Baldacchino’s “Deo Gratias,” acrylics on canvas.
John Baldacchino, the new director of UW-Madison’s Arts Institute, has no doubt about the quality of the arts programs offered here. But he believes there’s more to be done to raise the profile of the university. “In two weeks, I’m going off to New York, where our alumni from visual arts are doing a show downtown,” says Baldacchino. “There’s an opportunity there in terms of highlighting and bringing out the name of the university. That good name is there, but sometimes it’s hidden, so to speak.”
Baldacchino is a Renaissance man who has experience to back up his statement that “Wisconsin is special.” He arrived in late summer from the University of Dundee, Scotland, where he held a professorial chair of arts education at its School of Education and Social Work. Before that, he taught and held various senior positions in universities in Britain and the United States, including Falmouth University and University of Warwick, both in England, and Columbia University in New York.
The Arts Institute was created in 1975 as the chancellor’s Arts Consortium, and it serves as the voice of the arts at the university. In July 2015 it became an independent UW division, which is significant, says Baldacchino. “That means that the university is investing in that vision in terms of enhancing and strengthening the arts presence within the academic sphere.”
Baldacchino will be filling the shoes of longtime theater and drama professor Norma Salvidar, who served as interim director for the division. Around 85 faculty members from across the university are affiliated with the institute, which places emphasis on interpretation and critical investigation, encouraging cross-pollination between different art forms and with non-art disciplines. For example, it hosts artists-in-residence and helps organize the Wisconsin Film Festival and is a partner with UW Housing, running an arts-focused residence hall.
“I think the arts have a lot to contribute, not only to create aesthetically pleasing experiences,” Baldacchino says. “We know that the creative industry is very keen on students who come out with arts degrees. We know that artists make very good business persons. They work really hard.”
Again, Baldacchino speaks from experience. An accomplished visual artist, his main focus is painting, but he has also been trained in sculpture. “I prefer to work on large canvases, though lacking space I found myself working on smaller abstracts, which bring together figurative and landscape themes,” says Baldacchino, adding that he hopes to paint more now that he’s settling into Madison.
He has also written widely on the arts, philosophy and education. He’s currently working on the first volume of the Wiley-Blackwells Encyclopedia of Art and Design Education. He’s completing a book on philosopher Ivan Illich. “As soon as this is done I will be embarking on a short volume on the work of Giambattista Vico,” a polymath during the Age of Enlightenment. “Beyond these three projects I have already the outlines and bare bones of a couple of volumes, which will continue where I left with my book Art’s Way Out,” published in 2012.
He and his wife, Laura Falzon, are natives of Malta. In addition to teaching music at Columbia and New York Universities, she is a concert flutist who has performed in Europe, Asia and the United States. They live downtown, and she divides her time between Madison and New York City.
“She’s very excited about Madison,” says Baldacchino. “As much as I am.”
