Madison Reporter

This academic year, faculty members at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have utilized the Chazen Museum's permanent collection to engage students across a range of disciplines. By integrating art into coursework, educators aimed to stimulate curiosity, enhance analytical skills, and provide tangible insights into abstract concepts.

Classes visited the Chazen Museum's galleries and study rooms, engaging with various artworks to explore subjects including 19th-century visual culture, environmental humanities, and global history. Dr. Sarah Ensor, an assistant professor in the English department, noted the impact, calling the visits "unfailingly inspiring, fun, and transformative."

For the course English/Environmental Studies 153: Introduction to Environmental Humanities, Ensor's students examined how art, literature, and film enrich understanding of environmental issues. A notable instance involved a student exploring Jane Hammond's piece, "Atlas," and bringing insights from her studies in entomology to the analysis. Ensor remarked that these experiences allow students to challenge their own presumptions about their fields.

Dr. Amanda Shubert's English 345: The Nineteenth-Century Novel course involved students in examining the visual culture of Jane Austen's era. During their visit, students compared two portraits, analyzing themes of gender, class, and power that relate to Austen's writing. Shubert emphasized how this practice bolstered students' skills in observation, description, and analysis, and increased their comfort within cultural spaces like museums.

In History 130: An Introduction to World History, Lecturer Paul Grant used artworks to explore themes such as trade and cultural exchange. Noteworthy pieces included a painting by Frans Jansz. Post and a Yorùbá religious sculpture. These objects helped students acknowledge the complex interactions of global cultures. Grant highlighted the difficulty of reducing history to simple formulas, emphasizing life’s inherent contradictions.

The Chazen Museum continues to serve as a dynamic resource, broadening academic engagement through its collection. As part of ongoing efforts, faculty at UW–Madison are encouraged to utilize the museum's study room and object-based learning sessions to enrich their teachings.

To learn about faculty resources and teaching support offered by the Chazen Museum, visit https://chazen.wisc.edu/learn.