Anne Basting monitors UW-Milwaukee students as they present stories to senior citizens at Luther Manor in Wauwatosa, Wis., as part of the Penelope Project.
(UWM Photo/Alan Magayne-Roshak)
Today, the Board of Regents honored UW-Milwaukee professor Anne Basting, who was recently named a 2016 MacArthur Fellow. Basting was one of 23 new fellows announced by the MacArthur Foundation in September, which awards fellowships to people who have shown “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.”
Basting is the first UW-Milwaukee faculty member to earn the esteemed MacArthur Foundation’s highest honor. Each recipient receives $625,000, which they may direct toward projects of their choosing.
“Professor Basting’s groundbreaking, innovative work enhances creativity and emotional connections with the elderly and those suffering from dementia,” said Board of Regents President Regina Millner. “Many of us have family members that suffer from some form of dementia, and we are delighted she has earned this prestigious national recognition which will enable her to continue her influential work on a larger scale.”
At UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts, Basting focuses on community-engaged performance. Her expertise centers on integrating the arts into aging services and long-term care. Basting is the founder of the Creative Trust, an alliance that fosters lifelong learning through the arts, and which supports a Student Artists in Residence program that trains and embeds students with aging services organizations.
Examples of Basting’s community-based, creative projects include:
- TimeSlips Creative Storytelling, which infuses creativity into elder care relationships and systems, offering a variety of training and certification options for individuals and organizations;
- The Penelope Project, a collaborative, creative endeavor to raise the bar on activities in long-term care that resulted in the staging of a site-specific play based on Homer’s Odyssey involving staff, residents, artists, and students – and which is the subject of a Public Television documentary; and
- The Islands of Milwaukee, a project using art to catalyze a community-wide conversation about the importance of connecting to community throughout one’s lifetime.
More information about Anne Basting can be found on the UW-Milwaukee website.