The Past and the Pending
[vc_row full_width="" parallax="" parallax_image="" animation="" animation_delay="" fullwidth="no" bg_type="solid_color" bg_repeat="no-repeat" video_texture="" fw_columns="" fw_same_height="" border="" waved_border_top="" waved_border_bottom="" top_margin="0" bottom_margin="0"][vc_column width="2/3" animation="" animation_delay=""][vc_column_text css_animation=""]Illumination is a product of students and educators, librarians and chancellors, who decided to make something beautiful together. Founded in 2004 by Adam Blackbourn, an undergraduate, Illumination printed their first issue the following spring, using a broad coalition of campus and community members to gather funds, curate the pieces, design the magazine and deliver it to campus. Today, Illumination is in our 10th year of production and continuing to improve our ability to connect student work with the community. We’re excited to finally show you our new website with the hope that it will expand the audience for the wonderful creative talent that flows in Madison.We started this project as a way of updating our website in order to bring it to the same level of quality as our print publication. And while this alone would have allowed us to better serve the campus community, we soon felt as if we could do more. I had the chance to meet with former Chancellor John. C. Wiley, who spoke of the need to bring the work of the campus back into the minds of the residents of Wisconsin. At the time, legislators were discussing ways to reduce funding for the UW System and eliminating a bit of the mission statement related to what has been dubbed the ‘Wisconsin Idea’. For many, it seemed, the Wisconsin Idea was nothing but words on a page that may have meant something decades ago but was now an impediment to workforce development.Interestingly enough, Illumination originally had a section focused on the Wisconsin Idea and students that sought to share the fruits of their education with the state and beyond. Now was the perfect opportunity to bring it back and once again shine a light on exactly what the Wisconsin Idea is and discover if it has any relevance outside of political rhetoric today.I’m thrilled to say that Illumination is re-launching the Wisconsin Idea section with James Holden at the helm. James has a lot of experience working with student groups as a leader of UW Housing Residence Life and an unquenchable thirst for a good story. Our first project will be spotlighting creative and service-based student groups on campus in the lead-up to the Fall 2015 Student Org Fair. We’re happy to have the chance to partner with the Center for Leadership and Involvement to share the stories of student leaders as a way of inspiring others. We hope that this launch project will be a great way to connect students and community members with classmates that are working to change the world.I have a great privilege to be able to work with many incredible people that care deeply about this publication and its mission: without them Illumination would not have been able to grow over the summer. I must thank my good friend Alice Walker-Lampani for her unwavering passion for Illumination and the years that she spent making it into an industry-level publication capable of creating love at first sight. Thank you to our PubCom Director, Rachel Wanat, for opening doors (and bottles of banana beer) that made this relaunch fun and successful. I would be remiss to fail to mention Jim Rodgers, our Advisor at the Wisconsin Union Directorate, for answering an untold amount of questions from me with grace and insight. I'm also very excited to have the chance to work with Raegan Niemela, our new Managing Editor, whose friendship and guidance I cannot begin to express adequately.I hope that you enjoy Illumination and find a home among the amazing people that make this campus what it is today.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/3" animation="" animation_delay="" offset="vc_hidden-xs"][vc_empty_space height="32px"][vc_media_grid style="all" items_per_page="10" element_width="3" gap="0" button_style="rounded" button_color="blue" button_size="md" arrows_design="none" arrows_position="inside" arrows_color="blue" paging_design="radio_dots" paging_color="grey" loop="" autoplay="-1" item="mediaGrid_Default" grid_id="vc_gid:1439687943458-137dcee0-299c-2" include="79053,79052,79051,79049,79048,79047,79040,79033,79029,79030,79039,79032,79046,79038,79031,79045,79044,79037,79036,79043,79042,79035,79034,79041"][/vc_column][/vc_row]