The Fourth Wall: A UMD Arts for All Podcast

Craig is joined by Maddie Potter, a Faculty Specialist from the University of Maryland Extension to discuss how the arts can play a role in insect conservation! 

An entomologist and science communicator, Maddie Potter specializes in beneficial insect conservation and inclusive environmental education. Through workshops, webinars, guided nature walks, and community events, her work centers experiential and arts-integrated science communication. Maddie is an alumna of the University of Maryland, with an M.S. in Entomology and has received the Allen L. Steinhauer Award for Excellence in Teaching and the “Get Bugged” Raupp Extension Award.

In her latest integration of entomology and the arts, Maddie has partnered with the Department of Art and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources to host a campus-wide visual art competition centered on Maryland’s insect biodiversity. Insect Art Show: Another Look, Another World, funded from an Arts for All ArtsAMP Grant, explores how visual art can deepen our understanding of Maryland’s insect biodiversity and inspire greater appreciation for the ecological roles insects play in our environment. UMD students, faculty, staff and community members can submit visual artwork inspired by or related to insects for the chance to be featured in this exhibition.

Kate Eberstadt joins Craig in the studio to discuss her multi-disciplinary approach to art, her current Arts for All artist residency merging quantum physics and art, and her upcoming show, Where We Meet.

Kate Eberstadt is a composer, singer songwriter, and performance artist whose work moves between music, theater, community engagement and (perhaps unexpectedly!) quantum physics. She has performed everywhere from New York stages to singing with the Berlin Philharmonie and even alongside Lady Gaga at the VMAs.  She is a two time recipient of the National Alliance for Musical Theater Frank Young Grandstand Award and a finalist in this year's Richard Rodgers award. 

She is also a resident artist at Ars Nova in NYC, where she received a commission for her newest work, which asks a fascinating question: what can quantum physics teach us about love, grief and human connection? Those ideas are at the center of the class she is teaching this fall at UMD as the Arts for All Artist-in-Residence titled, “Quantum Physics and Art: Metaphor Meaning, and Creative Practice.”

To see Kate's work in action, check out her performance at UMD's NextNOW Festival on Sept. 10th, 6pm: https://theclarice.umd.edu/events/kate-eberstadt-where-we-meet-work-progress-showing-conversation. 

In this first episode, Arts for All Executive Director Craig Kier and Dean Stephanie Shonekan of the College of Arts & Humanities discuss breaking down silos, early creative influences, and the power of the arts here at Maryland.

It seems only fitting that our very first guest on The Fourth Wall is someone who has been such an important champion of the arts here at Maryland. Dr. Stephanie Shonekan is the Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and a professor at the University of Maryland. An ethnomusicologist, scholar and academic leader, Shonekan’s work examines the intersections of music, identity, history, race and culture, with scholarship spanning Afrobeat and Fela Kuti, Nigerian and African American hip-hop, soul music, country music and the Black musical experience.

Shonekan earned her doctorate in ethnomusicology and folklore, with a minor in African American Studies, from Indiana University. Before coming to the University of Maryland, she held faculty and leadership positions at Columbia College Chicago, the University of Missouri and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her academic leadership has included serving as chair of Black Studies at the University of Missouri, chair of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at UMass Amherst and senior associate dean of the College of Arts and Science at Missouri. Throughout her career, she has also developed initiatives focused on mentorship, community, inclusion and belonging.

Her books include The Life of Camilla Williams, African American Classical Singer and Opera Diva; Soul, Country, and the USA: Race and Identity in American Music Culture; Black Lives Matter & Music; and Black Resistance in the Americas. She also wrote and produced the award-winning short film Lioness of Lisabi, inspired by Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, the mother of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti.

Shonekan is also an experienced podcast host who has used audio storytelling to bring scholarship into conversation with contemporary culture, music and social issues.

Listen to Dean Shonekan’s podcasts:

Learn more: Dean Stephanie Shonekan (The University of Maryland)