How We Got It Together
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Anamika Singh
'B-Roll,' a video loop by Anamika Singh.
'B-Roll,' a video loop by Anamika Singh.
No ordinary gallery show, “How We Got It Together” is both retrospective and homage. More than 100 artists who have had their careers shaped by their study at UW-Madison exhibit in media including artist books, ceramics, collage, drawings, glass, installations, paintings, performances and performance documentation, photography, prints, sonic works, sculptures, textiles, and zines. Wow! And in this time of increasing scrutiny of a liberal arts education, the show looks at the value of studying art regardless of its ultimate “destination” as a career. “How We Got It Together” is installed chronologically (according to the year in which degrees were received) in three galleries — Gallery Seven of the Humanities Building, the Art Lofts Gallery and the Art Lofts Backspace Gallery. Each has its own reception and artists talks; see the full schedule below and find more info at howwegotittogether.blog.
media release: 12 to 18 October 2026:
“How We Got It Together” represents the artistry in the lives of more than one hundred individuals who earned graduate degrees in the arts at the University of Wisconsin - Madison between 1986 and 2026.
The exhibition includes recent artworks in many media: artist books, ceramics, collage, drawings, glass, installations, paintings, performances and performance documentation, photography, prints, sonic works, sculptures, textiles, and zines. It also includes biographical 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 explores 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 title of the show is derived from the concurrent conference theme of the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present, “Get It Together!”, which emphasizes the ways that people “get together” through art to persist, resist, heal, and imagine.
More than one hundred University of Wisconsin alumns are included in the show. While the majority have master of fine arts degree in the visual arts, there are also participants who earned PhD and MS degrees in agroecology, art history, design studies, interdisciplinary theatre studies, Spanish & Portuguese, and theatre & drama. Some have stayed in the upper Midwest and others have moved to New York, but many are scattered across seventeen states and in Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Korea, Switzerland, and Taiwan.
“How We Got It Together” is installed chronologically (according to the year in which degrees were received) in three galleries in two different buildings on the campus of the University of Wisconsin. It begins in 1985 in Gallery Seven of the Mosse Humanities Building (enter on the east side of the building through the door labeled ART and take the elevator to the Seventh Floor). It continues in the Art Lofts Gallery and concludes in 2026 in the Art Lofts Backspace Gallery.
A comprehensive exhibition catalog can be found at howwegotitogether.blog. It includes images of all the art works and information about the lives of everyone in the show, as well as discussions by participants of how their graduate educations have contributed to the lives that followed.
In addition to the ASAP conference, the show also coincides with the retirement of its curator, artist and scholar Laurie Beth Clark, who worked with each of the participants during their graduate study. For additional information about this project, contact [email protected].
At a Glance:
Seventh Floor Gallery (four minute walk from the Pyle Center), Mosse Humanities Building, 455 North Park Street
8 AM to 8 PM
Conversation with the Artists: Thursday, 15 October, 1230 to 2PM
Opening Reception: Friday, 16 October, 5 to 9 PM
Art Lofts Gallery, 111 North Frances Street (twelve minute walk from the Pyle Center)
9 AM to 430 PM
Conversation with the Artists: Friday, 16 October, 1230 to 2 PM
Opening Reception: Saturday, 17 October, 5 to 9 PM
Backspace Gallery, 111 North Frances Street (twelve minute walk from the Pyle Center)
9 AM to 430 PM
Conversation with the Artists: Saturday, 17 October, 1230 to 2 PM
Opening Reception: Saturday, 17 October, 5 to 9 PM
