Letters

News for Members

YEAR-END THANKS

This past year has not been easy. Yet, thanks to you, we reached our year-end fundraising goal, we launched our new Academy Courses program, and we were able to stay connected to you and others around the state (and beyond) and who believe Wisconsin ideas move the world forward.

Thank you!

FALL ACADEMY COURSES

Academy Courses provide opportunities for lifelong learning and personal enrichment in subjects across creative writing and the visual arts. Registration for fall semester courses is now open. Academy members receive a 10% discount on all course registration fees. More information at wisconsinacademy.org/courses.

JAMES WATROUS GALLERY REOPENING

We’re pleased to announce the September 10, 2021, re-opening of our James Watrous Gallery in Overture Center for the Arts in Madison. Join us for a retrospective exhibition of works by renowned printmaker Jack Damer. See back cover for exhibition details or visit wisconsinacademy.

org/gallery.

FULL CIRCLE LEGACY PROGRAM

Have you considered adding the Wisconsin Academy to your will or estate plans? Leaving a legacy to the Wisconsin Academy is easy for you to do and beneficial for future generations. Legacy gifts provide the financial cornerstone for building a better world inspired by Wisconsin ideas. Learn how you can help at wisconsinacademy.org/ legacy.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

We want to hear from our members. Please send feedback and comments about Academy programs and publications to editor@ wisconsinacademy.org. Thank you wholeheartedly for the enormous amounts of generous work you put into the Wisconsin People & Ideas fiction and poetry issue each year. I’m so grateful for your thoughtful kindness. What a delight to be in print—especially in such a luxe vessel. Jacquelyn Thomas, Dodgeville 1st-place winner of the 2020 fiction contest

Regarding the Wisconsin People & Ideas 150th anniversary issue: ✔ a grounding in science—the stuff of our physical existence ✔ art that looks and comments ✔ thorough, interesting, and varied fiction and poetry ✔ design that is complex but not overdone Marvelous!

William Schuele, Muskego

For many decades, I have received your excellent magazine, Wisconsin People & Ideas. While a student at Washington High School in Milwaukee, I had the privilege of presenting papers at the Wisconsin Junior Academy of Sciences meeting at Marquette University. In fact, I won third place for a paper delivered at the annual Wisconsin Academy conference on May 5, 1956, and was awarded honorary membership. This magazine (then Wisconsin Academy Review) published an abstract of my experiment—A Continuous Cloud Chamber—and the award was mentioned in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The reason for this letter is, first, to express my very deep appreciation for the magazine. But I’d also like inquire as to whether or not the Academy has continued to sponsor encouraging forums for students to participate, such as the Junior Academy. If not, I strongly suggest such an activity might be resumed. Finally, I’d like to note that of late Wisconsin People & Ideas has focused on graphic art, poetry, and essays, with an almost complete absence of science. Please note that our organization is the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters—and that “sciences” appear first in the name. Rev. Ray W. Stubbe, Wauwatosa

The Editor Responds My thanks to you, Reverend Stubbe, for your continued interest in, and support of, the Wisconsin Academy and Wisconsin People & Ideas. From time to time we receive inquiries such as yours regarding the Junior Academy. While we recently launched a new noncredit program for adult learners called Academy Courses, we currently have no plans to revivify the Junior Academy or other formal learning opportunities for K–12 students. As for ensuring equal coverage for sciences in the magazine, we do attempt a balance. For instance, this issue’s article on freshwater mussel research reflects our work to develop more and deeper relationships with science writers across the state to ensure we are covering the ideas that matter in both science and technology.