MILWAUKEE_More than 80 colleges and universities and 30 cultural organizations will be engaged in 50-plus plenary sessions, workshops, performances and dialogues unfolding across Milwaukee as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee hosts the Imagining America Conference Oct. 5-8. The annual conference’s 2016 Milwaukee agenda brings together 400 top scholars, artists, activists and community leaders from around the country to realize higher education’s democratic purposes.

“We anticipate the conference will advance long-term relationship building, leadership development and institutional change within the consortium of more than 100 colleges, universities and cultural organizations,” said Jamie Haft, interim managing director of Imagining America.

“UWM’s selection as Imagining America conference host is a testament to the many compelling examples of UWM faculty, staff and students partnering with local communities to harness the imaginative power of the humanities, arts and design toward democratic renewal.”

The public-facing agenda begins at 9 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, with the opening plenary Public Education at the Crossroads, held at the Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts at UWM, 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd. The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and Marquette University join UWM as co-hosts of the 2016 Imagining America conference.

Three-hour workshops, select performances and related events are scheduled at sites across Milwaukee from Thursday to Saturday, focused on diverse topics relevant to the intersection of higher education and public life in America. Examples include:

• “This is Washington Park. This is Milwaukee,” a workshop-style preview of a 2017 Mainstage production by playwright and UWM Assistant Professor of Theatre Alvaro Saar Rios, 8 p.m. Oct. 6 at the UWM Mainstage Theatre, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd.
• Finding “Home”: Formulating Creative Civic Engagement in Community Health, a multi-vocal presentation that explores where and what home is with Hmong families, military veterans, older adults and others in Milwaukee. The workshop brings together academics and community members, 11:30 a.m-2:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at Washington Park Partners, 3910 W. Lisbon Ave.
• The closing plenary, Black Scholars for Black Lives – A Conversation About Scholar Activismwith special remarks by Madame Christiane Taubira, 2:30-4 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (Raw Space, fourth floor), 273 E. Erie St.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Holly Zahn, (315) 491-1787, hjzahn@syr.edu or Angela McManaman, (414) 229-5703, alm5@uwm.edu.

About Imagining America

Imagining America creates democratic spaces to foster and advance publically engaged scholarship that draw on arts, humanities, and design. Imagining America catalyzes change in campus practices, structures, and policies that enables artists and scholars to thrive and contribute to community action and revitalization.

About UWM

Recognized as one of the nation’s 115 top research universities, UW-Milwaukee provides a world-class education to more than 27,000 students from 81 countries. Its 14 schools and colleges include Wisconsin’s only schools of architecture, freshwater sciences and public health, and it is a leading educator of nurses and teachers. With a budget of $667 million, UW-Milwaukee partners with leading companies to conduct joint research, offer student internships and serve as an economic engine for southeastern Wisconsin. The Princeton Review named UW-Milwaukee a 2016 “Best Midwestern” university based on overall academic excellence and student reviews.