Three members of the UW–Madison School of Education community are among 16 extraordinary Wisconsinites receiving a 2026 Fellows Award from the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. The award, which honors outstanding accomplishment and a lifelong commitment to intellectual discourse and public service, is the Academy’s highest honor.

Emily Arthur, a professor in the School of Education’s Art Department, is an American artist who has been a visiting fellow in Print & Graphic Art at Harvard University and a fellow at the Barnes Foundation. Her work is held in the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery, Chazen Museum of Art, Saint Louis Art Museum, and Tweed Museum of Art. Arthur’s work explores themes of environment, exile, and return to home. Her ongoing research into the early 19th-century engraving chemistry used to publish “The Birds of America” challenges John James Audubon’s images of natural history within the context of imperialism, manifest destiny, and the narrative of singular genius. As Arthur explains, “Art is not in the service of science. Art and science share the responsibility of observation and witness. It is through observation that science gives us proof of our material make up. It is through observation that art gives us material proof of our spiritual make up. Encountering a great work of art or a great leap in science changes our perception; it asks us to see and then to see once again, more deeply.”