Artists: Emily Adams, Jennifer Anne, Katie Elizabeth Apsey, Teresa Audet, Gwen Avant, Kayla Bauer, Emily Belknap, Jimbo Blachly, Emily Blair, Thomas Bleigh + Heather Hollern, Bea Bosco, Doug Bosley, Erin Briddick, Kate E Bright, Andrea Buckvold, Jamie Bugel, Anna Campbell, Amy Cannestra, Heather Charley, Jeff Chelf, Mo Chen, Conley Clark, Zoe Cohen, Joe Connelly, Denis Dale, Tracy Doreen Dietzel, Jeanne Eberlein, Jessie Lee Eiser-Kleyle, Ashley Rhea Goodwyn, Nicole Gruter, Grant Gustafson, Dominique Haller, Michael M Hammerman, Eleanor Hancock, Erica Hess, Erin Hood, Hong Huo, M. Michelle Illuminato, Chele Isaac, Karen Ives, Niki Johnson, Erin Lee Jones, Lora Jost, Anita Jung, Kelli Kiyomi Kadokawa, Megan Katz, Helen Klebesadel, Mark Klemer, Nan Kornfeld, Mario Laplante, Marin Laufenberg, J Myszka Lewis, Xinchen Li, K. Frances Lieder, Tingyi Lin, Megan Lotts, Ash Lusietto, Ann Lynam, Doreen Maloney, Cedar Marie, Praveen Maripelly, Katja V. Marquart, Tara Mathison, Susan Mccully, Phyllis Mcgibbon, Tina Meister, Gabriel Mejia, Alex Mikev, Jenny Mikulay, Lianne Milton, Maurice Moore, Kel Mur, Quincy Neri, Henry Obeng, Carlos Ortiz, Mir Heloise (Miranda Patau), Gregg Perkins, Liese Pfeife, Emily Popp, Max Puchalsky, Sarah Rentz, Angela Richardson, Andrew Roberts-Gray, Dave Robkin, Cristina Fernandes Rosa, Bird Ross, Liz Roth, Kristin Rothrock, J. Andrew Salyer, Carrie Sandahl, Katie Schaag, Ann Schaffer, Hannah Schelb, Diana Schlesinger, Elizabeth Sheeler, Kirsten Rae Simonsen, Anamika Singh, Natalie Inez Smith, Trina May Smith, Maggie Snyder, Caitlin Mary Margarett Sørensdatter, Michael Starkman, Sarah Stecher, Anne E. Stoner, Mallory Stowe, Valaria Tatera, Elaine Taylor, Amanda Thatch, Christos Theo, Kristin Thielking, Chelsea Thompto, Nicholas Tisdale, Lavell Tyler, Jojin Van Winkle, Michael Velliquette, Julie Weitz, Barbara Westfall, Jean-Marie Wingfield-Salem, Heather Yonker, Han Ah Yoo, Julie Insun Youn, and Yushan

Gallery 7: Humanities Building, 7th Floor, 455 N Park St, Madison, WI, 8am-8pm

Conversation with the Artists: Thursday, October 15, 12:30-2pm

Opening Reception: Friday, October 16, 5-9pm

Art Lofts Gallery: Art Lofts, 111 N Frances St, Madison, WI, 9am-4:30pm

Conversation with the Artists: Friday, October 16, 12:30-2pm

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 17, 5-9pm

Backspace Gallery: Art Lofts, 111 N Frances St, Madison, WI, 9am-4:30pm

Conversation with the Artists: Saturday, October 17, 12:30-2pm

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 17, 5-9pm

Forty years of art degrees, 123 artists, and three galleries, How We Got It Together represents the artistry in the lives individuals who earned graduate degrees in the arts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison between 1986 and 2026. This exhibition includes recent artworks (in whatever medium or genre) and posters that celebrate other forms of life work (books published, gardens planted, children raised, businesses owned, jobs held, etc.). In other words, the show celebrates all the different kinds of interesting lives that have followed arts degrees, not only lives as professionals in the arts.

The show seeks to answer the questions, “What is the value of studying art? How does it set us up for a rich and creative life, whether or not the recipient pursues an arts-based career?” Taken together, the works in this exhibition demonstrate the ways that training in the arts enables creative production, critical thinking, and resilience. The gallery exhibits are complemented by programming of talks and workshops, as well as a website that elaborates on the project themes while providing a lasting resource beyond the week of the show.

The title of the show is derived from the concurrent 2026 conference theme of the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present (ASAP/17), “Get It Together!”, which emphasizes the ways that people “get together” through art to persist, resist, heal, and imagine.

The show also coincides with the retirement of its curator, artist and scholar Professor Emerita Laurie Beth Clark, who worked with each of the participants during their graduate study. For additional information, contact lauriebethclark@gmail.com.