There’s No Place Like Home
Overture Center for the Arts includes 10 award-winning resident arts organizations. Although they call Overture home, they offer independent, innovative and diverse experiences suitable for a wide range of audiences. Visit the website of each organization by clicking on their name and discover what a thrilling variety of performances and visual arts displays are available to you and how you can support them. Tickets to performances are available through the Overture Center Ticket Office and Overture.org.
Resident Companies:
Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society
Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society performs its summer chamber music festival at Overture Center, the historic Stoughton Opera House, and in Hillside Theater at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin. Each June, BDDS performs six different programs (twice), and three educational programs, for a total of 15 powerful concerts. Combining both locally and nationally-known guest artists, new and traditional chamber music, and delightful surprises, BDDS presents chamber music as the “serious fun” that has become their hallmark. Madisonians attest that BDDS is the highlight of their summer.
CTM’s mission is to create vibrant theater experiences that engage, educate and inspire young people and their communities.
For the last 49 continuous seasons, CTM has produced over 200 plays for young audiences with a total audience reach of over 400,000 young people and their families. CTM is the only youth-focused resident company of the Overture Center for the Arts and produces five mainstage productions each year, runs a year-round drama school, and offers multiple educational outreach programs including the acclaimed Young Playwrights Program and Festival. By casting adult and child actors in professionally produced plays, we have occupied a unique niche, since 1965, as Madison’s theater for all ages.
Forward Theater Company is a professional, not-for-profit theater company that produces three contemporary plays each year, in addition to offering monologue festivals and premieres of original works.
Forward was founded on a commitment to the cultural fabric of the Madison community, and works to provide locally produced, exceptional theater experiences for area audiences and give professional actors, designers, and directors who live in the area an artistic home. The company is also committed to the civic life of Madison, with strong outreach efforts and partnerships with community groups and educational programs.
Kanopy Dance Company presents new original dance and historical masterworks by its Artistic Directors, local, national, and international choreographers; all linked by the desire to create modern dance and dance-theatre that is engaging, dramatic, beautiful, thought-provoking — revealing the landscape of the human heart. Founded in 1976, Kanopy has been under the artistic direction of Robert E. Cleary and Lisa Thurrell since 1995. Kanopy Dance Company is a strong regional presence in the Midwest. Receiving numerous awards and grants year after year, Cleary and Thurrell create and commission new works for Kanopy Dance. They have attracted national and international dancers and choreographers to create premiers, and re-stage dances and physical-theater works for Kanopy Dance
Li Chiao-Ping Dance (LCPD) was founded by Artistic Director Li Chiao-Ping in 1990 and has been performing in Dane County, Wisconsin since 1995. The company produces three major performances each year and offers workshops and touring programs throughout North America. LCPD is dedicated to producing programs of emotionally charged and athletic works with striking visual design and the music of contemporary composers. Li Chiao-Ping Dance is also committed to making dance accessible to a wide variety of people – both as audience members and as participants. The company collaborates with K-12 schools schools to offer free performances for kids and continues to teach movement workshops at senior center communities
For nearly 40 years, Madison Ballet has been an integral part of the vibrant Dane County arts community. Full scale productions of inspiring traditional ballets, innovative contemporary performances, and the timeless holiday tradition of The Nutcracker reach more than 13,000 people each year. The School of Madison Ballet empowers students of all ages and skill levels with the poise, confidence, discipline, and fundamental life skills intrinsic to the study of dance. Outreach programming, presented in partnership with dozens of local school and community groups, enriches thousands of young people’s lives by introducing them to the joy of dance.
Founded in 1961, Madison Opera is one of only three professional opera companies in Wisconsin. It presents an annual season of three mainstage productions, ranging from classic operas to modern masterpieces, and a vast array of engagement activities for both adults and youth. Its annual free summer concert, Opera in the Park, has the highest per capita attendance of any similar event in the U.S.
The Madison Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1926, enriches the cultural and educational environment of south-central Wisconsin with a full season of high quality concerts featuring established and emerging soloists of international renown, an organ series that includes free concerts, and nationally recognized education and community engagement programs. Under the artistic leadership of Music Director John DeMain (hailed as “a gifted orchestra builder” by the New York Times), the Symphony has grown to be one of America’s leading regional orchestras and continues to educate and entertain audiences of all ages, while advocating for music as a universal language of expression and understanding.)
The James Watrous Gallery is a place to explore and learn about art from Wisconsin. Our focus is sharing the work of Wisconsin artists past and present and investigating ideas at the intersection of the sciences, arts, and letters. Solo exhibits present a significant body of artwork by a single artist, while our curated shows often draw connections between art and other disciplines. We strive to create a welcoming environment that encourages engagement and inquiry.
Free and open to the public, the James Watrous Gallery is located on Overture Center’s third floor. Gallery hours are noon-5pm Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday and noon-8pm on Friday and Saturday, or by appointment.
The Watrous Gallery is a program of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. For more information and an exhibition schedule, click here.
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s core purpose is to provide programs of the highest artistic quality while building a better, stronger, more vibrant community through the transformative power of music. The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra regularly reaches over 200,000 people annually at our Concerts on the Square, Masterworks Series, Pops Series, and Salon Series concerts. From our beginnings as the Madison Summer Symphony Orchestra started in 1960 by Gordon G. Wright, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra has delivered the finest music-making Madison and Dane County has to offer, reaching the largest audience of any of Madison’s world-class performing arts organizations.
