There is a spot in my house where I sit. I can look out at my neighbor’s garden and get a peek at Lake Monona, the lamp behind me hits my book just right, and there is a place to set my tea. While I am not the best at being still, this is the place I feel the most at home. We need these comforts as we experience this time of cultural stress. In Wisconsin, we’re grappling with the big ailments of society today: the epidemic of loneliness, a fractured civil society, partisan polarization.
As we navigate these in our daily lives, it can be helpful to ask:
What’s good?
What’s meaningful?
What’s important?
What’s in our control?
Here at the Wisconsin Academy, we will be reflecting on the significant, wonderful, transformative work underway in our state. Our next big theme—to be explored through the sciences, arts, and letters—will be Home. Over the next year, we’ll look at home through the wide lens of the solar system, as well as take a closer view of it through fields like engineering, architecture, and many more. We’ll hear from you and others around the state as we ask you for intimate domestic views and the stories of your communities. We will join leading thinkers and local leaders to explore the pressing issues of housing access and sustainability. Through it all, we will bring forward real examples of important efforts that make Wisconsin stronger.
We will also face the pressing housing crisis in Wisconsin. The housing stock is spread thin, with some projections showing we need nearly 200,000 new residences in the next five years. Additionally, purchasing a home is increasingly out of reach financially, as the cost of a home has grown by 53 percent, while income has only increased by 19.7 percent, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum. When I travel around Wisconsin, I hear this concern frequently. I am interested in the unique role the Academy can play. We will show successful approaches and gather insightful, informed experts to help establish a path forward for communities and the state.
The universal quality of Home enables us to step into the lives of people different from us, gaining new perspective and finding common threads. Take, for example, the profile in this issue of Brenda Cárdenas, the new state Poet Laureate. My childhood was very different from Brenda’s, and I established my home far from the community where I grew up. But I appreciate the warmth of her family and love envisioning the many small ways she has inhabited and shaped her house over the years. I know many readers will connect with her deep sense of community and rootedness in Wisconsin.
As we welcome the season of renewal, I appreciate that we are all a part of the Academy. I look forward to the connections we will make and to walking into spring focused on what is possible for Wisconsin, while uplifting the important, meaningful, and good all around us.
Erika Monroe-Kane, Executive Director
