Symposium Location
The Teaching Textiles symposium will take place at the School of Human Ecology (SoHE) located in Nancy Nicholas Hall at 1300 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706.
Transportation to Madison
Madison, Wisconsin is located about 3 hours northwest of Chicago, Illinois, and about 1.5 hours west of Milwaukee, WI.
The Dane County Regional Airport, also known as Truax Field (airport code MSN) is the closest airport, located only a 10-minute drive from University of Wisconsin’s main campus. Taxis, Lyft, and Uber are available from the airport.
It is sometimes more convenient and/or less expensive to fly into Chicago O’Hare International Airport (code ORD), and either rent a car or take the Van Galder bus. The bus runs frequently from terminals 4 and 5 at O’Hare, and is $60-$65 round-trip (lowest price is via online purchase, but you can purchase tickets onboard via cash or credit card). The bus will take about 3.5 hours between Chicago and Madison, and drops off at Memorial Union on University of Wisconsin’s main campus.
Another airport option is Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (code MKE). From there you can take a Badger Bus for $23-$30 each way (lowest price is via online purchase, but you can purchase tickets onboard via cash or credit card) to Memorial Union on University of Wisconsin’s main campus.
The Office of Admissions at UW-Madison has additional resources for visiting campus that may be of use: https://apps.admissions.wisc.edu/visitbucky/traveling.php
Local Transportation
Campus parking is limited, and on weekdays the parking lots tend to fill very early in the day. A UW parking map is available here. The area around SoHE is very walkable, and for longer distances local busses, Lyft, and Uber are all options. Bus lines 80 and 81 are free to all riders, and run directly in front of SoHE every 10-20 minutes on weekdays, and every 50-60 minutes on weekends. Other bus routes are $2 per ride, and the Google Maps public transit option generally makes good recommendations regarding routes and timing.
Accommodations
Madison has many options for hotels and AirBnb’s at a range of prices, and you are welcome to make arrangements at wherever accommodations work best for your plans. We have reserved a small block of rooms at the closest hotel within easy walking distance of SoHE. The rates below will be available until November 22nd; to reserve a room, please contact the hotel directly.
Wisconsin Union Hotel at Union South is located .5 miles (about a 10-minute walk) from SoHE. They are offering a rate of $160 per night from Thursday, December 5th through Sunday, December 8th. The rate includes parking. To book, please use the code TEACHTXT19 when reserving online or by phone at 608-263-2600.
Additional options, which may in some cases be less expensive and only nominally farther away, are The Lowell Center and The Fluno Center on UW’s campus, or the Hampton Inn, Doubletree, HotelRed, and Graduate Madison, which are all nearby. At time of writing, all had rooms available during the conference dates, but prices tend to fluctuate according to many factors. Aggregating sites such as Kayak, Expedia or Booking.com may also have other options. Additional information about Madison hotels can be found on the Madison Convention & Visitors Bureau website.
