from the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, the Milwaukee Press Club, the Atlanta International Film Festival, C.I.N.E., the New York Industrial Film Festival, the Ohio State Awards, the Odyssey Institute Awards, CEN, and others. At PBS Wisconsin, Derks has produced numerous documentaries on the history of the state, Frank Lloyd Wright, Jerry Apps, the First Nations communities located in Wisconsin (Tribal Histories) and nine hours of veterans�programs: Wisconsin WWII Stories (2018), Wisconsin Korean War Stories (2018), and Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories (2010). He was also one of the creators of LZ Lambeau, a "Welcome Home" for Wisconsin’s Vietnam veterans in 2010. Derks lives with his wife, Terry Kerr, in a 170-year-old house on a farm in the Driftless Region. When not producing television, Derks tends to exotic chickens, black walnut trees, and his grandsons.

HALLET J. “BUD” HARRIS Wetland Ecologist

Hallett J. “Bud” Harris is Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. After receiving a BS from Coe College, he graduated with an MS and PhD from Iowa State University and joined UWGB in 1969, retiring in 1999. At UWGB, Harris taught undergraduate ecology and graduate courses in wetland ecology and ecosystem management. He and his students carried out research in coastal wetlands of Green Bay as part of the Wisconsin Sea Grant Green Bay Subprogram, which he coordinated for eight years. Subsequently he served as on-site coordinator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's PCB Mass Balance Study, which measured and modeled the concentrations of representative pollutants within important compartments of the Lake Michigan ecosystem. Harris currently serves in a science advisory capacity for four environmental organizations.

J. VAL KLUMP

Great Lakes Limnologist

J. Val Klump joined the Center for Great Lakes Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1980 and served as the Director of the Great Lakes WATER Institute from 2001 to 2011. He is currently a Professor and Dean of UWM’s School of Freshwater Sciences. His research focuses on the way nutrients and carbon are cycled in lakes. This work has taken him from the deepest soundings in Lakes Superior and Michigan aboard a research submersible to the largest and oldest lake in the world—Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia. Other research highlights the presence and dynamics of “dead zones” in Green Bay, including the impact climate change has on their extent and duration. Klump is a member of the International Joint Commission’s Science Advisory Board, the Wisconsin Sea Grant Advisory Council, and the Discovery World Board of Directors. He holds a BS in Zoology from Duke University, a degree in Law from Georgetown University, and a PhD in Marine Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

NASIA SAFDAR

Infectious Disease Doctor and Researcher

Nasia Safdar, MD, PhD, is an internationally recognized leader in the prevention of healthcare-associated infection (HAI). She has been the Medical Director of Infection Control at UW Hospital and Clinics since 2009. Dr. Safdar is board certified in infectious disease and she focuses on HAIs, particularly in the acute care setting. Dr. Safdar believes that many HAIs can be prevented with adherence to known best practices. Her job is to lead the department in identifying, testing, and implementing interventions that can best reduce HAIs. Dr. Safdar is also Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and the Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the William S. Middleton VA Hospital. Her research includes the evaluation of novel and innovative strategies for the prevention of HAI. She is currently leading the fecal bacteriotherapy program at UW Hospital and is the principal investigator of an ongoing VA-funded trial of probiotics for reducing HAI. Dr. Safdar uses multidisciplinary approaches, including human factors ergonomics, mathematical modeling, clinical trials, implementation science, and bench-based microbiome research to tackle infection comprehensively. Her transformative and innovative federally funded work has changed the paradigm for effective infection prevention in many healthcare systems and has been incorporated into national guidelines.

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Bookmarks A WEEKLY PODCAST

AUTHORS ON THEIR LIFE-CHANGING ENCOUNTERS WITH BOOKS

ALICE WALKER

WERNER HERZOG

TOMMY ORANGE

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ON THE THRESHOLD

THE ACADEMY AT 150 BY CH RISSY WI D MAYER

n a warm fall day in September 1973, James Batt watched as two plaques were affixed to the sandstone

entryway of a small office building at 1922 University Avenue in Madison. The squat, cream-colored building was to be the first permanent home of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, an over one-hundred-year-old organization dedicated to cultivating Wisconsin ideas.

WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS

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Randall Berndt, A Select Few: Wisconsin Academy Luminaries, 2020. Graphite on paper, 25 by 23 inches.

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4 5

8 7

A Select Few: Some Wisconsin Academy Luminaries, drawn by artist Randall Berndt Artist's Note: All portrayals are based on recorded facts but are also embellished with interpretation and fantasy, each personage imagined at his or her own scientific, literary, or artistic endeavor. 1. Nancy Ekholm Burkert (b. 1933) Artist and Academy Fellow. 2. Harriet Bell Merrill (1863–1915) Zoologist, Vice President for Sciences 1896–98, and Vice President for Letters 1899–1902. 3. Reid Bryson (1920–2008) Climatologist, Academy Fellow and President 1981. 4. Elizabeth McCoy (1903–1978) Microbiologist and Vice President for Sciences 1971, President 1975–76, Transactions editor 1973–76. 5. Gunnar Johansen (1906–1991) Composer, pianist, and Academy Fellow. 6. Edna Meudt (1906–1989) Poet and Vice President for Arts 1974–75. 7. Increase Lapham (1811–1875) Naturalist, cartographer, Academy founding member, and Vice President for Sciences 1873–75. 8. Warrington Colescott (1921–2018) Artist, Academy Fellow, and Vice President for Arts 1984–85. 9. John Wilde (1919–2006) Artist, Academy Fellow, and Vice President for Arts 1981.

WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS

Yet the new Academy headquarters was bit of an outlier on a street composed mainly of homes belonging to University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty and student-rented flats. Earlier, the space at 1922 University Avenue had housed an outpatient services clinic and, before that, doctors’ offices (which explained the small office suites within). The plaques hung that warm September day recognized two significant gifts that allowed for the establishment of the new Academy offices. The one on top honored Elizabeth McCoy, a microbiologist and longtime editor of the Academy’s scholarly journal Transactions, for her generous donation toward remodeling the building’s interior. The plaque below christened the building as the “Steenbock Center” in honor of biochemist Harry Steenbock, who had bequeathed to the Academy an endowment to be used to purchase the building and fund the Academy’s future projects. Batt, then in his second year as the Wisconsin Academy’s first full-time executive director, likely realized the weight of this historic moment. Until then, the Academy had been more of an association than a destination. Now that it had a permanent home, the Wisconsin Academy could even more forcefully realize the vision its founders had set forth over one hundred years before doors of the Steenbock Center would open for the first time. Founded in 1870 by a group of the state’s leading citizens, the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters had for over a century worked to improve the condition of life in Wisconsin by sharing knowledge. Participation in this learned society was a way for members to share ideas with peers and advance their own knowledge, often through annual gatherings and scholarly publications. The Academy Council (today’s Academy Board) ran Academy operations in their spare time, juggling full-time jobs as educators, naturalists, and attorneys with work on the annual Transactions journal, member meetings, and other business. All this changed in 1971 when the Steenbock Center was established and the Academy Board voted to hire Batt as executive director. Batt wanted to “breathe new life into the arts and letters” by expanding Academy membership, reaching more people, and developing more place-based programs that could better serve communities across the state. In Batt’s vision, the Steenbock Center would be the headquarters for new activities in Madison and around the state that would bring Academy members and the public together in search of innovations in—and conversations around— the sciences, arts, and letters. Standing on the threshold of 1922 University Avenue, considering the people who made this vision possible, Batt no doubt felt a sense of trepidation. The Academy stood at the precipice of a new era, one whose future would build upon the strength and dedication of the past. There was, however, no guarantee that Batt and his colleagues would succeed in creating a thriving, self-sustaining organization. Like the founders who established the Wisconsin Academy just five years after the American Civil War ended, Batt and the Academy Board were entering largely unexplored territory.

UW–Madison Archives, #S07986

UW–Madison Archives, #S04893

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Renowned microbiologist Elizabeth McCoy (left) was also a farmer and beloved professor. McCoy fostered the careers of hundreds of scholars, and, after her death, gifted her three farms to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) to be used for research by UW–Madison students. Biochemist Harry Steenbock’s pioneering work with Vitamin D not only helped to grow the Academy but also inspired the establishment of WARF, a nonprofit that helps to patent scientific discoveries and reinvest the proceeds into scientific research and innovation at UW–Madison.

FOR THE BETTERMENT OF WISCONSIN When the Academy was founded in 1870, Wisconsin had been a state for only 22 years. With so much still unknown about its land, waters, and people, the intellectual atmosphere in Wisconsin was one of excitement and discovery. One of the Academy’s founders, geologist Thomas C. Chamberlin, described the “primitive wildness” that inspired curiosity in early Wisconsin scholars like him: Out of the irresistible attractions of the native life of the air, the woodlands, the grove-encircled prairies, the meadows, the marshes, the limpid streams, and the charming lakes of Wisconsin, there grew the first notable stage of spontaneous scientific activity, the stage of the enthusiastic naturalist.

As Wisconsin’s early citizens cultivated the land for farming and settlement, they were eager to catalog and report their observations of this new environment. Meanwhile, scholars saw the need for a deeper and more organized investigation into what the varied soils, minerals, waterways, and forests of Wisconsin had to offer. An idea for creating a repository of information about Wisconsin that could be collected and drawn upon by citizens, not unlike the recently established National Academy of Sciences, began to take hold among a group of civic leaders. John W. Hoyt, then the secretary of the State Agricultural Society and a scholar of law, medicine, and natural history, sent the first call to an academy meeting, inviting prominent citizens to an organizational convention in Madison. However, Hoyt and other founders weren’t content with merely an Academy of Sciences. Hoyt sought to enlist “all who are zealous for the advancement of science, art,

and literature, in any one, or in all of their several departments” to engage in interdisciplinary exchange through the formation of the Academy. Hoyt suggested such a body undertake a “thorough and economical scientific survey of Wisconsin, embracing, not only its geology, but also its meteorology, botany, zoology, agriculture, and archeology.” The call to meeting was signed by 105 of Wisconsin’s most prominent citizens, and the organizational convention for the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters was scheduled for February 16, 1870 in the State Agricultural Rooms of the Capitol Building. The call to meeting professed that such an academy would “largely contribute to the social progress of the State” by “awaken[ing] a scientific spirit in all inquiring minds and thus lead to a more fruitful intellectual activity among the people at large.” Hundreds of citizens attended the organizational convention, where they established the by-laws for the new organization. The Wisconsin state legislature chartered the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters on March 16, 1870. In many ways, the Academy was ahead of its time. While scientific academies were common in the late nineteenth century, very few combined scientific research with an investigation of the arts and letters. Today, the Academy is one of only three such academies to do so. Furthermore, the Academy always affirmed that research should serve Wisconsin citizens, a concept that helped lay the foundation for the Wisconsin Idea. While the phrase is attributed to University of Wisconsin President and Academy member Charles Van Hise, the Wisconsin Idea was described by Charles McCarthy in 1912 as the broad principle that scholarly work should benefit the citizens of the state. In his book The Wisconsin Idea, McCarthy named 46 citizens of his

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time whose lives reflected the principles of the Wisconsin Idea. More than half of them were Academy members. Founding member Thomas C. Chamberlin reflected on the Academy’s founding and function at its 50th Anniversary celebration in 1920: This coming together … of good men from all parts of the state to found an academy whose chief purpose was to facilitate a concerted search for truth for the common good, stands forth as an altogether signal event in the intellectual development of our people.

Chamberlin, who was early in his own career when the Academy formed, benefited greatly from his involvement in it. He went on to write one of the earliest papers on climate change, noting the connection between atmospheric carbon dioxide and the glacial period. In Chamberlin’s view, the Academy had become a force for good in Wisconsin. Throughout those early decades, the Academy built a reputation as a learned society in which scholars could gather and share ideas. They presented their innovative research in papers read at the annual meetings. Many of these papers were then submitted for publication in the Academy’s Transactions, a scholarly journal that was produced continuously for over 130 years. A sample of these papers reveals a broad and deep swath of Wisconsin knowledge: assessments of Lakes Michigan and Superior commercial fisheries, descriptions of common folk songs, images of the crystal formations of snow, mineral analyses of Marinette’s artesian wells. Transactions was also part of a journal exchange program with research organizations across the globe, providing the Academy with an impressive library. This international journal collection has since been incorporated into the University of Wisconsin Libraries. Through the efforts of geologists, zoologists, naturalists, and others who collected samples and specimens for display and study, the Academy successfully lobbied for, and later staffed, the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. The survey was one of the Academy’s primary objectives, as delineated in the charter from the state. The formal establishment of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey in 1897 was the Academy’s greatest early victory.

A CENTURY OF SERVICE The Academy’s early momentum launched over a century of steady, if quiet, work to advance knowledge in the sciences, arts, and letters. Though the Academy often lacked funds, it rarely lacked enthusiasm. Devoted scholars contributed what time and energy they could to the Academy, and made it a place to nurture scientific understandings and to share those understandings across disciplines. This became most obvious when the Academy started to expand into new endeavors. Often backed by a handful of enthusiastic members, new projects were often added to the Academy’s portfolio when opportunities arose. One of these projects was the Junior Academy. Beginning in 1944, the Academy, in collaboration with the University of

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Wisconsin, began organizing science workshops and science fairs for high school students. Reflecting the pro-science sentiment of the post-World War II era, the new Junior Academy sought to engage students in scientific research and inspire curiosity. John W. Thomson was hired to run the project and was released from his teaching duties in the Botany Department for two years in order to develop program materials and recruit Junior Academy members. Thanks to Thomson’s hard work, the Junior Academy grew quickly. In 1945, it hosted its first meeting, bringing together high school students to present their scientific research. By 1960, the Junior Academy was holding eight high school district meetings and six regional junior high school meetings at locations across the state several times per year. Junior Academy members with the best scientific papers were invited to present them at annual Wisconsin Academy meetings. A 1961 survey of Junior Academy participants revealed that 90% of them went on to pursue science in some form. The Academy saw its Junior Academy as an opportunity to inculcate scientific principles and civic participation in students while laying the groundwork for their future participation in the organization as elected members. The Junior Academy eventually created its own annual publication, showcasing not only the original research of Wisconsin high schoolers, but their artwork and creative writing as well. The Junior Academy is but one of the many ways the Academy provided opportunity and encouragement for people with a desire to share their ideas. In response to the popularity of the Junior Academy magazine, Walter Scott and his wife Trudi began publishing one for adult Academy members. The Wisconsin Academy Review had its debut in 1954 with an article on “The ‘Wisconsin Idea’ and the Academy” by University of Wisconsin president E.B. Fred and a survey of recent Wisconsin Archaeological Society projects by Milwaukee Public Museum director W.C. McKern. However, much of the magazine was dedicated to news about Academy members, such as awards received and recent publications, as well as summaries of Academy events and business activities. The quarterly magazine was a pilot of sorts, intended to “build the Academy’s membership strength and increase its potential service to the state as a catalyst and clearinghouse for all worthy activities in the fields of sciences, arts, and letters.” Because the Academy had no office and no dedicated funds for the publication of Wisconsin Academy Review, design and layout was often done in the Scott home. Delivered to Academy members, the magazine often would be passed on to friends and colleagues. Indeed, the first issue encouraged over 35 new memberships. By 1957, the Review was credited with growing membership outside of Madison by 300% and increasing out-of-state membership in the Academy by half. An expanding body of Academy members and growing public awareness of Academy programming also invited more input about the Academy’s agenda. “We must not merely be a study group,” exclaimed Academy Board President Aaron Ihde in 1963. Idhe, a renowned historian of chemistry, as well as other Academy members saw the benefits of growing the Academy into a more public-oriented body while also inviting more cross-disciplinary programming, especially in the arts and letters. None the less, dwindling financial resources and a lack of dedicated staff meant these Academy ambitions had to be set aside for much of the 1960s.

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For decades the Academy had been able to do extraordinary things with very little funding. In his history of the Academy published in Transactions (1962), wildlife management pioneer and Academy Board President Arlie Schorger noted that “it is doubtful [that] any other Wisconsin organization has accomplished so much at so little cost to its citizens.” However, time seemed to be running out for the Academy to take a bold next step into a new era of public programming.

THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA Fortunately, near the end of the Academy’s first one hundred years, the dedication and hard work of its members received a huge boost. Years before, University of Wisconsin biochemist Harry Steenbock had discovered that the ultraviolet radiation of food could increase its level of Vitamin D—a vitamin essential in the prevention of a serious bone disease called rickets. Steenbock patented the process and left a large portion of his accumulated royalties—nearly $1,000,000—to the Wisconsin Academy when he died in 1967. Steenbock’s bequest allowed the Academy to consider a future where free and low-cost programming could spread ideas and innovations to a much broader—and most importantly, non-academic—audience. In 1971, the Academy purchased the Steenbock Center and started its search for an executive director—the first full-time staff member for the Academy—to lead the organization forward into the new era. Batt had been serving as assistant director for Academic Programming at the Coordinating Council for Higher Education. Louis Busse, who was Academy Board President at the time, was charged with recruiting candidates for the executive director position. An inventor and pharmaceutical scientist whose career was marked by success and innovation, Busse found the prospect of hiring a new director a daunting one. What were the qualifications for a position that did not yet exist and required a high degree of knowledge across disciplines? At a meeting one afternoon, Busse showed James Batt a briefcase full of applications, sighed, and asked if Batt would be interested in applying. Batt did, and was flattered to be selected by the committee from a competitive pool of candidates. When Batt started the job, long-time Wisconsin Academy Review editor Walter Scott pulled him aside and said, “My boy, they may call this an academy of arts and letters as well as science. But it’s really, basically, a science academy.” The long string of Academy successes were indeed mainly scientific in nature. From the earliest days, the Academy had focused its efforts on the sciences. John W. Hoyt encouraged this focus, noting that “a majority of members proposing to render active service in the work of investigation are especially fitted to labor in some branch of the natural and physical sciences.” As the Academy’s scientific reputation grew, so did its scientific membership, thereby stoking the emphasis on science in Academy programming. Nonetheless, Academy members had been suggesting for decades that the Academy become more active in the arts and letters—both to better represent the founders’ vision and to appear more accessible to an increasingly humanities-aware public. Mark Ingraham,

The contributions of Elizabeth McCoy and Harry Steenbock continue to support the Academy and its programs today.

an Academy member and storied UW–Madison professor of mathematics, wrote eloquently in the Wisconsin Academy Review about the power of multidisciplinary education: We need humanists who understand the physicists, and botanists who read the poets, and all these responsibly interested in the community and its expression in government. … If we live in only one intellectual cell, we live in a prison. … Men must unlock the gates of knowledge and we must choose to walk freely.

The product of a liberal arts education, Batt understood the power of the arts and humanities to bring people together for a shared experience. With funding from the Steenbock endowment and the Steenbock Center as a home base, Batt began to exhibit Academy members’ artwork on the Center’s walls and in the pages of the Wisconsin Academy Review. His first exhibit was of “The Little Drawings of Norman Olson.” An executive at Northwestern Mutual, Olson was a member of the Academy Board and former President who was, according to Batt, “as at home with arts as he is the

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The Academy's Steenbock Center office at 1922 University Avenue in Madison was built in 1937 to be the main office of Lucian Schlimgen Inc., a monuments and stoneware factory. The eastern half of the building (with the blue sign) didn’t come into being until the late 1950s.

sciences.” The drawings—plants and insects, clearly rendered and true-to-life—delightfully bridge Olson’s scientific interest and his artist’s eye. Batt also started Evenings at the Academy, a series of talks spanning a wide range of topics of interest that brought Academy members into the Steenbock Center to mix and mingle. As editor for the Wisconsin Academy Review, Batt began incorporating poetry and fiction into the magazine and choosing powerful art for the cover. Finally, Batt connected with other nonprofit organizations, like the Wisconsin Phenological Society and the Wisconsin Society of Poets, to build a network of affiliates with whom the Academy could collaborate. These efforts by Batt helped to establish the arts and letters as central to Academy programming, and they inspired future executive directors to continue in this tradition. Over the intervening decades as opportunities arose to take on new science, arts, and letters projects, various Academy programs expanded in these directions. For instance, the Junior Academy began hosting workshops on writing and art, and including writing presentations in its summer field trip programming. Executive Director LeRoy Lee, who had previously directed the Junior Academy, secured National Science Foundation funding for various educational programs throughout the 1980s and 1990s, some of which trained teachers in pedagogy and sciences skills. In 1982, the Academy developed the Fellows Award to honor elected individuals whose work has improved the lives of Wisconsin citizens and contributed to our cultural life. Fellows are invited to participate in Academy programming, which provides opportunities for them to connect more directly with Academy members and the public. In 1994, the Academy established annual poetry and fiction writing contests, which to this day remain open to all residents and provide cash awards and publication to emerging and established writers from across the state. In 2011, the Academy took over the Wisconsin Poet Laureate program after it was unceremoniously removed from the annual state budget by then-Governor Scott Walker. Today the Academy hosts a handful of intimate gatherings at the Steenbock Center and has rotating exhibits on display yearround in an office that holds ten staff members. However, much of the Academy programming that touches the lives of Wisconsin residents today happens well beyond the walls of 1922 University Avenue.

SERVING WISCONSIN PEOPLE With more interdisciplinary programming, the Academy has more opportunities to invite public participation in both the programs themselves and in the Academy through membership. Whereas in the past, membership in the Academy came through election only, by 1994 the Academy had opened membership to anyone and everyone. By the yea r 2000, the number of schola rly journa ls had expanded dramatically. With so many more outlets through which Wisconsin scientists, artists, and writers could share their research with a global audience, the Academy ceased publication

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of Transactions. Significantly, the last issue in 2001 was devoted to papers presented at an Academy forum titled, Genetically Modified Foods: Risks, Rewards, and Realities. The focus on the timely and controversial subject represented a new and expanded leadership role for the Academy in bringing communities and experts together to address issues of statewide concern. In the years since, a series of large-scale public initiatives known as The Wisconsin Idea at the Wisconsin Academy (today’s Wisconsin Strategy Initiatives) has brought together hundreds of citizens to discuss water quality, farming and rural life, and other issues that affect our quality of life in Wisconsin. The end of Transactions also brought about a renewed institutional commitment to the Academy’s quarterly magazine. In 2004, under the guidance of editor Joan Fischer, the Academy redesigned the Wisconsin Academy Review to appeal to smart but not necessarily academic audiences. Changing the name to Wisconsin People & Ideas, Fischer and her colleagues sought to create a record of contemporary Wisconsin thought and culture that could also generate excitement around the big ideas the Academy was exploring across its programs. Looking to further diversify the suite of mechanisms for reaching broader public audiences in the early 2000s, executive director Bob Lange appealed to the Academy Board to join in the development of a grand new arts center in downtown Madison. With the opening of the Overture Center for the Arts in 2004, the Academy had found a much larger public venue for its creative and engaging programming. The Academy opened the James Watrous Gallery, a noncommercial gallery that features artwork by Wisconsin artists, and began hosting Academy Talks, a series of presentations by experts across myriad fields in Overture Center spaces like the Wisconsin Studio and Capitol Theater. Though developed in Madison, these Academy Talks were often presented in other communities across the state and are available online and on-air through PBS Wisconsin. Time and again, the Academy has risen to meet new challenges. Because of this, the organization has grown into a more balanced, more public-facing entity that puts the people of Wisconsin first in all of its endeavors. In this way, the Academy serves as a bridge between scholarly life in Wisconsin and the everyday world of its citizens. With its focus on translating and sharing ideas between these two worlds, the Academy is well poised to meet the needs of the future. Under the direction of Jane Elder, the Academy strives to be a place for people to connect with experts and learn from each other. Elder says people often tell her about how the art in the James Watrous Gallery sparks their imagination, the stories in the magazine and Academy’s public talks keep them informed, and the long-term initiatives addressing climate and water issues provide them hope for a sustainable future. Today’s Academy programs are meant to make us proud of Wisconsin, and they are specifically designed to support learning and discovery for people of all walks of life. The Academy is also working to increase statewide access to these programs, which are constantly in demand, and to touch more lives; to inspire more emerging writers, scientists, and artists; and

to foster more civil dialogue. This is the Academy’s vision for a brighter future inspired by Wisconsin ideas. In 1981, Academy Board President Reid Bryson acknowledged that “the challenge [today] to the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters is greater than it was in 1870.” Bryson was a climatologist who was one of the first to consider the effect of global climate change on humans. Recalling how his weather predictions were ignored and troops placed in harm’s way during his time at the Army Air Corps Weather Service during World War II, Byson was well aware of the staggering consequences of anti-intellectualism. His observations from nearly forty years ago feel prescient in our current era of anti-intellectualism and incivility: Let us mobilize our efforts to maintain the Wisconsin tradition of an enlightened citizenry as we face a future of rapid change, in a crowded world full of unknowns. With knowledge we can reduce the uncertainty and make Wisconsin an even better place to live.

Author’s Note: Individuals involved in the success of the Academy over the past 150 years are too numerous to mention. While a few are named here, it is impossible to do justice to the many who have contributed their time, energy, and dedication to advancing the Academy’s mission. On behalf of the Academy, this author would like to thank those who through their efforts over the years have honored this organization and served the people of Wisconsin. We recognize your contributions and thank you for your efforts to support the Academy’s mission: to create a better world by connecting Wisconsin people and ideas.

Chrissy Widmayer is the historical communications specialist at the Wisconsin Academy through the UW–Madison Center for Humanities’ Mellon Public Humanities Fellowship. A PhD candidate in folklore studies, Widmayer has an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University and an MA in folklore from UW–Madison.

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Today an Overture of Geese lift in unmeasured waves across water A sailboat rides the wind out on the bay Today each of us breathe light and air as if it were text written willingly for one another Our lives are spun with that kind of giving The tree planted for someone else’s comfort Empty basket waiting to be filled The extended hand an offering of grace We are givers in love with believing We are the horizon the road the traveler map makers for others to follow The door that opens for the world to enter Everything we give to one another is a timepiece a fluid motion of hours Everything we give a sweet echo singing Ellen Kort Wisconsin Poet Laureate • 2001–2004 Shared by Cindy Kort

Conger Road, Hayward, Wisconsin The spruce along the road is clearly dead, no green boughs to blend with others— so many greens, it’s impossible to name them. Fiddlehead ferns, tall popples with shaking leaves, wide hearts of basswood. White oaks waving, branches dipping, ground cover teeming with green and mosquitoes and tiny gnats. This dead spruce, with its tarnished needles glows like an orange torch. Even in death there is beauty. The moon lights the lake with fire; each night loons mourn the loss. Karla Huston Wisconsin Poet Laureate • 2017–2018

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WISCONSIN STRATEGY INITIATIVES A HISTORY OF IMPACT

nitiative. It’s a noun that implies impetus and action. Over the last twenty years, the Academy has marshaled its unique capacities as a convening organization at the intersection of science and culture to provide what conservation biologist Curt Meine describes as “civic leadership at the statewide level.” We have embraced deep deliberation across a wide swath of expertise to focus attention on, and find promising strategies to address, three large-scale Wisconsin challenges since 2000: the health of our waters, the vitality of our farmlands and rural communities, and the role Wisconsin can play in addressing climate change. Falling under the umbrella of Wisconsin Strategy Initiatives, these large-scale projects are the Wisconsin Idea in action, seeking out knowledge from science and other “ways of knowing” to engage Wisconsin citizens, communities, and a cross-section of the private and public sectors for a lively exchange of ideas—all in the quest to find a way forward through the complex challenges we face. The following stories share the journey and the impact of our three major Wisconsin Strategy Initiatives. What strikes me about each story is the willingness and commitment of people from all walks of life to step up and lead. These individuals have volunteered their time, effort, and wisdom because they know how important these three challenges are to the well-being of our state—its people, and the lands and waters upon which we depend. These volunteers have worked with Wisconsin Academy staff (myself included) to take on daunting and extraordinarily complex challenges, because they care and because they have something to offer that contributes to a solution. They also do it because they believe in the power of collaboration and understand that it takes multiple perspectives to see things in new ways. It’s hard to imagine the hundreds of hours that these thoughtful and diligent volunteers— people who care about, and think about, a better future—have invested in the Wisconsin Strategy Initiatives over the years. These three projects have attracted people who understand that science matters, as do culture and community, when it comes to making choices about our shared future. The Wisconsin Academy is honored to have been able to turn their collective imagination into action.

Jane Elder Executive Director Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters

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PART I

THE WATERS OF WISCONSIN

CU RT M EI N E Conservation biologist, Wisconsin Academy Fellow, and director of Academy conservation programs, 2000–2003

wenty years ago, as today, water issues regularly hit the news headlines across Wisconsin. Climate change and algal blooms. Polluted runoff and contaminated wells. Degraded wetlands and shoreline development. Threatened aquatic species disappearing and invasive ones taking over. Drawn-down aquifers and looming Great Lakes withdrawals. Rather than regard these and other concerns as isolated, the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters began a process that sought to address our relationship with water in a way that reflected the nature of water itself: connected, complex, and comprehensive. From 2000 to 2003, the Academy led an ambitious effort to review the status and needs of Wisconsin’s water resources and aquatic ecosystems. The Waters of Wisconsin initiative, which everyone involved simply called “WOW,” aimed to consider the big picture and take the long view of our state’s waters. In establishing the Waters of Wisconsin initiative in 2000, the Academy sought to use its institutional strengths—and the community of people eager to share knowledge and ideas—to serve the people of Wisconsin. WOW was envisioned as the pilot project for a new Academy program, the Wisconsin Idea at the Wisconsin Academy (today known as the Wisconsin Strategy Initiatives). The “idea” was that, in a time of increasingly challenging issues at the intersection of science and policy, the Wisconsin Academy could become a home for science-based input to the public policy process. As an inde-

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pendent and state-chartered institution, the Academy could bring together civic, scientific, and academic leaders to investigate difficult issues facing the state. The model was tried and true, proven to get results when applied to large, nebulous problems. The National Academy of Sciences, established in 1863, just seven years before the Wisconsin Academy, served this function at the national level. National Academy committees regularly bring together leading scientific experts to inform Congress, federal agencies, and the public on questions of national importance. Invariably, scientists are honored to play this role in serving the public. Why couldn’t the Wisconsin Academy be a home to such an endeavor here? The Wisconsin Academy has in fact had a long history of such service. However, this new initiative had a more recent point of origin. In 1999, the Wisconsin Academy organized and hosted a major conference marking the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Aldo Leopold’s conservation classic, A Sand County Almanac. The event drew hundreds of people from around the state and beyond to Madison, suggesting to the organization’s staff and supporters that the Academy had new opportunities to take on civic leadership at the statewide level. To consider these opportunities, then-Academy director Robert Lange brought together a group of Wisconsin civic leaders: former governor Tony Earl, University of Wisconsin–Madison’s legisla-

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tive liaison (and later Academy director) Margaret Lewis, state AFL-CIO president David Newby, and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce president James Haney. This diverse group met informally over breakfast at the Edgewater Hotel in Madison, and soon began to refer to themselves as The Edgewater Group. All appreciated the role that the Academy could play, especially in a time of growing political polarization. Over several meetings, the group discussed possible topics that the Academy might take on. Perhaps it was the view of Lake Mendota out the window, but over several breakfasts the group found itself returning regularly to the theme of water. It made sense. Water played to the strengths of the Academy. Water had coursed through the Academy’s history ever since its founding. The first volume of the Academy’s scientific journal Transactions, published in 1872, included articles on the geology of Devil’s Lake, “the ancient lakes of Wisconsin,” and the “deep-water fauna” of Lake Michigan. Water connected the sciences, arts, and letters. Wisconsin commanded worldwide respect for its contributions to the freshwater sciences and for its institutions involved in water stewardship. At the same time, communities around the state faced pressing issues involving water quality and quantity that affected both groundwater and surface waters. The Great Lakes Charter (which later became the Great Lakes Compact) was being drafted. Water, it seemed, was the perfect medium for demonstrating how the Academy could serve Wisconsin in new ways. As the Academy’s Director of Conservation Programs, I served as the director of the WOW Initiative. Drawing support and encouragement from the Academy Board and my fellow staff members, WOW coalesced around a committee of twenty Wisconsin citizens representing varied fields of scientific knowledge, professional backgrounds, regions of the state, and water interests. At the heart of the committee were three respected co-chairs who could motivate others to come aboard and contribute time, expertise, and other resources. Steve Born, an internationally recognized leader in water policy, had recently retired from the UW–Madison. Pat Leavenworth was serving as State Conservationist for the Wisconsin office of the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, where she oversaw programs vital to the stewardship of the state’s private lands and waters. John Magnuson, also recently retired after leading the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s renowned Center for Limnology, brought his expertise as one of the world’s preeminent students of freshwater ecosystems. As WOW’s committee came together, so did its mission: “The initiative will, through a process of informed discussion, examine and analyze the current state and long-term sustainability of Wisconsin’s waters.” In pursuing that mission, the committee considered the generations to come. Among the goals was to outline a vision of a sustainable future for Wisconsin’s waters along with recommendations and strategies needed to achieve this vision by 2075. That 2075 reference point was a deliberate choice—we wanted a target date that would stretch our imaginations, deploy our best scientific judgment, and highlight our intergenerational responsibilities. To meet these ambitious aims, we deviated somewhat from the National Academy model of scientific studies. In particular, we opened the process to as wide a circle of participants

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September 12, 2001 – La Crosse In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, with airports shut down, we weren’t sure if we would be able to hold our planned committee meeting and forum in La Crosse. We’d organized the forum to examine issues involving the Mississippi River. I was speaking at a conference 500 miles away in St. Louis when the twin towers of the World Trade Center fell in New York. As I tried to improvise a way back to Wisconsin, my colleagues at the Academy decided to go forward with the WOW forum. Through a chain of travel connections I made it to La Crosse and reunited with the WOW team for the forum the next evening. The public turnout was thin, but we were determined to carry forward the work. The technical substance of the meeting involved the effects of water levels on the Mississippi River’s dynamic plant and animal communities. Recent experimental drawdowns in the pools behind the river’s locks and dams had yielded new insights into how to restore and maintain these compromised communities. After decades of trying to control the river, its engineers had begun to think in new ways about its functions, its life, and its health. The tone that evening was subdued, our unease apparent. Although our committee’s collective attention was scattered, the river itself seemed to calm us. On Wisconsin’s west coast, the Misi-ziibi (“Great River” in Ojibwe) at the heart of the continent carried us forward, away from crisis and toward continuity.

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REMEMBERING WATERS OF WISCONSIN

May 29, 2002 – Red Cliff The Waters of Wisconsin committee came together in the north, visiting the UW–Madison’s Trout Lake Station and Ashland to explore issues involving Lake Superior, inland lakes and streams, and cold water fisheries. On the shores of Superior, we paused to enjoy local beer and a springtime sunset over Chequamegon Bay—two matchless products of Wisconsin’s waters. The next day we met at Red Cliff, Miskwaabikaang, home to the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. WOW committee member Judy Pratt-Shelley had invited us to Red Cliff for a meeting and meal, in view of the Apostle Islands, close by the northernmost point of land in the state. Judy had also invited fellow members of the Red Cliff community to join in. Jean Buffalo shared with the committee the story of the cultural bonds the Anishinaabe share with the Great Lakes, stretching from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River west to this place, the land where the food—manoomin, or wild rice—grows on the water. Then Judy and Jean invited the committee to join in a round dance in a field overlooking the Superior shoreline. Our very serious committee members—scientists and bureaucrats, educators and advocates, a farmer, an attorney, retired professors—moved tentatively at first, then more confidently as the drum beat resonated and the dancing flowed. Somehow it became clear that the most important result of the Waters of Wisconsin was just this. We belong to a community of people, all across Wisconsin, who think and work and care together about the gift of our waters. How could we more gratefully receive and return that gift than by joining together like this?

as we could by establishing an advisory network that included more than three hundred citizens around Wisconsin. We developed partnerships with dozens of water-related organizations and communicated regularly with media outlets, elected representatives, businesses, and professional and nonprofit groups. In connection with committee meetings, we organized seven open public forums in communities across Wisconsin, from La Crosse to Milwaukee to Ashland, exploring water themes especially relevant in those communities. Along the way, we welcomed the arts, stories, and song into our meetings. The concluding conference at Monona Terrace pulled together all these tributaries of public engagement and creative expression. In all these ways, we kept water science at the heart of our work while inviting diverse voices and perspectives, connecting with as many water-interested citizens and institutions as we could manage. This commitment—to allow conversation to flow between the Wisconsin Academy and our fellow citizens—was more demanding and time-consuming than a National Academy project might be. But we felt that this investment in process was as important as whatever results we might produce. Just as water connected us across Wisconsin, so, we felt, should we work to sustain our waters by connecting people.

THE STATE OF OUR WATERS In April 2003 the Academy released the WOW committee’s report, Waters of Wisconsin: The Future of Our Aquatic Ecosystems and Resources. The report reflected the findings of four WOW working groups that focused on the status of, and trends affecting, Wisconsin’s waters; scenarios for Wisconsin’s water future; water values and principles for sustaining our waters; and water policies. In the report, the committee proposed a series of priority actions to put Wisconsin on a path to water sustainability. First, we called upon the governor, state legislature, and tribes to work together to establish a Wisconsin Water Policy Task Force to outline steps toward a comprehensive state water policy. Second, understanding that education is central to civic life and good decision-making, we encouraged the state’s educators, at all levels, to enhance water education programs. Third, we urged the state’s government agencies and partners to maintain and improve Wisconsin’s already strong water monitoring network and to coordinate and communicate water information more effectively. Finally, we recommended that water management decisions—in both the public and private sector—be informed by a set of sustainability principles and guided by a water ethic that embraces the sciences but also considers cultural, moral, and religious attitudes toward water. The WOW report’s summary concluded with a statement that reflected the project’s recognition of essential water connections and our core commitment to the future: We should not expect that we can address all our water challenges easily or quickly, or that we can anticipate all the water problems that future generations will confront. We can, however, begin to act on recognition of the connections that characterize water—between the waters of the atmosphere,

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Meine celebrates a successful Waters of Wisconsin conference at Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center along with Wisconsin Academy director of development Gail Kohl and executive director Michael Strigel in 2003.

surface waters, and groundwater; between human uses and ecosystem needs; between water quality and water quantity; between Wisconsin and our neighbors; between our generation and generations yet to come. Recognizing those connections, we can better prepare the way for future stewards of Wisconsin’s waters. In so doing, we should pause, too, to refresh ourselves, and remember to celebrate the great gift of the waters.

Reading these words now, one might hear echoes of ancestral voices of those indigenous peoples who had kept and honored Wisconsin’s waters for millennia, and of the Wisconsin Academy founders who sought to bring knowledge together to serve the state. You might also hear a chorus of voices from the generations of Wisconsin citizens, scientists, and conservationists who have worked on behalf of its waters. WOW and its participants were in good company. The WOW project yielded immediate and tangible results. Even as WOW was wrapping up its work, Governor Scott McCallum designated 2003 as the “Year of Water” in Wisconsin, a commitment that Governor James Doyle reaffirmed upon assuming office that year. This opened up opportunities for civic engagement and education throughout the state. WOW’s findings informed new state groundwater protection and wetland conservation legislation, as well as the multi-state and -province negotiations that resulted in the 2008 Great Lakes Compact. In many ways, WOW was able to bolster the efforts of project partners as well. The WOW process helped to expand collaborative water monitoring efforts and access to water policy information. In 2001 Wisconsin’s eleven Native American Tribes, along with

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WOW co-chair Pat Leavenworth, established the Wisconsin Tribal Conservation Advisory Council. This council provided a new avenue for cooperation between the tribes and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and was the first such council to be formed in the country. These and other outcomes of WOW were gratifying. But we also intended for the work of WOW to stand the test of time and to serve as a benchmark for understanding changes in both Wisconsin’s waters and its water stewardship actions. In the years that followed, we could trace many positive developments. For example, the 2003 WOW report highlighted the growing need for a shared water ethic, asserting that “water stewardship is… an expression of ethical responsibility to fellow citizens, to downstream users, to future generations, and to the larger community of life.” Since then, attentiveness to water ethics has grown dramatically, not only in Wisconsin but around the world. Today local citizens and communities in Wisconsin actively draw on this ethic, providing water leadership from the Bad River to Kewaunee County to the Lake Michigan shore. Looking back, we must also acknowledge less positive developments. It is no secret that Wisconsin has gone through a period of political retrenchment in which our bipartisan tradition of land and water stewardship has been badly eroded. Ideology has served to divide and distract, and science—in the public sphere and in the policy-making process— has been demoted and even denigrated. It is especially troubling that this came to pass during such a critical period, when Wisconsin was positioned to strengthen our water future and institutions—and needed to do so. Over the last two decades, existing water problems have intensified, and new concerns have emerged. Contamination of groundwater supplies has become acute in vulnerable landscapes across Wisconsin. Global climate change is expressing itself in Wisconsin through recurring episodes of extreme precipitation and flooding. Lakes Superior and Michigan are now experiencing historically high water levels. The suite of artificial compounds known as PFAs (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are now being scrutinized for their occurrence and health impacts. Yet, we still tend to treat these as isolated issues, and the state still has no comprehensive water policy framework to guide Wisconsin toward a healthier, more resilient water future. With these hard political and hydrological realities in mind, the Wisconsin Academy in 2012 again called together citizens, scien-

The view of the confluence between the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers is a good reminder that the health of our residents and communities relies upon healthy aquatic ecosystems and clean, abundant water.

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tists, and civic leaders to review the changing status of waters in Wisconsin and to assess progress since the original WOW project. Many of the original participants took part, along with many newcomers who could build on our earlier efforts. The groundwork that WOW provided now seemed, unexpectedly, more important than ever. At a time when support for science in making sound policy choices was lacking, the Wisconsin Academy again offered itself up as an independent and non-partisan space for finding a way forward.

OUT OF THE DARK, INTO THE LIGHT Over the next three years, the Academy again convened water stakeholders, engaged water experts, and hosted public discussions. In 2016 the Academy published its findings in the report Shifting Currents: Progress, Setbacks, and Shifts in Policy and Practice. The comprehensive report tallied up gains and losses in water outcomes over the prior decade. Some of its recommendations addressed needs that remained unmet or inadequately addressed: develop an integrated water management framework; control nutrient pollution; safeguard drinking water; manage invasive species; apply watershed-scale strategies. Other recommendations spoke to changing conditions and stresses: invest in water literacy; modernize water infrastructure; plan for climate change; commit to transparency and public participation. As important as its specific findings were, the most important result of “WOW 2.0” (as the renewed effort was sometimes labeled) was that it carried the Academy’s commitment forward. The chain of connection, from 1870 to the present, remained unbroken. At a time when science-based policymaking was challenged in Wisconsin, the Shifting Currents report was not reticent in calling out the most dire concern, which reached well beyond the many issues involving water: “The value of evidence, data, and scientific perspectives appears to be less salient in Wisconsin’s policy-making than in the past. Management of water resources and related public policy will be more effective and longer lasting when informed by science.” For a century and a half, the Wisconsin Academy has worked to put scientific knowledge and information to work in the public interest of all the people of Wisconsin—and to recognize that our well-being depends on the health of Wisconsin’s lands and waters. The Waters of Wisconsin program took this legacy seriously and made the Wisconsin Idea as real as rain. When science was made suspect and public debate fell into the shadows, the Wisconsin Academy persevered. Water again, as always, finds itself in the headlines of the day. A new governor has declared 2019 the “Year of Clean Drinking Water.” A newly attentive state legislature established a bipartisan Water Quality Task Force that has proposed new legislation. At the same time, extreme rain events have occurred with devastating frequency across the state, destroying croplands, roads, and homes. Groundwater quality and rules for siting livestock facilities are matters of intensified debate. There is never a dull moment when it comes to water in Wisconsin. The question is: Can we take these moments, see patterns, adapt to change, and, in caretaking our waters, do our best to honor those who came before us— and those who will follow?

REMEMBERING WATERS OF WISCONSIN

October 22, 2003 – Madison The three-year Waters of Wisconsin initiative culminated with a gathering of more than seven hundred water managers, users, scientists, educators, advocates, and interested citizens at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison. Just outside the meeting rooms, the surface of Lake Monona glittered in the sun, reminding us of our mission and of our great endowment of water here in Wisconsin. To open the final plenary session of the forum, Madison poet Fabu led the audience in singing the spiritual “Wade in the Water.” Wade in the water, wade in the water, children, sang the assembled. Then Luna Leopold rose to the podium. Just past his eightyseventh birthday, the Wisconsin-born Leopold was one of the world’s leading water scientists. We’d asked him to serve as honorary chair of WOW, expecting he would enjoy the recognition and watch our efforts from afar. But Luna was not one to be a passive observer. He had traveled from California to Wisconsin specifically for the conference, and he took to the stage to offer pointed comments and suggestions. Though the assembled didn’t know it at the time, Luna’s words had already provided the epigraph for our efforts. “Water is the most critical resource issue of our lifetime and our children’s lifetime. The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land.” After the conference concluded, as I was making my way out of the building, I ran into a friend, an accomplished hydrologist who had attended and spoken about his research. He was eager to share an opinion. We’d tried an experiment at the conference, inviting poets to open each of the sessions with a waterrelated reading. “I have to tell you … I thought at first that was such a distraction,” he said. “But by the end, I thought it was amazing. I wish we could do this at every conference!” Science. Songs. Poetry. Ideas. People. Together in the room, together in the world.

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PART II

THE FUTURE OF FARMING

AND RURAL LIFE IN WISCONSIN

BI LL BERRY Author, journalist, and Wisconsin Academy communications specialist/Future of Farming report writer, 2005–2008

he time was right. It was 2005, and rural Wisconsin was being buffeted by change. Some of it was good, like the growth of local and regional foods produced by small farmers. But much of it was bad—bad for farmers, for rural communities, and for Wisconsin. Prime farmland was being developed for residential and commercial uses at an alarming rate, and dairy farms were rapidly disappearing from country roads. Rural communities from the north to the south of the state struggled as people—especially young people—moved away, downtown storefronts were shuttered, and public schools and hospitals barely managed to keep their doors open. The future of rural life in Wisconsin seemed to be in question. But one question often led to another: How can we make vibrant and healthy rural communities? What can people who live in urban areas do to support our rural communities? In an era of global, interconnected trade, where do small Wisconsin farms and farmers fit in? How is immigration changing the face of rural Wisconsin, and where will the next generation of rural leaders come from? Recognizing that the challenges faced by rural communities have statewide implications, the Wisconsin Academy and a handful of rural leaders came together to try to answer some of these difficult questions. The Academy tapped Stan Gruszynski, Tom Lyon, and Wilda Nilsestuen to lead a nearly three-year initiative called The Future of Farming and Rural Life in Wisconsin. The goal was

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to explore issues of vital importance to rural communities and develop a set of recommendations to provide guidance and understanding for citizens, community leaders, and policymakers. The effort ultimately led to a final report with more than 80 recommendations. But, as important as that report was, the community that formed around the initiative turned out to be even more crucial to addressing these issues that touch every aspect of our lives, regardless of where we live in the state.

A FOCUS ON THE RURAL In 2005 Stan Gruszynski was director of the Global Environmental Management Education Center’s Rural Leadership and Development Program at UW–Stevens Point. Gruszynski also served on the Wisconsin Academy Board, and he often spoke with then-executive director Mike Strigel about the potential for the next major Academy initiative—after the successful Waters of Wisconsin— to focus on the rural. Gruszynski suggested that Strigel talk to Wisconsin Secretary of Agriculture Rod Nilsestuen (brother of Future of Farming project manager Wilda Nilsestuen), who had his finger on the pulse of the most pressing rural issues. It was at Nilsestuen’s office that Strigel got to know Tom Lyon, the former president of Cooperative Resources International in

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Bill Berry

Shawano who was enjoying a second career at the state Department of Agriculture, Trade , and Consumer Protection, serving as senior advisor to Secretary Nilsestuen. Lyon explained to Strigel that “there was a belief among many involved in Wisconsin agriculture and its rural communities that such an assessment [of farming and rural life] was needed.” As the plan for an initiative around farming and rural life began to pick up steam at the Academy, support was building in other quarters. UW–Madison rural sociologist Jack Kloppenburg and a few others at the UW began calling for the Academy to respond to issues revealed through their research. While Spring Green farmer and longtime rural leader Dick Cates, Cochrane dairy farmer John Rosenow, and others in the ag community signaled a readiness to join forces with a powerful convener and distributor of ideas like the Academy. Some were suspicious, however. Why trust this academicsounding place in Madison to help solve problems in rural communities hundreds of miles away? Moreover, who was going to pay for this broad examination of rural issues? The Wisconsin Academy built a lot of trust and good will with its Waters of Wisconsin initiative and had a history of tracking and responding to large, intractable issues of statewide importance. Founded in 1870 as a place for sharing ideas that benefit the entire state, the Academy seemed a logical choice for a fair and independent assessment of rural issues and potential solutions. Moreover, the Academy had a magazine, an art gallery, a series of public lectures, and other tools with which to help share ideas surrounding such a nebulous project. After careful consideration by the Academy Board and staff, and not without some concern about the project’s cost, the Wisconsin Academy reached out to Gruszynski and Lyon to set The Future of Farming and Rural Life initiative in motion. The two co-chairs

had both compiled impressive resumes working in government, higher education, and the private sector. Yet both were farm boys who never gave up their abiding interest in rural issues. Gruszynski promised to bring resources to the table from the Global Environmental Management Initiative at UW–Stevens Point. Lyon would be called upon to reach out to his deep contacts in the agricultural industry and rural sector for financial support. Wilda Nilsestuen, a Wisconsin native and Rod Nilsestuen’s sister, joined as the Future of Farming initiative project manager in 2005. Like Gruszynski and Lyon, she had deep rural roots, growing up on a Trempealeau County dairy farm in a family of high achievers. Nilsestuen had honed her program-planning skills on the East Coast before returning to her home state and eagerly took on a leadership role.

CONFRONTING CHANGE WITH CONVERSATION Drawing on their own expertise and that of a committed coordinating committee, the initiative team identified four key areas for analysis: production agriculture, food systems, land and water resources, and resilience for rural communities. But within these areas, major subcategories also emerged. Immigrant labor, for instance, played a huge role in production agriculture discussions. But immigration was also a consideration when it came to community resilience, as were education and health care. Because these were statewide issues, the Academy made a conscious decision to take the discussion directly to the people. The Future of Farming and Rural Life in Wisconsin initiative went public in early 2006 with the first of six regional forums. The initiative relied on extensive media and organizational outreach to include as wide a range of participants as possible. If someone chose

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Stan Gruszynski

Tom Lyon

Wilda Nilsestuen

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not to participate, it wasn’t for the lack of an invitation. “We said all voices to the table, and we meant it,” says Wilda Nilsestuen. The forums brought farmers and local producers together with initiative leaders, researchers, and experts in public policy to talk about what was working and what wasn’t in communities across the state. The Academy quickly realized that citizens were eager to dig in on tough issues and willing to participate in day-long conversations primed by expert speakers. The regional forum themes included land use and working lands issues, which packed the Oconomowoc Lake Club in southeast Wisconsin. Forum participants in Neenah learned about effective rural healthcare cooperatives and how new technologies can drive educational innovation. In Wausau, production agriculture considerations led to one of the first public forums on the expanding need for immigrant labor on Wisconsin farms and in other rural businesses. In Ashland, the themes were aligned with needs in the north, including national forests, timber and wood production, recreation, and tourism. In Menomonie, the focus was on food systems and innovation, including the potential of robust local and regional food systems and the impediments to future growth. In keeping with the Wisconsin Academy’s mission, the initiative made a point of highlighting the arts and letters at the regional forums as well as the culminating state conference, “Our Future, Our Heritage,” in May 2007. There were performances by musicians, ranging from the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society and the Big Top Chautauqua’s Blue Canvas Orchestra in Madison to the Mudd Creek bluegrass band in Neenah. In Ashland, author Ben Logan, a nationally known rural literary icon, read a moving excerpt from his 1975 classic, The Land Remembers: A Story of a Farm and Its People. The Academy’s magazine, Wisconsin People & Ideas, was employed to further expand on key project themes, and the “Our Future, Our Heritage” conference in Madison was timed to coincide with Wisconsin’s People on the Land, an art exhibit at the Academy’s James Watrous Gallery. And, if food is art, then it was hard to top chef Jack Kaestner’s elaborate lunch at the Oconomowoc forum, which featured locally grown foods. Indeed, local food and drink were prime ingredients at forum lunches and snack times, and at day’s end, there might be a sampler of craft beer or wine and some local artisan cheese. The Academy strove to provide an immersive and interconnected experience for participants, and local and regional producers were often on hand to meet with participants face-to-face. It was rural Wisconsin through and through, including Stan Gruszynski’s funny and always poignant vignettes about growing up in rural Wisconsin. Throughout this process, Academy and initiative leadership worked hard to ensure that the forums and related issues received considerable media attention. It was important to all involved that these issues made their way to newspapers and radio and TV stations across the state. Project leaders held editorial board sessions from Milwaukee to Eau Claire and appeared on television and radio broadcasts, some of them statewide. That furthered the dialogue and served to amplify to a larger audience the key themes that emerged in the initiative. The Capital Times newspaper made its editorial pages open to the initiative monthly for a year to host op-ed columns by initiative participants. The Academy’s Future of Farming and Rural Life website recorded heavy traffic, not just in

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Wisconsin but around the country, as other states with intractable rural issues sought answers and best practices. “Our Future, Our Heritage,” drew more than five hundred participants to the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison, where plenary sessions for each of the four main project areas summarized the recommendations that would eventually make their way into the final report. Participants pored over the findings and in some cases suggested revisions, additions, and deletions. Round tables on dozens of topics were used to gain even more input. Cultural events and, of course, more local food and drink were provided at meals and breaks.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND OUTCOMES Coffee urns churned out Wilda Nilsestuen’s hearty “Norwegian coffee” as the Academy’s Steenbock Center was turned into a largegroup meeting room where advisory teams worked for months to sort and sift the carefully recorded input from the forums and conference. The painstaking process gave shape to a book-length report published by the Academy in Fall 2007, The Future of Farming and Rural Life in Wisconsin, which was chock-full of (as the subtitle suggests) “findings, recommendations, and steps to a healthy future.” Some recommendations from the report produced significant policy changes. Project manager Wilda Nilsestuen cites the issue of rural healthcare, for instance, where many of the major strides that have taken place among healthcare cooperatives and other entities in recent years can be traced back to the Future of Farming initiative. Following the report, the Wisconsin Collaborative for Rural Graduate Medical Education program was established by the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative. Funded by a state grant, the program focuses on addressing the shortage of rural primary care physicians through the expansion of graduate medical education. In other cases, such as farmland protection, the report recommendations led directly to policy change. Looking back today, Future of Farming co-chair Tom Lyon says that the most important area of the initiative was the work done on land use. “Farmland was being gobbled up by commercial and residential development, and people weren’t thinking about it,” says Lyon. “The initiative played a pretty substantial role in supplementing what [Rod] Nilsestuen was trying to do with revising state farmland preservation rules.” In 2009 the state’s farmland preservation program underwent complete revision, with major pieces drawing language directly from the report. Among other changes traced back to the report was a new program that gave local citizens more say over how to protect the best farmland in their counties. The program also allowed for establishment of Agricultural Enterprise Areas to further identify and protect farmland. Millions of acres of farmland across the state were affected by these changes. In some cases, the Future of Farming initiative served to encourage robust discussion about the challenges at both the community and leadership levels. Indeed, many of the issues raised during the initiative eluded simple answers and needed the kinds of dialogue that took place to produce action later.

“Social issues like immigration had pretty much escaped public attention,” recalls initiative co-chair Gruszynski. But when the initiative focused on production agriculture’s challenges, the need for immigrant labor and the need for a solution to residency emerged. “We really brought immigrant labor issues out of the closet,” Gruszynski said. “People knew about it, but farmers weren’t really talking about it. We raised these social issues. With issues like immigration and health care, you’re not going to find solutions unless you talk about values, and we did that.” The initiative’s simple recommendation for immigrant labor— Advocate for an effective federal documented worker program—is as valid today as it was in 2007. The report also recommended training programs to help address a labor shortage in the agricultural sector. According to the University of Wisconsin Extension Dairy Team, hired labor is supporting about two-thirds of the milk production in Wisconsin today. Much of that labor is concentrated on large farms—the number of which continues to grow as the number of small farms decreases. To help stem the loss of farms, the report recommended favorable tax treatment for working farms. In subsequent years the state legislature has made changes to tax policy, easing property tax and state tax burdens on farmland. These tax changes are recognized as progress that was advanced by the report recommendations. But the strain on farms and farm-

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lands has continued, especially for mid-sized operations. In 1935, Wisconsin had 200,000 farms of all types. Today there are about 68,700. When Wisconsin started tracking dairy farms in 1950, the state had 143,000. After years of steep declines, today the number of dairy farms is around 8,000—and it seems to shrink almost daily. The initiative wasn’t the first to bring attention to the growing importance of local and regional food systems. But it gave them statewide attention and recommended steps to further their growth. As Gruszynski notes: We gave some of the first real attention to the idea of rural people being able to develop alternative businesses and industries that were spin offs from what you would call traditional agriculture. We drew attention to large businesses like Organic Valley and small local food businesses and farms that were starting up all over. To me, what we were doing was not only drawing focus to rural Wisconsin, but we were opening the door to new opportunities.

In some cases, the report found impediments to these new businesses and offered solutions. For instance, the report recommended changes in federal rules so that small- and medium-sized meat processors could more easily sell their products across state lines. The businesses had been banned from that because they didn’t have enough federal inspectors to issue approvals. The rules were changed at the federal level, and now state inspections are seen as adequate. The report recommended extensive public education about the importance of local and regional food systems to overall food security. State lawmakers have since approved a number of measures, but the growth of local and regional foods is also a testa-

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ment to the work of food advocates who took matters into their own hands, with little or no help from government or the food industry. Regional farmshed organizations, community-supported agriculture farms, and farmers' markets have proliferated. Today it is truly possible to “know your farmer” in much of Wisconsin. And, based on statistics, it’s likely that in the future that farmer will be a millennial. Encompassing all of these issues are themes of rural resilience, and the report did much to advance awareness around key generational issues. On teacher shortages, declining student populations, and other problems faced by rural schools, Gruszynski recalls how the initiative “contributed to the realization that … we had to begin to talk about what to do.” Recent changes in the way the state funds public education reflect some of the report recommendations with regard to rural schools. But the changes fall short of the more sweeping school funding changes and other recommendations the report envisioned, such as providing incentives to districts that consolidate administration and finding ways to share education programming. These recommendations, like many in the report, remain valid today. Likewise, the study’s rural healthcare recommendations focused on addressing the alarming deficiencies in rural mental and dental healthcare. Some who formerly couldn’t access care did so with the Affordable Care Act and enhanced BadgerCare opportunities. In some cases, community collaborations have led to dental clinics for low-income people. But many of the endemic issues, like a shortage of rural care providers, remain challenging. All three initiative leaders were moved by the glaring weaknesses in rural healthcare delivery. “It kept surfacing,” Lyon said. Time and again, participants heard that rural healthcare was often unaffordable and, in many cases, unavailable at any cost. “Prevalent in our findings was the lack of health services in general and dental and mental health and diabetes in particular,” recalls Lyon. Forum participants heard that in many farm families, at least one member had to take work elsewhere just to provide health insurance for the family. Looking back today at the three-year course of this extraordinary initiative, it’s clear that there’s a lot more work to be done to secure a sustainable future for farming and rural life in Wisconsin. To guide our thoughts and actions, we can find no better advice than that of author Jerry Apps. In his concluding essay to the 2007 The Future of Farming and Rural Life in Wisconsin report, Apps writes, We owe it to those who follow us to be intelligent decision makers, to be deliberate and careful as we move forward, remembering always that caring for the land is where we start, and caring for each other must quickly follow.

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PART III

CLIMATE & ENERGY

MOVING FORWARD WITH COURAGE

CH ELSEA CHAN D LER Director, Wisconsin Strategy Initiatives

s we celebrate the Wisconsin Academy’s 150th anniversary, I can’t help but ponder what our state will look like in another 150 years. As I look to my baby daughter and the seedlings I plant on my farm each spring, I see so much growth, promise, and boundless potential for a thriving future. This future is clouded, however, by threats from our changing climate. Will we succumb to inaction and indifference, waiting until it is too late? Or will we rise to the climate challenge, come together, and mobilize to build the healthier future that our children, our state, and our world need? The scientific consensus is that our climate is changing, it’s driven by human activity, and we have an ever-shortening window in which to act to avoid catastrophe. Scientists aren’t sugar-coating it. Even if we act to mitigate the damage we’ve already set in motion, we’re still looking at living on a more inhospitable planet in the future. In fact, from the massive wildfires devastating Australia to the floods wreaking havoc here in Wisconsin, we’re starting to experience this new global reality today. Those working on climate change—from advocacy groups and the media to elected officials and the United Nations—are increasingly substituting terms like “climate crisis” and “climate emergency” in order to better capture the urgency of this global threat. It’s not exactly a hopeful message.

But, to paraphrase NASA climate scientist Kate Marvel, what we need is not hope, but courage. Courage is knowing we can’t totally fix the problem, but also that we can’t give up and run away from it. Courage is grieving, accepting that we can’t undo all of our mistakes and set things back to the way they used to be. Courage is acknowledging the reality that our children’s lives probably won’t look quite as we thought they would, while resolving to do everything in our power to make them as happy and healthy as possible. The story of how the Academy came to work on climate change and clean energy in Wisconsin is one of courage. It’s a story of how a committed group of people came together to chart a course forward to advance climate solutions at a moment in our state history when science was under attack and climate change was for some a dirty word. Recognizing the threat to our people, lands, and waters, and fortified by our successes with the Waters of Wisconsin and Future of Farming initiatives, the Academy dove into another statewide challenge. This time, however, it was a challenge with global implications.

AN INITIATIVE IS BORN In Spring 2012 the Wisconsin Academy began a project to explore pathways toward a sustainable energy future for Wisconsin and

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One of the first community solar farms in the United States, the Convergence Energy Solar Farm in Walworth County provides private investors the opportunity to invest in solar energy if they are unable to install arrays on their homes, businesses, or other facilities. This project, which has been operating since 2010, is a 660kW installation consisting of 99 dual axis trackers amidst a field of sunflowers.

the world. That fall the Academy held a meeting of a dozen or so Wisconsin leaders working on various threads of the climate change challenge, including leaders in energy conservation and efficiency, renewable energy, transportation, and utilities; and a few leaders from faith communities and nonprofits working in energy policy and community action. In preparation for this meeting, the Academy had carefully analyzed who was working on climate change in Wisconsin and created a map of organizations, topics, and leaders in the field. In doing so, we learned there was no statewide coalition on climate change or clean energy, and that many efforts ran in separate channels of leadership and strategy with few if any shared goals. A key person in renewable energy, for example, might never have collaborated with an expert in transportation or energy efficiency. At that first meeting, the group discussed the potential of pulling together climate leaders for a larger conversation on strategies that could drive progress faster than those developed by organizations working alone. The Academy and the group of leaders who would later become the initiative’s steering committee saw an opportunity, and a need, for a neutral nonpartisan convener to create and strengthen connections among regional climate and energy leaders while also stimulating discussion and informing strategy that would move Wisconsin forward. We knew that, even though the topic of climate change was politically controversial, it was urgent to provide a forum for this discussion and exploration. Because climate change and our energy choices are inexorably linked, Academy executive

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director Jane Elder and the steering committee members dubbed the project the Climate & Energy Initiative. Just as Wisconsin did not have an interdisciplinary coalition of climate and energy leaders when the Academy developed its network, the state also did not have a comprehensive climate change plan. Therefore, one of the first tasks undertaken by the C&E team was to develop a set of recommendations—what we called a roadmap—to reduce Wisconsin’s greenhouse gas emissions and prepare communities for the impacts of climate change. The C&E team required that all recommendations meet some basic criteria to be meaningful: they had to reduce Wisconsin’s greenhouse gas emissions or support natural carbon storage; embrace the foundations of sustainability (healthy and resilient people, environments, and economies); and offer practical and effective steps to advance clean and sustainable energy production and use.

A NEW ROADMAP FOR WISCONSIN In collaboration with climate and energy experts across the state, in 2014 the Wisconsin Academy published Climate Forward: A New Road Map for Wisconsin’s Climate and Energy Future. This seminal work distilled recommendations from many of Wisconsin’s thought leaders on five strategic pathways that could lead to vast improvements in energy efficiency, renewable energy, transportation, natural carbon storage, and sustainable business practices. In addition to recommending tactics, the report also profiled a number

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ACTING LOCAL

Climate Forward: A New Road Map for Wisconsin’s Climate and Energy Future

A Wisconsin Initiative Report of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters

of cities, businesses, and other organizations that were already in the vanguard of sustainability. These included the City of La Crosse, which has seen a 27% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions since 2008, and Gundersen Health System, a network of clinics based in western Wisconsin that produces more clean energy than it consumes. The list of Wisconsin businesses—from long-haul trucking to convenience store chains—that had begun action to reduce their carbon footprint was as impressive as it was illustrative of how change can be implemented on many levels. With the completion of the 2014 Climate Forward report, the work of the C&E team could have been a “one-and-done” thing. But the Academy knew that this had to be a long-term effort. In 2017, the Wisconsin Academy and the C&E steering committee revisited the Climate Forward report recommendations to assess progress, setbacks, and new opportunities that had arisen in the rapidly changing landscape. The 2017 Update acknowledged that there were many examples demonstrating that Wisconsin had fallen behind neighboring states with respect to renewable investments and adoption of climate-smart policies. The report also helped highlight that, driven by customer demand and economics, more businesses and utilities were now planning for a low-carbon future by integrating more renewable energy. Perhaps most notable was the observation that local governments across Wisconsin were no longer waiting for state or federal direction. They had been stepping up to take the lead on climate issues, and their efforts were models that could be replicated and scaled up in municipalities and counties across the state.

In support of the local efforts highlighted in the 2017 Update, the C&E team organized five regional summits on clean energy and resilience to provide local decision makers and influencers with the tools, knowledge, and resources to support immediate action in their communities. At a time when the state had all but excused itself from climate and energy policy, the Wisconsin Academy encouraged local elected officials, sustainability committees, and citizen leaders to step into prominent climate leadership roles. Held in different parts of the state—Stevens Point, Fond du Lac, Platteville, Eau Claire, and Appleton—the summits attracted urban leaders with full staff and resources as well as leaders from rural settings who often wore many hats. Yet we found that regardless of how large their community, many local leaders cited common obstacles, such as limited budgets, competing priorities, and few or no in-house energy experts. By connecting these leaders with others who had already implemented programs like community solar or electric vehicle charging, the Academy helped them to identify best practices, financing mechanisms, and other resources. In addition, we heard again and again how important and encouraging it was for participants to discover that they were not alone, that they were part of a large network of actors working on climate and energy challenges in communities across the state. At the 2017 summit in Eau Claire, attendees were eager to learn about the city’s freshly announced goal of generating 100% renewable energy for municipal operations by 2050 and for the wider Eau Claire community to become carbon neutral by the same year. The following year at the Gordon Bubolz Nature Preserve in Appleton, summit participants were able to tour the preserve’s new microgrid, which included solar panels, a large battery to store energy, and a hydrogen fuel cell—a system that can operate with the larger electrical transmission grid or independently. Observing this smart technology in person allowed participants to envision how it could be a step toward energy independence in their own communities.

STEPPING INTO SOLUTIONS The Climate & Energy team recognized that to meet the huge demands of the climate challenge, a broader and more diverse leadership community would be required. How could we expand the discussion to help inform larger public audiences and galvanize them into action? A few ways we have done this is by organizing public presentations and discussions that make complex energy topics intelligible and accessible, as well as sharing individual stories of successful climate adaptation or mitigation projects through the Academy blog, social media channels, and this magazine. In 2017, we tried yet another approach, launching an environmental breakfast series to foster more casual interaction and peer learning among experts, practitioners, and the interested public. The first series of six breakfasts, united by the theme “We’ll Always Have Paris,” demonstrated how various players

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We are few, and so I wish for more— if each reach out through every person in this state to learn what acts would bend our world toward slower warming, if, collectively, we raise new prairies whose roots are deep enough to hold the soil, plant new forests whose leaves call sky-rivers into being and bring down rain, raise our food and feed the soil in simple return and gratitude—if each of us hold in heart the elders and our children of this earth, link the living landscape, set the laws in motion to sweep clean air across our mountains and valleys, plains and deserts, oceans and islands, tundras and glaciers, to hold in clarity our living earth, water, and atmosphere— we few can learn to reach every being here. Robin Chapman Wisconsin Academy Fellow

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across Wisconsin were stepping up to fill the climate leadership gap by working toward the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement that came from the 2015 United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP21), despite President Trump’s announced intention to withdraw the U.S. from the international accord. The following year, the breakfast theme was based on the 2017 book, Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. Edited by environmentalist and journalist Paul Hawkin, Drawdown is a compilation of research that details one hundred of the most substantive solutions to global warming. For our “Drawdown in Wisconsin” series, we explored several solutions that were particularly promising here, such as supporting electric vehicles, reducing food waste, and implementing regenerative agriculture (a type of farming designed to improve soil health and store carbon). Another project focused on helping citizens to understand how the energy system works in Wisconsin, who makes key decisions, and what roles the public can play in this system. We created a web portal (wisconsinacademy.org/ cleaner-greener) to help everyday people learn more about their utility, understand how our electrical system came to be, and get involved in the process—whether through their utility, in their community, or at the ballot box.

TIME TO FAST FORWARD In 2019, encouraged by our series of successful local leadership summits and a new state administration with an interest in combating climate change, the Academy’s Climate & Energy team and steering committee sensed an opportunity to scale up the conversation from the local and regional to the statewide level. In addition, after reviewing participant feedback from prior events, we knew that people were craving events with more dialogue, the opportunity to ask questions and contribute, and more actionable items to “take home” afterward. With this in mind, we designed Climate Fast Forward, a conference that would attract not only attendants but active participants. The conference took place on November 8, 2019, at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison, overlooking beautiful Lake Monona. Welcoming remarks and morning panels helped set the stage for the day, motivating participants and charging them with the task of generating bold solutions for our state. Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, who shared some concrete examples of how that city is tackling climate with such things as investment in electric vehicles and solar panels, characterized our climate emergency as “an all-hands-on-deck effort” that requires interdisciplinary and intersectional collaboration. University of Wisconsin–Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced she would be signing an ambitious com m i tm ent ca lled “Secon d Nature,” tasking the university to become more resilient by collaborating

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with local and state entities to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretarydesignee Preston Cole emphasized the urgency of the problem and the agency’s role in responding—and leading. “Now is the time. Not tomorrow,” said Cole. “We’re going to pay attention to the science, and we’re going to pay attention to the law when we begin to do the work that the people are asking us to do.” Participants moved from plenary sessions to breakout rooms, where they shared insight and expertise around topics of energy generation, energy use, resilience and adaptation, natural carbon sinks, and governance. Each breakout group was asked to develop a set of solutions in the topic areas that could be passed on to Wisconsin decision-makers. This collaborative process is one of the greatest strengths of the Academy: the ability to bring together diverse voices and perspectives, wrestle with a major challenge, and brainstorm viable solutions. The best solutions arise, as we’ve learned over the years, when people contribute different life experiences, skill sets, and ways of thinking. Fiction writer and educator Kim Suhr observed that “the power of the day came with the eclectic group of voices that came together to explore solutions to our climate change crisis.” At her breakout table were “a couple of climate activists, a farmer, a writer, a college student, some retirees, a former teacher, a young founder of an NGO, and a recent AmeriCorps participant.” The result, she said, was “worthwhile discussion and out-of-the-box thinking.” Paul Robbins, director of the renowned Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at UW–Madison, shared reflections from the main stage on the breakout groups’ recommendations, noting how inspired he was by the sheer number of solutions that participants generated. Referencing the Drawdown book with its one hundred global climate solutions, Robbins declared, “We now have a Drawdown for the state of Wisconsin.” He added that by harnessing the participants’ drive and home-grown expertise at this crucial moment, the conference had come up with a plan for climate leadership and action that could resonate with decision makers in Wisconsin and beyond. Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, the Chair of the Governor’s Climate Change Task Force, listened to the top recommendations and assured participants that those in Governor Evers’s administration “are partners in this work” who similarly want to “find solutions that make life more fair, equitable, and just.” At the end of this auspicious day, feelings of hope and energy, generated by working together toward solutions, were echoed in the closing benediction by poet and Academy Fellow Robin Chapman. Her poem “We are few, and so I wish for more—” (see sidebar) struck a solid chord with the weary but inspired conference participants.

has championed the Climate & Energy Initiative, over the years the project has benefited from the different skills and leadership of several directors: Melissa Gavin, Meg Domroese, and Meredith Keller. The oversight of the initiative was entrusted to me in 2016. With these skilled and passionate women leading the way, the Academy has over the past seven years worked with the state’s best thinkers on climate change to develop a plan to address the most wicked problem of them all. Carrying on the tradition of prior Wisconsin Strategy Initiatives, other Academy programs amplified the research and recommendations developed through the Climate & Energy Initiative. Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine ran articles on various clean energy efforts, an update on the Wisconsin contingent participating in COP21, and a guide to the way energy decisions are made at the utility level. To help us better see climate change through the eyes of visual artists, James Watrous Gallery director Jody Clowes brought together five Wisconsin artists from across the state for the major Spring 2019 exhibition, Uprooted: Plants in a Changing Climate. Reflecting back on the impact of the Climate & Energy Initiative, I would say the Academy’s biggest success has been bringing together this respectful, determined, and collaborative community of leaders and problem solvers and providing them with purpose and opportunity. Whether by advising on a report, exchanging ideas at a conference, learning about a new topic at an environmental breakfast, or reading a post from our initiative blog or an article in Wisconsin People & Ideas, the people involved in the Academy’s Climate & Energy Initiative have found themselves surrounded by a thoughtful and receptive community where ideas grow into action. Participants say they are emboldened by the solidarity, conviction, and camaraderie they have found, as well as by the many collaborations that have formed around the Academy’s climate change activities—all of which are moving forward with purpose at this very moment. Our goal always was—and still is—to provide the tools and the spark to act on climate change. I like to think of our work as creating a repository of carefully crafted ideas from which those with the will to act can draw. I invite you to draw from this repository as well and join the others that make up the Academy’s Climate & Energy network. Be courageous, share your wisdom, and put ideas into action so together we can build the best possible Wisconsin and world for our children.

MOVING BOLDLY INTO THE FUTURE

Learn more about the Wisconsin Academy's recent Climate & Energy Initiative work at wisconsinacademy.org/fastforward.

It’s true that in recent years, Wisconsin leaders have faltered in their pursuit of clean energy and environmental protections guided by scientific research. Despite this, there has been a steadfast community of problem-solvers and leaders who have not wavered in their determination to keep moving forward at every opportunity. While Academy executive director Jane Elder

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RO OU UD D PR S PO ON N SS O OR R of the the of CO ON N SS II N N WISC CA AD D EE M MYY AC

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From the documentary “Tribal Histories: Red Cliff”

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COLLECTIONS & CONNECTIONS 150 Years of the Wisconsin Academy

WHS image ID 1944

uilding a specimen collection of plant, animal, and mineral resources was a matter of scientific interest and civic pride for the Wisconsin Academy’s 19th-century founders. Such specimens were more than curiosities: they were physical documents of the region’s natural resources and important teaching tools. For frontier states like Wisconsin, these collections played a fundamental role in attracting settlers and directing economic development. However, the history of the Academy’s collection is tantalizingly murky. Written documentation is sparse, and no photographs of the collection have been found. From the minutes of early Academy meetings, we know that the first donations to the collection were a “wolverine from Juneau County and a lynx from near Madison, in addition to rocks and soil from Sauk County,” and that the collection was displayed at the Wisconsin State Capitol building. We also know that the Academy’s mineral collections were moved to the new Science Hall building after the University of Wisconsin’s own natural science collection was destroyed in the 1884 Science Hall fire. But the whereabouts of the rest of the Academy’s collection is unknown. It’s possible that the collection never left the State Capitol and was lost when the building was destroyed in a catastrophic 1904 fire. One can hope that the cabinet specimens were integrated with the Wisconsin Historical Society collection or dispersed among UW–Madison departments, but we haven’t found evidence to support this hope. As we began planning an exhibition about the Academy’s history, it seemed only natural to invite artist and former James Watrous Gallery director Martha Glowacki to devise an imaginative recreation of the lost Academy cabinet. We thought that this “cabinet of Wisconsin curiosities” might blow a little dust from the Academy’s remarkable history, raise important questions about the means and ends of scientific investigation, and inspire us to reflect on the important work of the Academy’s founders. To this end, Martha’s cabinet includes specimens and instruments that represent the collections of nine early Academy naturalists and historians: Increase A. Lapham, Thuré Kumlien, Philo Romayne Hoy, Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, Roland Duer Irving, Charles Van Hise, Edward Birge, Harriet Bell Merrill, and Charles E. Brown. The objects illustrated here are just a small sampling of the treasures Martha uncovered in local museums and university collections as she searched for this elusive collection from the Academy’s past.

Jody Clowes Director, James Watrous Gallery

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Three fossil plant specimens dating to the Cretaceous period, collected in Kansas by Francis H. Snow. Collection of the University of Wisconsinâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Madison Geology Museum. Photograph by Carrie Eaton. These three beautifully preserved fossil leaf specimens, dating to the Earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cretaceous period, are approximately 80 million years old. At this time, flowering plants were first becoming widespread. Of particular interest to current Wisconsin residents, the fossil leaf on the lower left comes from a buckthorn tree. All three specimens were acquired by the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum in the 1880s.

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Three wax teaching models illustrating stages in the embryonic development of a grasshopper. Part of a larger set of models, maker unknown. Late 19th or early 20th century. Collection of the University of Wisconsinâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Madison Zoological Museum. Photograph by Craig Brabant. A three-dimensional model can often illustrate biological principles more effectively than words or two-dimensional images. Models are particularly useful when the processes they describe are too small to observe with the naked eye. Teaching models such as these were made of wax, glass, or papier mĂ˘chĂŠ and were common in 19th century zoology classrooms. These grasshopper embryo models likely date to the late 19th century, when there was great interest in learning about the developmental stages of animal and insect embryos.

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One of several large meteorites discovered ca. 1868 in the town of Trenton, near West Bend, Wisconsin. Collection of the Milwaukee Public Museum. Between 1868 and 1869, Increase A. Lapham spent time examining several meteorites that had been unearthed by a farmer in the town of Trenton about forty miles north of Milwaukee. Lapham sent one of the meteorites off for analysis by chemist John Lawrence Smith. After sectioning the meteorite, Smith discovered a complex series of geometrical patterns in the smooth sectioned surface which he named â&#x20AC;&#x153;Laphamite Markings.â&#x20AC;? Lapham is shown examining this particular meteorite with a magnifying glass in the well-known stereograph image below.

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Collection of bird eggs, both domestic and wild birds, with handwritten labels. Provenance unknown. Late 19th to early 20th century. Collection of the Sauk County Historical Society. Photograph by Andy Kraushaar. Collecting wild bird eggs was a popular pastime in the 19th century. By the late 1800s, naturalists began to call for an end to the practice as bird populations plummeted due to overhunting, egg-collecting by hobbyists, and the use of ornamental plumes in ladiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; hats. While it is now illegal to collect wild bird eggs and feathers in the United States, historical collections can be valuable sources for DNA sampling and other measurements.

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American burying beetle specimen, collected in Wisconsin by William S. Marshall in 1874. Wisconsin Insect Research Collection. Photograph by Craig Brabant. Once widespread in the United States, the American burying beetle has now disappeared from most of its historic range. It is now listed as a critically endangered species and is the subject of great scientific interest. There are several theories about the speciesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; decline. One theory links the beetlesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; scarcity to declining populations of birds that preferred burying beetle carrion, including passenger pigeons, prairie chickens, and ring-necked pheasants.

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Set of numbered glass vials filled with colored water from the Edward A. Birge archives, ca. 1920â&#x20AC;&#x201C;30. From the collection of the University of Wisconsin Zoological Museum. Photograph by Craig Brabant. UWâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Madison limnologists Edward A. Birge and Chancey Juday developed innovative experiments and tools to measure the penetration of sunlight into Wisconsin lakes during the 1920s and 1930s. This set of colored water samples was likely used as a quantitative way to describe the color of water at different depths.

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SEE THE EXHIBITION On view at the James Watrous Gallery in Overture Center for the Arts 201 State Street • Madison

COLLECTIONS & CONNECTIONS FEBRUARY 14–APRIL 5 Please join us for:

Exhibition Reception and Panel Thursday, February 20 • 5:00–7:30 pm Panel discussion, 6:00 pm: On natural history collecting in the 19th century, with historians Sarah Anne Carter, Lynn Nyhart, and exhibition curator Martha Glowacki.

Ethical Stewardship of Indigenous Collections Wednesday, March 11 • 6:30 pm A gallery talk with poet Kimberly M. Blaeser and historian Kendra Greendeer.

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral … and Digital Thursday, March 26 • 6:00 pm Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State Street, Madison Panel discussion on the role of natural history collections in contemporary research, featuring museum curators Craig Brabant, Ken Cameron, Carrie Eaton, and Laura Monahan.

Gallery Talk Tuesday, March 31 • 6:00 pm Tour the Collections & Connections exhibition with co-curators Martha Glowacki and Jody Clowes.

Thanks to Wisconsin Academy donors, members, and the following sponsors for their support:

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Specimen example page from The Mosses of Wisconsin, Collected and Prepared, by Increase A. Lapham, 1859. Collection of the Wisconsin State Herbarium. Photograph by Mark A. Wetter. Increase A. Lapham was a prolific collector as well as an author. This very special handmade book was most likely created as a reference collection for sale to others. It contains one hundred pressed specimens of different mosses and lichens Lapham collected in Wisconsin.

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poetry

150 Years Tall, Many Fathoms Deep Honoring the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters 150th Anniversary

See through these words, colors, movements, measures See first green shoot, see roots taking hold and up at the source, see fissure in the ground, see clear cold water, a spring See trunk, branch, twig, flowering of leaf or bud of needle, see, even if you can’t See how it rises becoming brook, becoming creek, rush of stream, widening, deepening, see pre-spring sap rising, see spring flurry of simple or intricate seed wings to river ox-bowing, meandering, banking, absorbing rain, snow, rain cutting new channels, seeking Look up and see 150-year expanse of nurturing canopy See how roots took hold, how

river joins river becomes salty, how words seek full ocean of knowing

Margaret Rozga

Wisconsin Poet Laureate • 2019–2020

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On Mapping Ideas i. when wonder leads us to the perfumed unknown Here the chiseled arrow like talon prints, the surveyor’s disc—a bronze benchmark. A platform for each eagle measure we take— our vision leveled and looking. But hungry. Across the dynamic landscape of history we set markers. Our flags a sweet curiosity. ii. when a map spells destiny in breadcrumbs Each quivering X-mark a pirate’s treasure— a buried belonging we unearth. Each poem treatise or charcoal whimsy—teak ranging rods we embed and story. Scattered through decades like Hanzel’s shiny pebble path—sightings to follow from trump dark times to new survivals. iii. when ideas spiral spiral and return There too we chart the ancient—lost cadence of civility. Find coordinates. In rivered veins of hands: Many. Unclenched. At table. Together. The silence of waiting—a pathway learned here. Soon voices flutter, fill the room like migrating birds. A refrain to practice, a motion of oldest endurance. Kimberly M. Blaeser Wisconsin Poet Laureate • 2015–2016

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THINGS TO DO • PEOPLE TO MEET • IDEAS TO SHARE

e t a r b e l e C

CONNECT

LEARN! At the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences,

Arts & Letters, we believe that Wisconsin ideas move the world forward. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a place to celebrate Wisconsin ideas, connect with experts, and learn from each other.

wisconsinacademy.org/celebrate

Welcome to “The You Issue” of Wisconsin People & Ideas. In case you haven’t noticed, you are on the cover of the magazine. This of course is by design, a reminder to anyone who picks it up that this magazine is all about our shared Wisconsin experience. When we were contemplating what to do for our special anniversary issue, we wanted to honor both the Academy’s service to the state over the past 150 years and invite more people to participate in our programs. These programs—an art gallery, magazine, public talks, and environmental initiatives— are designed to encourage learning and discovery at any age. But they are also meant to improve our quality of life in Wisconsin. People tell us that the art we showcase sparks their imagination, our magazine and talks keep them informed, and our environmental initiatives give them hope for a sustainable future for Wisconsin—and the world. People also tell us they sometimes have a hard time understanding what this little organization with big ambitions and an old-timey name is all about. In a word: Wisconsin. So, if you are proud of your home state and curious about the world, we are the place for you: Your Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. This means that your passions, your issues, and your ideas have a place in this magazine. We’re interested in hearing about them—and about you—in 2020 and beyond.

Ones to Watch

Patrick Stutz Photography

New Fiction "Foxx Finds a Tree" Nickolas Butler

New Poetry "Carbon" Max Garland

Cover Art Jason A. Smith Editor, Wisconsin People & Ideas Associate Director, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters

LocaMojis like this Old Fashioned make texting with one hand a lot easier.

THE YOU ISSUE

NES TO WATCH

Wisconsin people are amazing. We think they are so amazing that we've dedicated an entire magazine to them: Wisconsin People & Ideas. It's our job at the magazine to find and share thoughtful stories about Wisconsin people and homegrown ideas that have the power to move the world forward. Come with us on this journey through the next few pages and you'll get to know these Ones to Watch who share our vision for a brighter future inspired by Wisconsin ideas.

FRANK ANDERSON Fond du Lac CHRONICLER OF WEIRD WISCONSIN Frank Anderson knows a lot about Wisconsin. As the founder of the blog Wisconsinology, Anderson is committed to sharing little-known stories about Wisconsin people and events that help us better understand our state and culture. Born on Basilan Island in the Philippines, Anderson moved to Deerfield at age 11 with his family and was struck by the many strange and fascinating folklore tales about Wisconsin he heard and read about. During his years as an animator and a stop-motion director for film and commercials, Anderson began chronicling these tales of weird Wisconsin and thinking about ways to share them with a 2

WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS

broader audience. In Fall 2016, Anderson made his first post to his Wisconsinology blog: the story of Wisconsin Rapids-born illustrator Grim Natwick, the creator of Betty Boop. “Good or bad, it came from Wisconsin,” he says, citing important and interesting historical figures such as Fighting Bob and Joseph McCarthy, Gary Gygax and Ed Gein, the famous Wisconsin Wilders: Thornton, Gene, and Laura Ingalls. Well-known events like the Great Peshtigo Fire and the 1954 total eclipse over Wisconsin are explored, as are lesser-known ones such as sightings of the Wisconsin Harlequin and the Mineral Point Vampire. All of these bite-sized stories are collected, illustrated, and occasionally podcasted on his Wisconsinology blog, which Anderson says skews toward the weird and wondrous. “I love the feeling of the old world—monsters, spirits—being so close to the new world,” says Anderson. “I’ve never been to a place, other than the Philippines, where this feeling is so strong as it is here.” Another fun fact, according to Anderson: more posters have been made of Wisconsin than of any other state. Anderson decided to add his own to the mix, with his hand-drawn “Monsters, Myths & Legends of Wisconsin” poster. For Anderson, the blog, hand-drawn poster, and a few forthcoming video projects are all ways of showing his love for a state he finds “endlessly interesting.”

HOLLY DOLLIVER River Falls

World Wildlife Fund

EDUCATION THROUGH RECLAMATION

DEKILA CHUNGYALPA Madison FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE WITH FAITH Dekila Chungyalpa is on the forefront of a new movement to bring together two powerful tools in the fight against climate change: science and faith. Through the Loka Initiative at UW–Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds, Chungyalpa is encouraging religious leaders to work with each other as well as with scientists and policy-makers to change the way communities of faith talk about and act upon climate change. Chungyalpa came upon the idea for Loka (the word is ancient Sanskrit for one, or many, worlds) while directing a faith-led conservation program for the World Wildlife Fund in Asia. She noticed that many of the Zen Buddhist nuns and monks became interested in the science of climate change after seeing the impacts on their communities. As an environmental scientist and a person of faith, Chungyalpa saw an opportunity to bring large groups of people from across the world together around shared ethics and values that can support climate action. Drawing support from Center for Healthy Minds director Richard Davidson and Global Health Initiative director Jonathan Patz (both of whom frequently participate in Academy programs), Chungyalpa has initiated numerous conversations and partnerships between faith leaders and scientists from around the world. For Chungyalpa and her colleagues at the Loka Initiative, it’s about working together as allies to address a global issue, one that transcends local and regional boundaries. “Faith and science together make the perfect equation,” says Chungyalpa, “and that’s what we need if we want to see change happen within the next ten years.”

Holly Dolliver’s interest in nature began at a young age. After noticing the stinky algal blooms in Dunns Lake on her family’s farm, she wanted to learn more about why the blooms appeared—and what she could do to stop them. Years later, Dolliver took her childhood curiosity about the natural world and turned it into a career as a professor of soil science at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls. For the past five years, Dolliver has been focusing her research on an issue that affects her part of the state: how to reclaim native soils lost to frac sand mining. Frac sand, a fine-grained sand that appears naturally throughout the western part of Wisconsin, is mined for use in the hydraulic fracturing mining of natural gas. Abandoned mines, often closed when they are no longer profitable, leave large, open swathes of exposed sand with little vegetation upon the landscape. The restoration of these mining sites is a complex and little-understood process that Dolliver says works only when you have collaboration between industry, local government, and the research community. She says she’s been fortunate to have partners such as Chippewa County and Superior Silica Sands, as well as a group of committed students, to explore ways to reclaim the native soil at mine sites. Through their efforts over the years, Dolliver and her students have successfully restored a test plot at Superior Silica Sands back to its original wild prairie, allowing for the return of native plants and wildlife. Dolliver is optimistic that these results can be replicated at other sites and is excited to see her students sharing in this success. “I can’t think of a better way for them to launch into their own careers,” she says.

See the insert on page 24 for your own "Myths, Monsters & Legends" poster from Wisconsinology!

THE YOU ISSUE

Megan Chomeau/OnMilwaukee

JASON McDOWELL Milwaukee LOCAL EMOJIS Emojis—those little symbols used for texting and messaging—can be a fun if somewhat ambiguous form of digital communication. While many emojis are designed for global application, Milwaukee artist Jason McDowell is making free, downloadable emojis that inspire pride in (and a few giggles about) his hometown. Creative director for the online daily magazine OnMilwaukee, McDowell understands the importance of using art to connect the community. His concept for what he calls LocaMojis takes iconic people and places from the Milwaukee area and reimagines them as quirky little graphic icons. While some LocaMojis are familiar—a Summerfest cream puff, Bob Uecker’s face, Bronze Fonz thumbs, the Mitchell Park Domes—others are fairly obscure: Alice Cooper saying “MILLY-WAH-KAY,” Duane Hanson’s Janitor sculpture from the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Kooky Cooky House. McDowell’s LocaMojis idea started in 2017 with about ten original designs and has expanded to over a hundred text-friendly emojis, gifs, and stickers that have people talking—and texting—about the Cream City. While the Milwaukee series includes plenty of LocaMojis with statewide appeal (think: a brandy old fashioned or accordion), McDowell is hoping to expand LocaMojis to other Wisconsin communities in the near future.

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ELENA TERRY

VOYAGEURS SOURDOUGH

Wisconsin Dells

Green Bay

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY FOR THOUGHT

COMMUNITY CAFÉ CULTURE

Chef Elena Terry believes that food and community reveal their best qualities when they come together. A member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, Terry began cooking traditional, indigenous foods with her grandmother at an early age. Today she runs a catering service called Wild Bearies that brings the delicious flavors of native ingredients that are healthy and sustainable to new audiences. Through Wild Bearies, Terry provides traditional Native American foods for regional events (Farm Aid 2019) and local venues (Ho-Chunk Gaming) alike, while mentoring a small group of employees that need a little help reconnecting to their tribal community. Much of Terry’s time outside of cooking is spent teaching people from other tribes and outside the tribal community about the many ways traditional foods such as bison, wild rice, and blue corn can be sustainably grown and prepared. In addition to owning Wild Bearies, Terry works for the Intertribal Agriculture Council as one of the Great Lakes chef consultants, and for the Indigenous Mobile Farmers' Market as an advocate for indigenous ingredients. She says the world would be a better place if we all had a better relationship with our food, our traditions, and the people around us. “Society has a way of separating us into classes,” says Terry. “The judgment, the ego, all of that needs to be put aside when it comes to our food.”

Ben Cadman and Celeste Parins, the owners of Voyageurs Sourdough, want to share their love of bread with the people of Green Bay. Parins, a Green Bay native, met the Netherlands-born Cadman while traveling across Asia. As the two bonded over their love of food, especially the different breads found in European bakeries, they wondered why many American cities no longer have

bakeries. As a child, Cadman had watched his father, an executive chef, make sourdough bread from scratch. What if the two opened their own bakery in Parins’ hometown? According to Cadman and Parins, it’s really hard to find traditional sourdough bread because of the labor involved: a two-day process in which the dough is fermented using yeast and lactobacilli (a bacteria that converts sugars to lactic acid) and kneaded by hand multiple times before baking. Yet the two see the breadmaking process as a commitment to an ancient food that has brought people together for thousands of years. According to Parins, the two source all their grains from local farms. “LedgeCrest Family Farm [in Greenleaf] grows ancient and heritage varietals—spelt, rye, durum wheat— and our regular bread consumers get a chance to taste that difference,” she says, pointing out how she provides tasting notes for what to look for in a loaf. “Part of our mission is to help people explore bread. We believe that people can find different flavors in different loaves, like wine.” Today Voyageurs delivers loaves to 75 homes in the Green Bay area as well as fifteen restaurants, five retailers, and a number of farmers’ markets. Parins says their next big step is the Spring 2020 opening of a bricks-and-mortar bakery in the heart of the city, a place where people can find a little bit of that European café culture. “We know from experience that, of everything that goes into the food we consume, love and care are just as important as the ingredients,” says Parins.

THE YOU ISSUE

WORKING DRAFT BEER CO. Madison BREWING UP COLLABORATIONS Let’s make a beer together. This is how collaborations such as the one between Working Draft Beer Company and the Wisconsin Academy get started. For the Academy’s 150th anniversary and in honor of its magazine of Wisconsin thought and culture, Wisconsin People & Ideas, the Madison-based Working Draft Beer Company is brewing a special blond IPA called WP&IPA. The small-batch beer will be served at Academy events in 2020, such as the February 27 Weirdsconsin storytelling event held in the Working Draft taproom and the March 6 Gala150 at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Working Draft, which opened on the near east side of the city in 2018, takes its name from the revision process at the heart of its brewing philosophy, creating and re-creating (in the case of certain heritage beers) flavors that dazzle beer aficionados and casual imbibers alike. Fittingly, for a craft beer named after a magazine that is all about Wisconsin, Working Draft head brewer Clinton Lohman chose Wisconsin-sourced ingredients: malted barley sourced from Briess in Chilton and a mixture of Wisconsin Cascade, Horse Valley, and Skyrocket hops, which will provide a pineapple-like flavor profile. Lohman says that the anniversary beer, which was started in late January 2020 will be “interesting, fun, and hoppy, with lots of hop aroma and flavor without the bitterness.” Brewer Lohman, along with founder Ryan Browne and brothers Ben and Matt Feifarek have built their business model for Working Draft around collaboration and community. Their taproom, with an L-shaped bar and long tables of recycled wood straddling a wide-open gathering space, is made for mingling and conversation. Because the brewery is open and visible from the taproom, on brew days there is a warm, yeasty smell that

permeates the 4,700-square-foot space. A mural by Madison-based artist Jenie Gao—two hands cupping water surrounded by images of grain, hops, and yeast— welcomes visitors and prepares them for a veritable smorgasbord of craft beers that change with the seasons: winter milkshake stouts and black barleywines step aside for summertime witbiers, pale ales, even grisettes, traditional Belgian beers made to quench the thirst of miners. The mural is just one facet of the Artist-in-Residence program Working Draft hosts to ensure space for the arts in the taproom, which acts as a venue for acoustic music, a backdrop for poetry readings, and a platform for community events such as the Academy’s Weirdsconsin storytelling session. “One of the big pieces of our identity with the brewery is that beer is an awesome catalyst for bringing people together,” says co-owner Ryan Browne. “That’s really why we opened the brewery and designed it the way we did.”

The Working Draft brewing team, Ryan Jennings and Clinton Lohman.

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FOXX FINDS A TREE BY N I CKO LAS BUTLER

rom his kitchen window, Nathaniel Foxx counted six bulldozers in the neighboring cornfield. Or what was

left of the cornfield. It began with a For Sale sign that Foxx drove by for months, but ultimately ignored. No one was going to buy eighty acres out here, he’d told himself. Not for the ransom the old farmer’s widow was asking.

WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS

But then, one day and out of the blue, a surveying crew showed up, marking out existing telephone and gas lines with little colored flags, and spray-painting lines on the earth, and weeks later, ground was broken on what Foxx imagined would be a sprawling, stupid, McMansion. Where once he had spied on turkeys and deer with a pair of old binoculars, soon would be a house. More than one, Foxx knew, because houses had gravity. No one house could exist in a vacuum for long before it attracted others. A neighborhood was a galaxy writ small—very, very small. Foxx’s family was asleep, and a gentle snow was falling. A novelist by trade, Foxx had written nothing that day, but had managed to empty the dishwasher, wash a load of laundry, vacuum, and sort the mail, all of which had left him feeling utterly taxed. Completing this list of domestic chores meant that he could avoid any questions of productivity leveled at him by his wife, a successful radiologist. Questions like, “So, what did you do today?” Or, the always difficult-to-answer, “What’s on your docket?” At least if the house was clean, she could plainly see that he had done something, could see, with her own eyes, the vacuum’s furrowed lines in the carpeting or the intentionally preserved streak on a newly cleaned window. Had he opened his computer that day? Of course. But only long enough to order the new Sturgill Simpson album on vinyl. Just before bed, as Amy was brushing her long brown hair, she’d said, “We really need to get a Christmas tree. And this weekend is going to be so busy. … Ugh. I’m almost ready to fold and get a plastic one.” Of course, she was right and on all counts. A plastic tree would be more practical—but, Christ, so unromantic. And the upcoming weekend was jam-packed with activity. Every weekend, it seemed, revolved around the kids’ swim-meets and long journeys to La Crosse, Wausau, or Black River Falls, with Foxx spending his Saturday and Sunday in a crowded natatorium on narrow bleachers, making small-talk with other swim-parents while unsuccessfully hiding behind a novel he pretended to be engrossed with. How he wished his children had no athletic talent whatsoever. From the refrigerator, he retrieved his stash of pre-rolled joints (a souvenir from a recent family trip to Colorado) and, donning his Woolrich jacket and winter cap, stepped out into the early December cold. He patted his pockets, feeling around for a lighter. Be prepared, that was Foxx’s motto. The cold was exquisite, the air wet with snow. He cupped his hands and held the lighter’s flame near his mouth, inhaling as he walked through the night towards the bulldozers. His neighbor wasn’t a bad guy, but he was a developer, which Foxx felt was a misleading term. Wayne Delacourt destroyed farmland, so, more accurately, he was a destroyer, and sometimes in polite conversation with Wayne, Foxx would stymie a giggle as he thought of his neighbor in this Conan-like light. Wayne-the-Destroyer, clad in rabbit fur shorts, leg muscles bulging over tall deerskin boots, chest glistening in the sun, a giant sword slicing through the Wisconsin air. Funny. Really, Wayne was a nice-enough man in his fifties with a penchant for Orvis clothing and Sperry shoes. Divorced, and with kids in college, Wayne lived in the offending house—a rather tasteful take on the modern farmhouse, actually—by himself, and only sometimes.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

N I CKO LAS BUTLER Ni c ko l a s Bu t l e r wa s b o r n i n A l l e ntown, Pennsylvania, raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and educated at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop. His novels include the internationally best-selling and prize-winning Shotgun Lovesongs, which has been translated into ten languages, and Little Faith, which was published in 2019 to critical acclaim. Butler is the recipient of many literary prizes and commendations and has had his stories, poems, and essays published widely. Prior to publishing Shotgun Lovesongs in 2014, Butler worked a series of odd jobs: coffee roaster, liquor store clerk, hot-dog vendor, author escort, meat-packer, telemarketer, maintenance man. But perhaps his oddest job was as the office manager for the Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts & Letters. He is married and lives with his wife and two children on sixteen acres of land next to a buffalo farm in rural Wisconsin.

WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS

“You ever get lost in that house?” Foxx said one afternoon when Delacourt happened to be next to him pumping gas at the Texaco on the southern end of town. “Just you, kicking around in all that space?” “It’s really only three thousand feet,” Wayne said. “Modest by a lot of standards.” “Still,” Foxx pressed, “plenty of guys your age, they’re thinking of downsizing. Am I right?” Foxx realized, as he sometimes did, what an ass he was being. “Well,” Delacourt inhaled, “what can I say? I like the country. Grew up on a farm.” “Huh,” Foxx sighed, recollecting his own childhood in suburban Minneapolis, the neighborhood newly carved out of a forest, a small lake, and some old farmland. “I divide my time,” Delacourt had explained, “between the spec-house and my condo in the city. I don’t think it’s good practice to have that house sit empty.” “So you’re going to sell it? Just like that? “It’s the first of many, I hope,” Delacourt grinned. “Whitetail Prairie, I’m calling it. Five-acre minimum lot size. Each property on its own well and septic. A few shared neighborhood amenities. A stocked pond, walking and biking trails. Maybe use the leftover fill to build a sledding hill. Going to be the bee’s knees.” Foxx nodded gravely. All of that sounded both appealing and fucking awful, like a perfectly produced pop song. “Good to see you, neighbor,” Delacourt had called, before climbing into the cabin of his shiny Ford F-150. Foxx relit his joint, felt snowflakes on his eyelids. The lights seemed to be off in Delacourt’s house; no doubt he was in Eau Claire, perhaps canoodling with some divorcées at Mona Lisa’s, sipping expensive cocktails at the bar and exchanging small-town gossip. “Fucking bulldozers,” Foxx muttered. The weed was loosening him now, and he had a habit of talking to himself, a guard against the overwhelming rural darkness. He still froze in terror at the sound of midnight coyotes singing. But it had to be said: Delacourt did good work. There was no vinyl siding on his stupid neo-farmhouse, no cheap Menards roofing. If this was the future, it would no doubt raise the value of Foxx’s house—and that was something. When Foxx began feeling righteous about his rural privacy, he occasionally recalled a Dennis Miller bit from the 90s, back in the days when Miller was still snarky-hilarious, something to the effect of, “A developer is someone who wants to build a house in the woods. An environmentalist already has a house in the woods.” Foxx closed his eyes, felt the snow sizzling on his skin. That felt nice. He stuck out his tongue and tasted snow, then felt a deep melancholy, imagining some distant point in the future when his rapidly warming planet would be snowless, iceless, and on fire. He almost began weeping, aware of his own fortu-

nate existence, in this place, in this time. What did he hear on the news, something like a billion animals were killed in the fires raging across Australia? The snow was intensifying, and now Foxx walked closer to Delacourt’s house. The landscaping that sonuvabitch had paid for was really something: bunches of native prairie grasses, big slabs of native shale wedged into the lawn, young pine trees and a few oaks, all elegantly encircled in white Christmas lights. Foxx walked up the driveway, up the sidewalk, and, leaning against the wide picture window of the porch, stared into Delacourt’s house. For a straight man in his late fifties or early sixties, Delacourt had a tastefully appointed house. No taxidermy or framed Green Bay Packers jerseys. In fact, there seemed to be a largish Tom Uttech painting on a wall in the foyer, just above a wooden bowl full of pine and sumac cones. “A fucking Uttech?” Foxx said. “Son-uv-a-bitch.” By now he was cold and, increasingly, peckish. Stepping carefully, if not awkwardly, into his own boot prints, Foxx returned home. In his own kitchen, trying to be as quiet as possible, he summited a footstool to reach a bowl in the cupboards above the refrigerator where the kids’ Halloween candy was stored. The children had been told a month ago that the candy had all grown stale. Two pieces, he told himself, no more than two pieces. Foxx sifted through the bowl, trying to determine if he was more enticed by the notion of chocolate, nuts, and nougat, or sugary fruit— Alright, four pieces. But no more than four pieces. He carried the candy into the living room and, settling onto the couch, decided to watch Meru for the sixth or seventh time. Rock-climbing and mountaineering documentaries were a passion of his that no one else in his family shared, and the best of them combined themes of bravery, brotherhood, tragedy, and triumph in ways totally inexplicable to Foxx, who suffered a debilitating fear of heights and a general aversion to discomfort. Aside from climbing the insurmountable summit of Meru—not to mention surviving avalanches, horrific storms, trench-foot, and frostbite—Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk had eaten couscous for days on end in freezing, freezing cold. Couscous! Now the fourth piece of candy was long gone, and Foxx had once again climbed the footstool and was balancing the candy bowl against this stomach as he rummaged around for peanut butter cups. He carried six pieces of candy back into the living room and peered out the window into the darkness. Even through the gloom, the snow was visible, and falling harder than ever. In the distance, Delacourt’s house glistened like champagne crystal, festive little lights sparkling through the snow. Foxx had an idea.

Now the fourth piece of candy was long gone, and Foxx had once again climbed the footstool and was balancing the candy bowl against this stomach as he rummaged around for peanut butter cups.

month earlier, Amy had dropped him off at a nearby dairy farm where Foxx had noticed a beater pickup truck with a plow attachment for sale. An old farmer hobbled out into the cold on a pair of tragic crutches to give Foxx a full history of the vehicle before confessing that he was selling the beloved truck because he was dying of cancer and drowning in debt. Foxx had written a check for twenty-five hundred over asking, a gesture the farmer found insulting, and for thirty minutes they stood in the farmer’s driveway,

THE YOU ISSUE

arguing, the farmer too proud to take the payment, until at last Foxx seized the old man’s hand, stuffed the check into his fist, said sternly, “You deserve this,” and drove off, embarrassed but unsure what else to do. For years Foxx had ignored the need for a truck with a plow—a requisite, really, for country living—and instead had hired a snow-removal company. And yet, he’d discovered that plowing, or at least being in the truck, had become something of an obsession. How the truck smelled like that old farmer: sweat, cow shit, dust, hay. In the glove box were maps long since outdated and a pack of Chesterfields Foxx kept like a relic. Now Foxx donned his jacket, winter boots, calfskin gloves, and, trudging back to the kitchen, threw another joint and four more pieces of candy in a paper sack before marching out to the truck. Six more inches of snow blanketed the ground. The truck started sluggishly. Foxx gave the cab time to warm, gave the windshield time to melt all that accumulated snow. In the garage he rooted around for several minutes before finding a shovel and a handsaw, both of which he deposited in the bed of the truck. Slung in the toasty cab, Foxx felt a real sense of purpose and satisfaction electrifying his body. He tuned the FM dial to a classic rock station, dropped the plow, and began clearing his long driveway. Plowing was something of a hobby for Foxx, a novelty. But he could see another path for his life in which he started a lawn maintenance and snow removal business. Foxx imagined captaining a small crew of four to six damaged, semi-reliable men, marshaling their orders, writing their checks, listening to their tribulations, paying bail to spring one of them from the hoosegow. He lit another joint and considered that life. It was an easy thing to do with the sound of the Allman Brothers filling the cab and the thick snow falling through the haze of his headlights. When his driveway was clean, Foxx drove over to Delacourt’s house, and, parking the truck on the road, marched onto his neighbor’s lawn. After evaluating several six-foot-tall spruce trees, he selected one, unplugged its Christmas lights from an extension cord, and cut it down. Foxx dragged the tree to the truck and threw it in the bed, huffing from the effort. He stared at the sky, hoping it would continue to snow to cover his tracks and the telltale drag mark. Delacourt’s driveway did not take long to clear, and, when that swath of concrete was clean, Foxx shoveled the sidewalks, carrying snow whenever possible to a point from which he could fling it towards his tracks in the yard. When the work was complete, he stood in the driveway, dripping sweat. He re-lit the joint, inhaled, and coughed rather raggedly. Through the dark, dark night, two lights dimly appeared. Foxx studied their slow approach, utterly mesmerized. Traffic was scant, at this hour, save for last-call at the Cleghorn Keg, a crossroads bar about a mile distant. Foxx’s reverie dissolved as Delacourt’s truck was nosing into the driveway. He flicked the joint out into the snow and waved, focused on looking normal. Delacourt’s tinted window rolled down, revealing in the passenger seat a woman Foxx recognized from around town. “Well, Nathan,” Delacourt said, peering around the driveway in disbelief. “I’ll be damned. You did not have to do this.” He turned to the passenger, “Elise, you know my neighbor? Nathaniel Foxx? The writer?” The lightbulb did not immediately turn on, but then it seemed to warm and flicker, and finally her face broke into a wide, thousand-watt smile. She even clapped her hands excitedly. This was old-hat for Foxx, and the novelist lowered his eyes to look at his boots. Midwestern writers were not supposed to have egos. “Oh sure,” she said, “you’re the firefighter guy. I love that show you do on the radio! Ohmygod!”

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Foxx was not, in fact, the firefighter guy, a talented and beloved man who was a Wisconsin legend, though the two were friends. “Yes,” Foxx said, humbly. “I surely am.” “You’re so funny! And talented! Is there anything you can’t do?” Delacourt cocked his eyebrows a bit, but Foxx guessed that was because he was pondering the fresh-cut tree in the back of his truck rather than his little white lie. “Merry Christmas, Wayne,” Foxx said, grinning rakishly, snowmelt collecting in his eyebrows and dripping off the tip of his nose. “And Merry Christmas to you too, Elise,” he said, impressed that he could recall her name. “I’ve got to get home now. These books don’t write themselves.” “Wow,” she said, “when do you rest?” “Oh,” he demurred, “it’s not working in a coal mine, I assure you.” “Merry Christmas,” Delacourt mumbled over the window as it rose. “Keep up the good work!” Elise shouted exuberantly into the night. “I’ll try,” Foxx said, balancing the shovel on his shoulder and affecting the walk of a man whose daily toil was the most back-breaking labor imaginable, when, in fact, all he really did was write fiction. Lies. The snow stopped falling, as if on cue.

Write On, Door County presents

Writing on the Door: Fiction Conference Friday and Saturday, May 1 and 2 Sister Bay, Wisconsin

NICKOLAS BUTLER

my woke him out of a deep slumber. Foxx had been dreaming of a delicious ham sandwich: a soft, warm, and yielding buttery croissant; yellow mustard and brown mustard; Swiss cheese; a small pile of spicy, crisp arugula; and a few circles of sharp white onion. “I don’t know how you did it,” she said, sitting on the edge of the bed and running a hand through his thinning hair. “It’s a beautiful tree, Nathan.” “It was nothing,” he said, turning away from her and burrowing deeper under the covers. “You made Christmas,” she said, “all by yourself. In the middle of the night.” He opened his eyes and saw beyond the bedroom window to where bulldozers pushed the sad sticks of a hundred-year-old oak forest into a huge pyre. Already, a plume of black smoke was rising into the blue morning sky. “Writing,” he yawned, “that’s the hard work.”

REBECCA MAKKAI

Presenters include: Nickolas Butler Lan Samantha Chang Peter Ho Davies Peter Geye C.J. Hribal Rebecca Makkai Jennifer Morales Diane Zinna

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Write On, Door County 4210 Juddville Road | Fish Creek, WI 54212 writeondoorcounty.org | 920.868.1457

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WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS

FICTION & POETRY CONTESTS

s r e t i r w n i s Wiscon ublication, p , s e z i r p win ! 0 0 5 $ o t p and u

Contests Open January 15 entry fees:

Fiction = $20.00

Per story; multiple submissions accepted. Academy Members receive a 25% discount.

Poetry = $10.00

Up to three poems; multiple submissions accepted. Academy Members receive a 20% discount. entry deadline:

March 15, 2020

enter online:

wisconsinacademy.org/contests Get the attention your writing deserves through our fiction and poetry contests! Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine hosts annual writing contests for Wisconsin residents age 18 and over that provide cash, prizes, and publication. First-place winners in the Wisconsin People & Ideas fiction and poetry contests each receive $500 and one-week artist residencies at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point. Second-place winners receive $250 and third-place winners receive $100. First- through thirdplace winning stories and poems are published in print and online issues of Wisconsin People & Ideas, and all award-winning writers are invited to read their work at a special Wisconsin Book Festival event.

Thanks to our 2020 contest sponsors: 14

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BOOK

F E S T I VA L

Carbon In a dream I saw a table where all the elements fell into place ... Dmitri Mendeleev

You think the elements know the difference between the inanimate and us? And what is the difference, really, between a rock and the hard place the human heart becomes, at times? Does carbon, for instance, care if it abides in coal or bone, pencil tip, French kiss, redwood, deadwood, double martini, or diamond? Chimney smoke? Mortal breath? Do the elements ever miss, like a hometown, the star of their nativity? Like a manger? Like we all miss old flames? Do atoms harbor the memory of immaculate heat, the way I remember the warmth and rocking of a mother? Or imagine I do? Is it accurate to call the outer shell of the carbon atom, where the latches of the compounds click, welcoming? Or just needy? Or merely tolerant of the prodigal electrons of hydrogen, oxygen, all the other lost lambs. Wandering atoms scratching at the door like strays you let in for the night, who curl at the hearth and never leave. Or tiny exiled gods in their sparse garments of motion. If the elements first flowered outward like children blow the crowns of dandelions into wishful scatter and drift, did we become, eventually, their wish come true? So far? Or false? When the neurons first fired, and thought leapt the synapses of our separate skulls—was it chemistry or mythology; evolution or intuition—that first inking of self, like some elemental lamp rubbing itself awake? If metaphor is the radiant half-life of an ever-opening mind, imagine this—

you’ve been driving all night, through night, beyond night, drawn by loneliness, or inertia, or gravity. There is no boredom greater than yours. And suddenly you see, or think you see something flicker, like the sputtering Vacancy sign of an old motel. Say carbon is that old motel. One of the early roadside chains. Carbon 12, let’s call it, with two inner rooms always occupied, and four outer rooms, occasionally, briefly vacant. And the rooms are time worn, but tidy, the retro curtains flimsy as ash, and the owner is absent, but too stubborn to sell, and you’ve been traveling, dear wanderer, dear atom, literally forever... Remember that poem by Frost? The farmer says, Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. But his wife says, No it’s more like something you somehow haven't to deserve. Imagine the carbon atom as a vintage motel, where when you have to go there they have to take you in. It’s not a matter of deserve. Lodge anywhere long enough and it starts to feel like home, as every immigrant atom in your body knows. Mendeleev said he dreamed the order of the elements. It’s hard to know for sure. But I do know the right sleep can take years to fall into—blind alleys, obsessions, outmoded maps, wrongs roads, before the mind stalls at the limits of logic, and steps out over the edge for the deep-dive into the sub-structures and spell-bindings. Before the right dream turns darkness inside out, and you see, or think you see, something flicker, Vacancy reconfigured into what, for lack of a better term, we call here and now— —coal or bone, pencil tip, French kiss, redwood, deadwood, double martini, or diamond. Such is the ruse of the material. Chimney smoke, mortal breath, brief as the distance between darkness and wonder. Max Garland Wisconsin Poet Laureate • 2013–2014

winter 2020

COVER ART There are no better places than the Wisconsin Academy's James Watrous Gallery and Wisconsin People & Ideas for people who like their art the way they like their produceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; hand-picked and locally sourced. For over a century, we've been providing places for Wisconsin artists to show their works and tell their stories. In this issue, we are pleased to share perspectives and new works from a handful of artists whose lives have been touched by our commitment to Wisconsin art and artists.

These covers, spanning the last two decades, show some of our featured artists early on their careers.

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Terese Agnew, Forest Floor in Spring (detail of study 2).

TERESE AGNEW La Farge

n 2017, I mounted my Writing in Stone exhibition at the James Watrous Gallery and shared the story of it in the pages of Wisconsin People & Ideas. The energy and a good bit of humor from James Watrous Gallery director Jody Clowes and other Academy staff made the installation of Writing in Stone possible. I loved the outcome—22 massive sculptures in the twilight setting of the gallery—with the ideas connecting to those explored through the Academy’s concurrent American Dream in Wisconsin series of public talks. It was a very interactive collaboration that inspired all of us to take stock of some of the best parts of our history. After the installation, I began to think again about the other history surrounding us, the one that is quietly (and not so quietly) shrinking. This is another subject that Wisconsin People & Ideas reports on: our environment and the science that goes into understanding it and preserving it.

The forest floor is one part that I experience and love, which led me to pursue a smaller, slower study/representation/art project: creating a three-dimensional quilt of the forest floor in spring. Every little detail interprets in fiber the architecture of a plant responding to the sun, rain, and weather. It is with jaw-dropping wonder that I begin to see how a fern unfolds beneath layers and layers of dead leaves. Trying to make it into art is probably crazy. But our world is one of astounding scientific revelation, inexpressible beauty, and spiritual wonder. It’s the artist’s job to explore it. This seems like what Wisconsin People & Ideas does, too.

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LillyOlivia

Melissa Courtney, Bouquet of Wellness, 2019. Mural installation at the Mequon Public Market by Reginald Baylor Studio in collaboration with Froedert, the Medical Colleges of Wisconsin, and A/E Graphics.

P REGINALD BAYLOR Milwaukee

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rior to having my creative practice featured in Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine and a few paintings exhibited at the Academy’s Watrous Gallery, I had an audience of primarily Milwaukee folks. The whole reason I founded Reginald Baylor Studio was to collaborate with a multitude of creative professionals and amplify their work. So it’s been great to meet a variety of Wisconsinites who learned about the Baylor Studio and our creatives through these two excellent vehicles for Wisconsin art. My advice for emerging artists is to practice your craft and study the creative industry and its value in the private and public sectors. Take the time to learn sales and marketing techniques and to understand the creative needs within your own immediate community. Skills gained in the trades are just as valid as those gained on a campus. In the end, creative work is work. Don’t be shy about charging your clients and customers an hourly rate when it comes to your products and services.

Tom Berenz, Picnic, 2018. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 72 by 96 inches. Collection of St. Kate Arts Hotel, Milwaukee.

B TOM BERENZ Milwaukee

eing featured in the Wisconsin Academy’s Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine and having an exhibition at the James Watrous Gallery came at an important moment in my career and was great for my confidence. It was 2016, and I was just starting an assistant professor job at University of Wisconsin–Parkside. At the same time, I was pursuing gallery representation and trying to build a stronger reputation for my work. I have always struggled with confidence, and seeing myself on the cover of the magazine was a huge boost. Over the past four years I became a tenured faculty member at UW–Parkside, and I've found international gallery representation. My sales have grown every year, and, most important, I believe my work is getting stronger. Everyone should pursue their dream—work hard for it, dedicate every moment to it. Don’t listen to the haters, listen to yourself. But it's as important to believe in yourself as it is to be a nice person. Dreams come true for people who truly work hard and believe they will succeed.

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Lois Bielefeld, John and Joe, 2019. From the series New Domesticity.

H LOIS BIELEFELD Milwaukee

WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS

aving my two series of works, Weeknight Dinners (2016) and All In: Shorewood Girls Cross Country (2018), published in Wisconsin People & Ideas was such an honor. It was really important to me that the editor chose to share the All In series. Women’s sports receive nominal acknowledgment and coverage. While this is true at all professional levels, it’s especially true for high school women athletics. By showcasing this series of photographs, the Academy bucked the norms and celebrated young women and their athleticism. It’s true that getting an object in motion requires more energy and effort than keeping it in motion. This principal of physics is key to maintaining an active creative practice—it’s about consistently having a series of work in progress. Following one’s curiosity is a great way to keep the momentum going. Going beyond your personal expression to actively contribute within the local art community and support other artists—by going to openings, buying and collecting local art, working with students and emerging artists—is another.

Carl Corey, 10730 • Mackinaw City, Michigan. From the series The Strand: A cultural topography of the American Great Lakes.

he Wisconsin Academy was the first institution in my home state to recognize my picture work. The Academy supported this work with publication in its magazine, an exhibition in its gallery, and through critical support. Two of my books—Tavern League: Portraits of Wisconsin Bars (2011) and For Love and Money: Portraits of Wisconsin Family Businesses (2014)—were published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press as a direct result of introductions made through the Academy’s efforts, and these books have garnered many awards and broadcast media exposure for me. Over the years the Academy has graciously continued its support of my work. I have been introduced to the work of very talented photographers not only through James Watrous Gallery exhibitions, but also through the printed essays and portfolios the Academy has published in Wisconsin People & Ideas. I am thankful for efforts of the Wisconsin Academy and view it as the leading resource for important picture work made by Wisconsin photographers. To succeed, you need to be passionate about work with a purpose and have the stamina to persevere for as long as it takes to get exposure for that work. If you never failed, you never tried.

CARL COREY Hudson

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Tom Jones, Elizah Leonard, from the series Strong Unrelenting Spirits. Beadwork on photograph, 40 by 40 inches.

TOM JONES Madison

would like to thank the Wisconsin Academy for all the support and exposure it provides to artists throughout the state of Wisconsin through its magazine and galleries. I have been fortunate to have an article written about my work in Wisconsin People & Ideas and exhibitions at both the Academy’s James Watrous Gallery in Overture Center for the Arts and the gallery in their Steenbock Center offices. The

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Academy has also supported many art groups like the Center for Photography at Madison. Most notably, I was able to produce an exhibition of Ho-Chunk photographs by Charles Van Schaick at the Steenbock Center, which coincided with the book release of People of the Big Voice: Photographs of Ho-Chunk Families by Charles Van Schaick, 1879–1942. My mother posed a question to me when I was younger, which was, “What are you going to do with your life to help others?” I wondered—then as today—how I will be able to do this with my artwork. My mission in producing the work I do is to give back to my tribe, and to expose the beauty of my people to the outside world. It is my hope that this mission reaches younger people to let them know they can accomplish anything they desire.

Valerie Mangion, Pomme de Terre, 2018. Oil on panel, 42 by 48 inches.

VALERIE MANGION Boaz

eing featured on the cover of Wisconsin People & Ideas was a wonderful experience—quite Val-idating (buh-DUH!), in fact, and it has proven useful in my career. In the year after my 2016 Night Vision show at the Academy’s James Watrous Gallery, I became part of a new gallery in West Bend called Gallery of Wisconsin Art where I sold a major painting, one of the Night Vision images from my show at the Watrous. One never

knows what convinces a collector to go from loving a painting to actually spending a lot of money to own it. I am guessing, though, that having my work featured in Wisconsin People & Ideas helped! Being an artist is not easy, and painting isn’t always “fun.” All the artists I know create in spite of any external feedback, whether positive, negative, or totally non-existent. The reward really is in the work itself. Especially now, when climate change can make everything you do seem utterly pointless, it’s so important to have something that belongs only to you, a personal endeavor or ongoing challenge that makes your life meaningful and worth living. As the poet, Ellis Felker (my husband) once wrote, “Give your gifts freely to the world, expecting nothing in return. Someday the world will surprise you.”

THE YOU ISSUE

JEREMY POPELKA & STEPHANIE TRENCHARD Sturgeon Bay

hat a thrill to be highlighted in Wisconsin People & Ideas! Since appearing in the Fall 2017 issue, we have made great strides in our work both technically and aesthetically. A gentleman was considering a piece in our Sturgeon Bay gallery, and when he got home he realized that it was featured in the magazine. Seeing it there helped him to decide to call us and immediately confirm the purchase. The experience was a good reminder that this is a great time to be an artist because of so many opportunities for exposure. We always encourage young artists to try to do it 100%, if they can. The harder you work at it, the more success you will have!

WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS

Stephanie Trenchard, from the Coated Women Series, 2018. Solid cast glass with glass inclusions. Jeremy Popelka, Bilateral, 2018. Murrini blown vessel, currently on exhibit at Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee.Â