Stout professor takes art to the Arctic

Jasmine Ferrell |

Ursula Murray Husted
Assistant Stout professor Ursula Murray Husted familiarizes herself with THE COLD.

While most of us in Wisconsin have been fantasizing about the warm days of summer for months on end, one Stout professor will be spending her summer as an artist-in-residence in a somewhat frostier setting –  the Arctic.

Ursula Murray Husted, assistant professor in the School of Art and Design, will be joining a group of artists, scientists, and educators as part of an annual program called “The Arctic Circle.” From June 13 to July 1, the group will be sailing on a traditional tall ship into the Svalbard region near the North Pole, where over 20,000 polar bears can be found.

Being a cartoonist, Husted plans on documenting her time on the expedition through an autobiographical graphic novel and following it up with a presentation on campus in the fall.

Husted has previously worked as an artist in Nova Scotia, Malta, and Belize, and even on a small research vessel chugging down the Ohio River. Considering that some of her favorite subject matter includes ships and the changing sea and sky, these locations have provided ample inspiration – and the Arctic is bound to do the same