UW–Madison’s John Baldacchino is the author of a new book titled, “Lessons of Belonging: Art, Place, and the Sea.”

Baldacchino is a professor of art education in the School of Education’s Art Department and specializes in art, philosophy, and education. This new book is the second in a series for which Baldacchino is editor, “Doing Arts Thinking: Arts Practice, Research, and Education,” which looks at the relationship between the arts and education.

The “paradox of belonging” prompted Baldacchino to write “Lessons of Belonging,” according to a description of the book on the Brill Publishing website.

“What pushes the author to write are art’s questions,” the description continues. “Rather than take the route of writing, artists in academia could opt for the studio, teaching students, and occasionally indulge in conferences and symposia. However, beyond such rituals, writing art’s questions remains akin to art’s acts of belonging.”

In a review, University of Porto’s Catarina Martins states, “This book is a journey in the process of finding what it means to belong. Not to belong somewhere, but rather to a nowhere that is called art, as everydayness.”