The first set of campus projects selected to recognize and celebrate the University of Wisconsin’s 175th anniversary includes a speaker series, a glass exhibit and a collection of specimen models.

The 175th anniversary celebration focuses on the impact and reach of the Wisconsin Idea and the accomplishments of those 175 years.

A Wisconsin botanical foray – 175 years of continuous plant collecting across the Badger State
Ken Cameron, the Wisconsin State Herbarium, $1,000

The Wisconsin State Herbarium at UW–Madison celebrated 175 years of plant collecting across the Badger State with an anniversary botanical foray held in Marinette County over the summer. Citizen scientists, students, faculty and staff from across the Universities of Wisconsin (formerly UW System) gathered together over a long weekend to document the flora of this under-explored area of Wisconsin. The group collected, pressed and dried more than 1,000 scientific plant specimens; each will be marked with a commemorative stamp before their accession into the permanent collection of the State Herbarium. Natural history collections like these have been a part of the UW’s educational, research and outreach efforts since its founding and remain at the center of its core mission in a rapidly changing world.

Present Tense: A decade of UW Glass
Helen Lee, UW Glass Lab (Art Department), $1,000

An alumni exhibition titled Glass Madison: The Sixth Decade of UW Glass will span multiple galleries on campus and present a survey of contemporary glass practice in a research-based, interdisciplinary arts environment. These exhibitions accompany an intercollegiate symposium and public programming (also under the name of Glass Madison). Collectively, these efforts diversify the narrative of glass at UW–Madison: They explore how glass serves research-based arts practices today, and they bridge these practices back to historical precedents of the pivotal role glass has played in establishing UW–Madison as a research institution on the global stage.