The University of Wisconsin-Platteville Department of Performing and Visual Arts will open the 2023 art gallery season with an exhibition of the work of Sarah Strange, UW-Platteville senior lecturer and costume director. “A Decade of Design” will run Jan. 27-Feb. 22 in the Harry and Laura Nohr Gallery. A public reception with the artist will be held on Jan. 27 from 3-4:30 p.m.
“Costume design and production is a multi-faceted endeavor, one that takes a variety of skills and a breadth of knowledge that spans fashion history, psychology, dramatic literature, pop culture, anthropology, geometry, textiles, illustration and sculpture,” said Strange. “Costume designers are investigators. We intensely study the script, the historical context of the play, the playwright, the socioeconomic background of the characters, their cultural backgrounds and modes of dress, and the aesthetic that will best serve the telling of the story.”
Strange is in her 10th year as the costume director and senior lecturer at UW-Platteville. She teaches courses in design, stage makeup, textiles, costume technology and introduction to theatre. She has a Master of Fine Arts in costume design from UW-Madison and a Bachelor of Science in theatre design and technology from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. She has designed for many theatre companies across the country including The American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia; Endstation Theatre Company in Sweet Briar, Virginia; Children’s Theatre of Madison in Madison, Wisconsin; and Echo Theatre and The Orange Girls Theatre Company in St. Louis, Missouri.
In 2009 she designed the costumes for the world premiere of Katatonika at the Prague International Fringe Festival. Strange has worked in several prestigious costume studios including Opera Theatre of St. Louis and The Berkshire Theatre Festival building costumes for Broadway Costume Designers David Murin, Martin Packlendinaz and Clint Ramos. Strange has designed costumes for the Platteville Summer Arts Festival and The Heartland Festival, including “Once,” “Big Fish,” “Peter and The Starcatcher,” “Mary Poppins” and “Shrek.”
“Sarah is an amazing artist and designer. She transforms what she reads on the page into truly stunning creations on the stage. She is also an inspiring teacher and mentor. Our program, our students, this university and the Platteville community are so lucky to have Sarah here,” said Ann Farrelly, UW-Platteville professor of theatre and theatre program coordinator. “I am thrilled for the community to see her work on display in this way. Each piece is a work of art.”
Strange has designed more than 30 productions for the UW-Platteville theatre program. For every Pioneer Players production, she either designs or mentors a student designer, while also serving as the costume studio director, patterning, constructing, sourcing and modifying every costume that lands on stage along with a small team of student assistants. She has been selected as a 2023-24 Wisconsin Teaching Fellow, where she will focus her research on neurodiversity in the arts classroom. In 2020, she was a Summer Undergraduate Scholars Program faculty mentor for her costume design student, Beth Wallace, who was subsequently accepted into the MFA program at Indiana University.
“I’ve never considered myself an artist. I’m a costume designer and it is my job to tell the story through the clothing. My language is fabric and color and texture, earrings and buckles and scarves. The costumes and sketches on display here span 10 years of my work but they represent a small fraction of the costumes that I have designed or created for the stage. However, these creations are not intended to be individual works of art. They’re communication tools, a means to achieve an end. What you see here are pieces of a larger puzzle,” said Strange.
“A Decade of Design” is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Nohr Gallery at nohr_gallery@uwplatt.edu or 608-342-2787. Nohr Gallery is located inside Ullsvik Hall, 30 S. Hickory Street, on the campus of UW-Platteville.