On today’s show, host Dana Pellebon celebrates the magic of theater with Dr. Erica Halverson who has dedicated her career to studying how people learn in and through the arts.
Dr. Halverson runs the Whoopensocker, an in-school artist residency program that teaches self-expression through writing, improvisation, and performance to 3rd and 4th graders in Madison. The program’s name means “something extraordinary of its kind.” The program transforms the experience of education for students who may not feel like school is for them and culminates with a sketch comedy and vaudeville show.
Her podcast, Arts Educators Save the World, makes the academic study of arts education more accessible to educators and artists. The show features successful artists and their mentors who talk about how art changed their lives. They also talk about culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogy and how schools struggle to incorporate kids as assets.

Dr. Erica Rosenfeld Halverson is the chair of Theatre & Drama within the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, following a distinguished tenure as professor and chair in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She is the author of How the Arts Can Save Education: Transforming Teaching, Learning, and Instruction, and runs the Whoopensocker, an artist-in-residence program working in Madison Public Schools.
Featured image of Dr. Erica Halverson’s book, How the Arts Can Save Education: Transforming Teaching, Learning, and Instruction.
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