Close-ups of Robert Lopez (left) and Erica Rosenfeld Halverson.
Broadway producer Robert Lopez, left, worked with Erica Rosenfeld Halverson for the podcast’s first episode.
Those who launch new media enterprises know that there are two crucial elements to success: Have a great idea that hasn’t before been explored, and call on a few famous friends to help jumpstart the engine.
Erica Rosenfeld Halverson, department chair and professor with the UW-Madison’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction, had both elements at her disposal on Aug. 29 when she launched the first episode of her recurring podcast, Arts Educators Save the World, a look at the way arts instruction can be applied to other educational disciplines to address the widening learning gap for students tripped up by the pandemic and other social issues. In her podcast, Halverson features artists interviewing the teachers who mentored them and contributed to their professional success.
The first episode came together easily for Halverson, a New York City native. She first called on Robert Lopez, co-creator of the Broadway shows Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon and co-writer of the songs for Disney animated films Frozen, Frozen II and Coco. Lopez and Halverson were classmates at Hunter College Elementary School, where instructor Barbara Ames taught them music. Fellow alumnus Lin-Manuel Miranda, the wunderkind behind Hamilton, who was five years behind them in school and also had Ames as his teacher, joined Lopez in conducting the interview.
“There’s nothing more precious than having a conversation with somebody who’s changed your life,” Halverson says of her famous guests. “It doesn’t take a lot of coaxing because people want to do this.”
The podcast series’ concept emerged from Halverson’s 2021 book, How the Arts Can Save Education, which she describes as a blueprint for using performing, visual and multimedia arts to reevaluate what good learning, teaching and curriculum can be.
An important first step involves a shift in how students are viewed, Halverson says. “A good learning environment starts with understanding the assets kids bring into the classroom, rather than focusing on their deficits,” she explains. “That’s something other education folks talk about, but I believe that an arts-based framework is the best way to identify those assets, engage them productively and transform the student-teacher relationship in the classroom.”
Halverson’s ultimate goal is to foster an ongoing discussion about arts in education among not only educators, but members of the public.
“I am trained as a theater artist and live performance is my primary medium of expression,” she explains. “But live performance is local and fleeting and I wanted something that would stretch the experience across space and time. Interest, exposure and conversation are important, and I needed something with staying power and that continued them.”
Each podcast costs about $5,000 to produce and has been made possible through funding from the Gibbs Family Fellowship and the Wallace Foundation, two UW education funding sources. Halverson also received production assistance from Story Pirates, an arts and education media company based in New York City and Los Angeles.
The logo for the podcast "Arts Educators Save the World."
The concept for the podcast emerged from Halverson’s 2021 book, "How the Arts Can Save Education."
Other episodes from season one feature MacArthur Fellow Bill Strickland and Sharif Bey, both master ceramists; actor/filmmaker/author and musician Josh Radnor and his teacher Deborah Lapidus; Broadway star Annaleigh Ashford and her high school teacher Stephanie Rossi; and UW-Madison art professor Faisal Abdu’Allah and actor Fraser James talking about how the two Black British artists influenced each other.
Season one will round out with five more episodes, including one with Saturday Night Live’s Cecily Strong and her teacher Mary Lou Rosato, and Broadway star Kate Baldwin and her dance teacher, Milwaukee native Craig Kienzle.
“My hope is pretty grand,” Halverson says. “I want to create and foster a robust national public dialogue about the role arts education plays in helping us all become more human.”
Season two podcasts are on the way, perhaps as early as March 2023, she adds. In the meantime, listeners can find her previous podcast episodes at Spotify, Apple Podcasts and artseducatorspodcast.com.
