UWM alum Jane Michalski (BFA 1978) is exhibiting her new collection of hot wax art titled “Enduring Process” at Door County’s Idea Gallery.
Inspired by her love of the natural world, Michalski takes inspiration from the rock formations and forest areas of Door County’s Cave Point in her newest pieces. Michalski will feature in daily showcases from April 24 to June 29 and July 5 to August 31.
Tate Bunker (Teaching Faculty I, Film) was featured on Civic Media’s “Nite Lite” with Pete Schwaba to talk about the process of making his 2019 feature film “The Field.”
“The Field,” based in Manitowoc, is a thriller that follows a couple as they try to make an old farmhouse a home but discover other forces at play.
To listen to the full podcast, visit Civic Media.
Peck School of the Arts alum and film producer Kurt Sensenbrenner (BFA 2011, Film) is set to screen his new film series “The Low-Phe Life” at Green Lake’s Thrasher Opera House on Thursday, May 29.
“The Low-Phe Life’ is a comedy series that mixes animation and documentary filmmaking. It follows the story of Sensenbrenner’s personal experience of living with phenylketonuria, a rare metabolic disorder.
PSOA ended its 2025 school year by hosting Convocation, a ceremony held to celebrate Peck School of the Arts graduates receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The ceremony featured live performances and showcases from each department, spotlighting what students have accomplished during their time at UWM.
Excited for what comes next, graduates reported feeling prepared because of their time at UW-Milwaukee. Graduating students were recognized for their achievements in remarks from department chairs to an audience full of family, friends and faculty. Participants walked the Bader Hall stage at the Zelazo Center to receive a gold stole that prominently displays the word “Arts.” They’ll wear them proudly at the UWM graduation the following day.
William Justice “Bucko Crooks” Mueller II, who is receiving an MFA in Art with a focus on sculpture, was one of the many students to be recognized.
“The time for individuality begins now,” he said. “Now that you’re leaving the institution, your practice is truly your own.”
The ceremony was an occasion to reflect on the wealth of resources students have at UWM, such as hands-on experiences, research funding, and professional connections. Ang Van Den Eden, who received a Studio Art BFA with a dual focus in Ceramics and Sculpture, was especially impacted by these resources.
“I took advantage of my resources,” said Van Den Eden. “I was able to do glaze chemistry research for my degree with the Student Undergraduate Research Fund and with grants, and I’m better off for it.”
The ceremony opened with a touching speech by Associate Professor and Head of School Steve Wetzel (BFA 2000, Film), reflecting on the importance of advocating for art and artists in the changing world. “Art has been and always will be important,” he said. “Nothing could ever be accomplished without art. Advocating for artists is one of the most important things.”
Wetzel echoed sentiments by outgoing Dean of the College of the Arts & Architecture, Kevin Hartman. He encouraged graduates to find occasions to personally thank family members, supporters and educators who made an impact in their artistic journeys to this point, calling on them to remain invested in the arts.
Graduates and audience members were noticeably moved, giving insight into how their own experiences as artists and supporters will continue to fuel their passion and advocacy.
“Art is super important. It’s an expression of being a human being regardless of how you’re expressing it,” said Lucas Wick, who also received a BFA in Art, at the dessert reception following the ceremony. “If you want to be silly, be silly. People need to laugh sometimes. Just do art and support art because art is everything.”
The 2025 Peck School of the Arts Convocation recognized graduates from Fall 2024, Spring 2025 and Summer 2025.
Story by Payton Murphy ’28 (BFA Film)
Senior dance student Megan Holzhauer visited Washington, DC, to present her original choreographic work, “BEHIND THAT GLEAM,” at the 2025 National College Dance Festival hosted by the American College Dance Association (ACDA). Held every two years, the festival showcases the nation’s top college-level choreography and is considered the highest recognition for undergraduate dancers in the United States.
“BEHIND THAT GLEAM” was first presented in November at “New Dancemakers: Emanation,” a showcase of senior capstone projects. After “Emanation,” Holzhauer’s piece was chosen by Dance faculty to be performed at the regional ACDA conference in Stevens Point.
Following adjudication by three nationally acclaimed dance artists, “BEHIND THAT GLEAM” was selected for the national conference, marking the first time a UWM piece had been selected in more than two decades, according to Holzhauer.
“It was such an extreme honor,” said Holzhauer. “It never really felt attainable, like that could even happen. So, I am just so grateful that I had that experience.”
Holzhauer’s piece was one of only 30 dances from across the country.
“It was super special to be a small little pool of undergraduate students and to be able to represent UW-Milwaukee in that way,” said Holzhauer.
Part of the excitement was the culmination of a long-term project, with Holzhauer starting her research for the piece in the summer of 2024. Throughout the process, she felt supported and driven by her cast and collaborators.
“It was definitely a collaborative process,” said Holzhauer. “I owe a lot of it to my cast… They’re such beautiful dancers, and I’m so happy that I could have this process and opportunity to work with them.”
Elsewhere at the festival, a student performance choreographed by alum Miguel Peña (MFA 2016, Dance), who is the faculty director of Ballet Folklórico at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, took home the prize for “Best Student Performance.”
Showcasing work for ACDA on the regional and national level is something PSOA dance students strive for throughout their education. The same is true for Holzhauer, who reflected on having the “experience of a lifetime” at ACDA.
“Since my freshman year, I was thinking about what I would create as a senior,” said Holzhauer. “Every step and every opportunity I had has just been such an accumulation of my time here at UW-Milwaukee.”
Attending ACDA served as a symbolic conclusion to her education at PSOA, with Holzhauer saying that being a dance major at UWM was a goal and ambition of hers since seventh grade.
Among those helping to make her dream a reality are the faculty.
“The support of the faculty alone was amazing,” said Holzhauer. “They have been the perfect support system for all of the seniors… They put their heart into these pieces.”
With post-grad life right around the corner, Holzhauer is taking her strong experiences from ACDA and the process of creating “BEHIND THAT GLEAM” into the professional world.
“I never knew I wanted to do choreography until I had this beautiful experience, and it opened my eyes,” said Holzhauer. “I really want to keep choreographing and presenting my work.”
Story by Jason McCullum ’25 & Payton Murphy ’27
Filmmaker and UWM alum NK Xiong (BFA 2022, Film) talked with Jimmy Gutierrez of WUWM 89.7 about her new documentary “Why My Dad Loves,” which tells the story of her father and his understanding of love after facing persecution in Laos as well as the Hmong experience.
“I’m really able to tell these stories because of the sacrifices that they made,” Xiong says. “Because they chose to come to a country where they felt their children would be successful and not have to just survive like they did, but to thrive.”
To read the full article and listen to the segment, visit WUWM 89.7.
After a year of work, graduating students in the Department of Film, Video, Animation & New Genres will screen their senior thesis films on the big screen to crowds of family, friends, faculty, and fellow students. The annual event is hosted in collaboration with the Union Cinema.
Jesse Malmed (Assistant Professor, Film) is one of five professors who oversee the production of the senior films, which include everything from mentoring the senior class to working with the Union Cinema to showcase the films.
“The ultimate thing is to create a space of celebration, reflection, and joy so everyone can come together and experience the pretty Herculean accomplishment of these many things being made by this many people,” said Malmed.
Students are given two semesters to produce a thesis film, serving as the culmination of their film school experience. With the wealth of knowledge accumulated from their studies, students work collaboratively to make films personal to themselves.
“There’s something about getting the chance to make something fully on one’s own,” said Malmed. “It’s the scale, ambition, the inevitability of compromise, and the learning through doing.”
The entire project takes months of preparation and communication to bring to fruition.
“It’s a lot of work split between the different senior instructors and the folks we partner with at the Union, who do a great job of making people feel warm and included,” said Malmed.
Although rewarding, making a senior film is a long process with lots of moving parts. Students cover the entire scope of film production from start to finish.
Kat Krindlebaugh, whose narrative film “End of the World” follows a couple during the end of the world, started planning years in advance.
“I had originally written the script for my senior [film] in 2023,” Krindlebaugh said. “It had been written at a time where I had been experiencing a lot of loss and I didn’t know how to get over it, so I wrote a script.”
To produce their films, seniors work collaboratively with an entire community of artists, including students from outside of the department, alumni and faculty.
Kim Reese, whose narrative film follows a teenage girl meeting her future self and coming to terms with who she becomes, found collaboration with faculty to be especially rewarding.
“Because we have working artists as our faculty, we get a lot of real-world experience,” said Reese. “Real artists help you and teach you about the built-in professional practice and community.”
Juan Reyna Marquez speaks highly of the collaborative process while working on his film “More Than Tacos,” a documentary about the Mexican American experience and what it takes to live on the south side of Milwaukee.
“I had almost no documentary experience, to dive into something head-on is frightening for me,” said Reyna Marquez. “The crew of peers I had were all experienced with documentary filmmaking, and I am grateful to have learned a lot from them. I would not have been able to do this without them.”
It takes the right equipment to turn a vision into reality. The department maintains a well-stocked equipment room where students can rent out film equipment to support their hands-on experience. UWM also has its own dark room, a space used for processing 16mm film.
Cecilia Downey’s senior film is an experimental 16mm piece that follows the perception of Alcoholics Anonymous from an outsider perspective.
“It’s been really exciting to be able to use all of the resources available in the film department,” Downey said. “My senior is shot on 16mm film, and I’ve been able to process and cut it all myself. From the start to finish of making my senior film, I’ve literally had my hands on my film.”
Senior Screenings at the Union Cinema run from May 15-17. They are free to attend and open to the public. More information is available on the PSOA Event Calendar.
Story by Payton Murphy ’27 (BFA Film)
As virtual reality technology continues to become more prevalent, so does the practice of using VR to make short and feature films. Recently, Joel Benjamin (Assistant Professor, Film, Video, Animation and New Genres) made his first foray into VR filmmaking with his short “Max Q,” which has achieved global success.
“Max Q” is a 3D animated short that can only be watched with a VR headset. The short follows a couple who work for a company that travels across solar systems to collect data, traveling on shuttles to go from planet to planet.
“The goal really was to do a roller coaster ride of a film,” said Benjamin. “I was curious to see what the experience of a VR film would be like.”
The project began as a class project while Benjamin was teaching at DePaul University, working alongside students to start the project during a 10-week course. From there, Benjamin worked alongside his team for another three years to complete the film.
Benjamin described the film as a six degrees of freedom film, in which viewers can look around and move their heads to experience the film in three dimensions. The film is meant to feel immersive not only through its VR viewing ability but through its storytelling, with the entire film being one long shot with no cuts.
“It really is immersive and the viewer really feels like they’re in that space,” said Benjamin. “The fact that I could build this world and design every aspect of it was really interesting to me.”
On the film festival circuit, “Max Q” screened at Shapeshift Fest in Sofia, Bulgaria, and the Sona Immersive Storytelling Festival in Pittsburgh, among other festivals. Benjamin attended the latter, where he joined the film’s screenwriter and co-producer for a presentation, “Animation in Immersive Narratives,” and accepted the Audience Choice Award.
While these accomplishments and accolades are great honors, Benjamin expressed that his desire to make “Max Q” was fueled by his imagination and love of filmmaking, not the awards.
“I was going to make this no matter what happened with it, whether anyone saw it or not,” said Benjamin.
This sentiment is one that Benjamin brings back to the classroom, with his primary goal as an educator being to get his students excited about creating original films.
“I feel like one of my major tasks as a teacher is to get students excited about learning, and that’s different than being excited about getting recognition,” said Benjamin. “I want students to make work because they want to make it, not because they want to get followers.”
Benjamin acknowledged that this goal is one that Peck aligns with well, as PSOA encourages students to push the boundaries of what is expected in the mainstream.
“I feel like Peck is a really good balance of teaching students’ technique and commercial sensibilities, but not for the sake of it being commercial,” said Benjamin. “There’s a strong balance of experimental narrative and narrative work coming out of the film school and the animation degree. I really appreciate that balance.”
Story by Jason McCullum ’25
A podcast produced by and featuring students enrolled in this semester’s Radical Cinema course was recently featured on WXRW Riverwest Radio.
The course, taught by Portia Cobb (Professor, Film), examines global art movements, politics, cultural movements, social issues and historical events through film. This semester, students explored radical Brazilian cinema.
The podcast, titled “These Films May Wreck You,” discusses two landmark Brazilian classics: “Quilombo” (1964) by Carlos Diegues and “Pixote” (1980) by Hector Babenco.
Student participants were Jette Anderson, Jonathan Evans D’Auria, Jack Ellinger, Emma Lynette Kipp, Zachary Milan Micka, Faraja Mikome (2nd moderator), Elijah K. Ashburn Pesavanto, Meghan Catherine Schlicht, Jace Sharkey (1st moderator and board operator), Bowman Burkey Simon, Samuel Holden Tills, Melissa Rose Ulate, William Thomas Weber (camera operator and presenter), Reagen Trinity Wilmert, and Donovan Thomas Yesbeck.
The hour-long program went live on Wednesday May 7. Listen to the full podcast on WXRW Riverwest Radio’s Soundcloud.
Distinguished Professor René Izquierdo (Guitar Area Head, Music Department) will close Milwaukee Musaik’s 2025 spring season with a full chamber orchestra as part of a program called “Guitar Grandmaster.”
In the article written by Michael Barndt for Urban Milwaukee, chamber director Sasha Mandel explains the classical and medieval influences of Izquierdo’s upcoming performance.
To read the full article, visit Urban Milwaukee.
Soprano Kathryn Henry (BFA 2016, Music) returns to Wisconsin after making a name for herself in the opera world, namely at New York City’s Metroplitan Opera House. She returns to perform at Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera in their production of “Carmen.”
Her return has received media attention, with a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article by Jim Higgins and a segment for WISN detailing her upcoming performance. Henry is to play the role of Micaela, a role she is reprising from 2019.
Notably, Henry’s manager at global talent organization IGM is also a PSOA alum. Devere Burnett earned his Music BA in 2012.
Learn more at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and WISN.
A new play adapted for the stage by Alvaro Saar Rios (Associate Professor and Area Head, Theater Practices) had its world premiere in Milwaukee this month. “Esperanza Rising,” based on the novel by Pam Muñoz Ryan, premiered at First Stage. The production also features original music by UWM alum Dinorah Márquez (MM 2021, Music).
The coming-of-age drama follows Esperanza, a young girl in 1930s Mexico forced to flee to America due to political unrest. First Stage’s production was recently reviewed by Russ Bickerstaff for Shepherd Express and Jim Higgins for Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Bickerstaff called it “an impressively complicated adaptation of the children’s book that engages both adult and child actors,” while Higgins praised the clever use of narrators to tell the story.
Read the articles on Shepherd Express or Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The UWM Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) awarded fellowships to two PSOA faculty members for the 2024-25 academic year. Simone Ferro (Professor Emerita, Dance) and Dr. Alex Wier (Assistant Professor and Area Head, Percussion) both received fellowships that helped them expand research and strengthen international teaching.
Wier traveled to Puerto Rico, and Ferro made plans to travel to Brazil for the fall. In both instances, this travel is used to further ongoing research projects. We caught up with them both to hear more about their research.
For much of Simone Ferro’s academic life, she has been immersed in researching Brazilian culture. This research has long been supported by CLACS, with Ferro first receiving funds in 2008.
Ferro was most recently awarded by CLACS in the 2024-25 academic year to assist in the further development of her 17-year-long research project based in Maranhão, Brazil.
“CLACS has always believed in this project and believed once again to help me and provide aid in this research,” said Ferro.
This project studies folk and popular dance rituals, with CLACS supporting the organization of this research into a digital archive. Ferro’s evolving work will soon be part of the Latin American and Caribbean Special Collections archive at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
CLACS facilitated the connection with PSOA film major and Portuguese minor Lucca Marcello as an intern through the Portuguese 489 course. CLACS will sponsor a community-oriented campus event this fall.
“It has been really nice working with Lucca,” said Ferro. “For me, coming from dance is full circle. I have worked for so many years with students from the Peck School, so I’m really grateful that at this moment we can work with him.”
In addition to this research, Ferro has also been studying leadership roles of women in Brazil through CLACS funding. Specifically, she has been doing on-the-ground field research and interviewing more than 60 women to create podcast episodes to illuminate the stories of female leaders.
Ferro taught at PSOA for 22 years before retiring. While some may assume that retirement is a time for faculty to remove themselves from large-scale research work, Ferro has used this as an opportunity to dive deeper into the research she is passionate about.
“You have more time to prioritize your time to things that you believe in,” said Ferro. “This research is something that I truly believe. CLACS support allows this research to continue blossoming.”
The PSOA Department of Music has also benefited from CLACS support, with Alex Wier using his fellowship to continue to grow World Percussion Night.
The popular annual event aims to connect students with community groups to interact with international stylings of music. Wier’s support from CLACS supported the purchase of new instruments and brought international musicians to campus to work with students.
Among them is Beto Torrens, a Puerto Rican musician Wier connected with during his CLACS-funded trip to Puerto Rico, where he studied the music, culture, and history to further develop his World Percussion Night teachings.
“Having a native of Puerto Rico and an outstanding musician present some of those classes to students is as good as you can get in terms of presenting that information and that music,” said Wier.
Wier is also putting CLACS funding to develop a K12 summer camp through UWM’s College for Kids & Teens program. This program will teach different styles of Latin, Latin American, and Caribbean music.
Through the variety of ways Wier has used CLACS funding, his goal of expanding young musicians’ musical and cultural vocabulary has been consistent.
“I would argue not just as music students but as people, the more awareness you have of other cultures will make you a more compassionate and well-rounded human being,” said Wier. “In musical studies, you grow and develop when working on a different style of music outside of the Western Canon.”
Wier is grateful to see the impact of CLACS funding on his program and across PSOA.
“The support of CLACS has been very helpful for having guests on campus and offering educational opportunities for our whole campus community,” said Wier. “Peck has been very supportive of growing these offerings… That partnership with PSOA and CLACS helps these things come to life.”
Story by Jason McCullum ’25
Senior musical theater student Abby McBee accomplished her childhood dream of working in entertainment at Walt Disney World. McBee was selected for the Disney College Program (DCP), a paid internship that provides higher education students with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work as a Disney cast member.
Having dreamed of working for Disney since she was little, McBee was ecstatic to learn that she was selected out of an estimated 1,500 applicants to be part of the entertainment portion of the DCP. Combining her love for theatre, dance and Disney, McBee is looking forward to what is ahead.
“There was a sort of magic growing up as a Disney kid which made me have a dream of growing up to be a cast member,” McBee said.
Days after closing PSOA’s production of “Dames at Sea,” McBee made the trip to Atlanta to audition for the program. Drawing on the skills she learned at PSOA and encouraged by the environment created by the Disney casting team, McBee says she felt confident in her ability to succeed.
“I feel like the biggest thing I learned is probably how to be present in the audition setting,” said McBee. “My training at PSOA has taught me that an audition begins even before you enter the audition room. You always want to put your best foot forward when entering a space, as you never know who you may interact with.”
Due to contract restrictions, McBee is unable to provide additional information regarding job details, but she can confirm that she’ll be able to continue to pursue her passion for dance in the role.
As graduation approaches, McBee reflects on the opportunities presented to her while attending Peck School of the Arts, including involvement in the greater Milwaukee theatre community.
“I will greatly miss the friendships and connections that I’ve made during my time here,” said McBee. “I’ve grown very close to my classmates in the program.”
Although she will miss Milwaukee and its theater community, McBee is looking forward to starting her dream job in June.
“I’m really grateful to people like Sheri Williams Pannell, Vanessa Webber, Steve Decker, Bill Watson, and Christal Wagner for their endless support of my continued education,” McBee said. “I cannot stress enough how beneficial my participation in Milwaukee theater was to my overall experience and success at PSOA”.
Story by Payton Murphy ’27
Robin Mello (Professor, Theatre) recently partnered with Innoplay Studio, housed at the University of Exeter, in the UK. This program is focused on creating playful and story-rich classrooms to drive innovation. This new role will allow Mello to engage as faculty at InnoPlay in conjunction with her faculty role at PSOA.
Through her work at Innoplay, Mello hopes to further promote the concept of a “playful university” by continuing to develop creative practices and skills that are also shared here at UWM.
A playful university is best understood as emphasizing engagement and exploration in higher education. Robin Mello considers this a call to create learning environments that push against the paradigm of the stereotypical classroom environment.
Playful universities are meant to break away from rules and didactic methods–to make things more collaborative, creative, and enjoyable.
“If we apply the human response to play, to imitate, to engage, we create a much more vibrant, inclusive, and productive environment for learning,” said Mello. “This idea of having a playful university means you get to change things and embed what we call playful practice into a serious learning experience.”
Innoplay promotes creativity of this nature for students and teachers across a variety of educational and professional fields. It bases its work on the science of play and has been creating workshops and resources for engineers, businesses, medical facilities, and community centers.
“The more that we can get people to engage in material and knowledge building in a way that reduces stress, engages intuition, and introduces some ambiguities and challenges, the better off we are,” said Mello.
Mello was introduced to Innoplay back in 2019 when she met with founder Dr. Maarten Koeners at Stanford University. The two formed a professional relationship over Zoom, using Dungeon and Dragons to experiment with how to introduce play and storytelling into the classroom.
Mello then traveled to Exeter in England in October 2023 to lead a weeklong course on incorporating storytelling through playful means for instructors and faculty in higher education. She was also able, as a guest artist, to teach the practice of juggling, tying it into health and wellness.
Mello collaborated with Innoplay again this winter, teaching a virtual short course on how story and play are beneficial for diverse learners. After this workshop she was invited to be a faculty at Innoplay.
An example of Mello bringing play into her UWM classrooms is when she asks her students to play the roleplaying-based game called “For the Queen.”
“I challenge people to play the game but with qualifications that make it difficult to end things in a predictable fashion,” said Mello. “It helps weave storytelling into curriculum to teach resilience and creativity.”
With this new role, Mello will play an advisory role with Innoplay and also continue to collaborate on workshops and research-based projects. She will also remain as a full-time faculty member at UWM.
Mello describes her work as supporting UWM’s mission to creating experiences for students that are “robust and interactive,” while also being fun and driven by wellness. She views UWM as encouraging students to succeed by communicating and valuing good storytelling.
Part of Mello’s enjoyment of working with Innoplay is to expose her students to an educational approach that promotes freedom.
“We are lacking play and the ability to story tell in order to build knowledge,” said Mello. “My dream is that we become a storytelling playful campus opening up spaces and allowing more freedom of exploration into our classrooms.”
Innoplay and UWM have been strong partners in giving Mello a space to further her craft as an educator.
“Something I really appreciate about Innoplay is that they always act as co-collaborators. When I work with them they promote UWM and note that this is ‘in conjunction’ with Peck,” said Mello. “They have been so generous and inclusive. We have a real presence over there with this very unique thing.”
Story by Jason McCullum ’25