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Stargazers look through telescopes during a UW-Madison Pine Bluff Observatory open-house event. Photo by Bryce Richter, University Communications

Visit & Learn

The College of Letters & Science is proud to have many facilities and resources open to the public. Come and explore all that we have to offer!

For questions about this list and the resources available, please contact us at lsnews@ls.wisc.edu. This is not an exhaustive list so please notify us of additions and changes.

Symposia, Workshops and Conferences

Center for the Humanities: The Center hosts a series of events, many of them open to the public, that encourage dialogue, inquiry, and critical engagement across the humanities. The Center’s partnerships with libraries, hospitals, senior centers, prisons, community gardens, and public schools are helping to define the ‘public humanities’ at UW-Madison.

Center for Journalism Ethics Annual Conference: An annual conference to further discussion of critical questions facing journalists and the public.

Metaethics Workshop: Hosted annually by the Department of Philosophy, the forum brings together scholars to showcase the new work in metaethics.

Summer Language Institutes: A series of eight-week intensive language and culture training sponsored by the UW-Madison Title VI National Resource Centers.

Arts, Film and Performance

Cinematheque: The Cinematheque is a coalition of UW-Madison academic departments and student film groups dedicated to showcasing films which would otherwise never reach Madison screens. As the screening facility of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR), a member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), the Cinematheque regularly showcases archival and other rare prints from around the world.

Conney Project on Jewish Arts: This far-reaching educational entity supports and encourages new narratives of Jewish identity in all the arts, including literature, music, and the visual and performing arts.

Greenfield Summer Institute: The annual event showcases the research of UW–Madison faculty and acclaimed Jewish Studies scholars from around the country. Each year the Institute’s lectures center around a theme and features concerts, dinners, and other opportunities to socialize.

KlezKamp at the Mayrent Institute for Commity-Based Yiddish Culture: An intensive, invigorating week of Yiddish music, language, and arts and culture taught by a top roster of national and local masters. Be part of the historic revitalization of Yiddish in America’s heartland.

School of Music Concerts and Events: A listing of concerts and events hosted by the School of Music.

UW Theatre Performances: A listing of productions at University Theatre and work by the Department of Theatre & Drama.

Wisconsin Film Festival: Film. Farther. Founded in 1999, the festival presents 200 films in eight theaters over five days in April in Madison, Wisconsin. The College is proud to be a supporter of this popular festival in partnership with the Arts Institute and the Department of Communicative Arts.

Greenhouses and Gardens

Botany Greenhouse: Open to the public, the eight-room greenhouse is home to 1,000 species of aquatic, desert and tropical plant communities. The greenhouse is open to school tours and staff can assist visitors seeking advice on plants for their homes. In winter months, the facility is used as a setting for art students.

Botanical Garden: Open to the public, the Botanical Garden is an important resource for teaching and research, serving as reference for the different plant families, genera and species. It also provides an area for leisure where examples of plants from around the world demonstrate the diversity and beauty of the plant kingdom.

Wisconsin State Herbarium: A museum collection of dried, labeled plants of state, national and international importance, which is used extensively for research, teaching and public service. It contains the world's largest collection of Wisconsin plants.

International and Global Programs

Global Happenings: A listing of international events on and around the UW-Madison campus compiled by Global Studies and the Division of International Studies.

Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies: Max Kade’s outreach efforts center on bringing a better understanding of issues of German-American immigration, history, culture, and language to a general public as well as to school children.

The French House: A Francophone residence for UW-Madison students and a cultural center for the community - the first of its kind on any U.S. university campus. The residence opened in 1918.

Summer Language Institutes: A series of eight-week intensive language and culture training sponsored by the UW-Madison Title VI National Resource Centers. The institutes are attended by students from around the country and contribute to a vibrant international community in L&S.

Museums

Chazen Museum of Art: The museum is home to the second-largest collection of art in Wisconsin: more than 20,000 works include paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, and decorative arts. The museum also presents frequent temporary exhibitions and a series of public events which are free and open to the public.

Geology Museum: Open Monday through Friday and Saturdays, this free public venue stretches back to 1877 and is now located in Weeks Hall. The museum is home to rocks, corals, jellyfish and other sea creatures that used to live and swim where we now walk. Specimens include the Boaz Mastodon and the Mifflin Meteorite that fell in Southwestern Wisconsin in 2010.

L.R. Ingersoll Physics Museum: Open Monday through Friday in Chamberlain Hall, the museum is a free public venue that give visitors a "hands on" experience of mechanics and modern physics in a kid-friendly environment.

Zoological Museum: The Museum consists of a 10,000 square-foot collections storage and research facility, and a small exhibits gallery. It is dedicated to the preservation, study, and understanding of the vertebrate and aquatic fauna of Wisconsin, the Midwest, and other parts of the world. The gallery is open to the public most weekdays, but access to the collections is restricted.

Science and Discovery

Space Place: Located on South Park Street, Space Place is the vibrant education and public outreach center for the Department of Astronomy. From star gazing to telescope workshops, Space Place offers more than 100 free public programs each year.

Spalding Lab - Botany Outreach: Botany Professor Edgar Spalding and his graduate students aim is to cultivate scientific interest and literacy with audiences who may not have access to the resources a university possesses. The lab has focused on work with children and families with children in the K–12 system.

Science is Fun: In the Lab of Shakhashiri: The master of chemical demonstrations and science policy advocate, Chemistry Professor Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, shares the fun of science through home science activities, public presentations, scholarship, and other programs of the Wisconsin Initiative for Science Literacy. See the full list of events and don't miss the "Once Upon a Christmas Cheery, In the Lab of Shakhashiri."

Washburn Observatory: The UW-Madison Astronomy Department offers free public observing at the Washburn Observatory every 1-2 weeks throughout the year. The Open House sessions are hosted by UW Astronomy graduate students. The public viewing sessions are informal.

Wonders of Physics: Hands-on science! The Wonders of Physics which began in 1984 is an educational and exciting demonstration of physics available for students of all ages. Each year, the show hosts a general public presentation in Madison. The presentations last about an hour and are suitable for all ages.

Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery: The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery is a visionary public-private partnership that is creating two world-class biomedical research institutes. Its partners include donors John and Tashia Morgridge, the state of Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin (UW–Madison) and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). Explore the public space in the Town Center and learn about the ways L&S researchers are contributing to science and research.

Wednesday Nite @ The Lab: Get an inside look at a research lab in the company of scientists and students and experience science as exploring the unknown. Weekly, 7:00-8:15 p.m. at UW-Madison.

Universe in the Park: Established in 1996, Universe in the Park (UitP) is an extremely popular outreach program of the Department of Astronomy. UitP is predicated on a very simple idea: the best environment to introduce the general public to astronomy is outside under dark skies. A typical UitP session begins just after sunset with a 20-30 minute talk and slide show about astronomy.

College of Letters & Science