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The Wisconsin Union team has unveiled its limited-edition, mini, multi-hued version of its Memorial Union Terrace sunburst chairs. Each purchase supports the Multicultural Student Center’s (MSC’s) food insecurity initiatives, helping ensure students have access to basic needs, cultural foods and kitchen staples.  

The MSC will celebrate 35 years of offering spaces, programs and services that center, affirm and celebrate the diverse and intersectional identities of students of color and other historically underrepresented students to cultivate a sense of belonging and community while strengthening all students’ capacity to learn, lead and thrive.

The 4-inch-tall chairs were crafted in Wisconsin by Wisco Industries and painted black by Wisconsin Union painters. Then, MSC interns, Wisconsin Union student team members, student leaders, and staff hand-speckled the chairs with four colors that represent the MSC's identity centers: yellow for the Black Cultural Center, blue for the Indigenous Student Center, teal for the Latinx Cultural Center, and red for the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Student Center. Each chair is one-of-a-kind.

As of April 5, the limited-edition mini chairs can be purchased at the Badger Market at Memorial Union, the Badger Market at Union South, and the online Terrace Store. The Wisconsin Union will make 1,720 available for purchase in total, and they are expected to sell quickly.

The mini chair is another chapter in the Wisconsin Union’s long history of support for MSC’s work. Then called the Interim Multicultural Student Center, MSC found its first home at Memorial Union in August 1988 before moving to the Red Gym in 1999.

The Wisconsin Union team unveiled the chair at the MSC 35th Anniversary Gala on April 4, where attendees celebrated MSC’s history, current accomplishments, and future work to foster an inclusive, welcoming campus experience. 

“We are honored to be the featured partner on this year’s Terrace mini chair,” said Claudia Guzmán, MSC director. “This is such an iconic representation of the Wisconsin Union’s lasting support for the MSC since its inception, and our students had a blast helping to create these limited-edition works of art.”

The MSC currently includes four identity centers: the Black Cultural Center, the APIDA Student Center, the Latinx Cultural Center and the Indigenous Student Center. The MSC brings together thousands of people annually through major events, programs and services and daily foot traffic in community spaces. It also supports the leadership development of more than 90 student organizations and coordinates five student planning committees for campuswide history and heritage month celebrations.

“The Wisconsin Union shares in the Multicultural Student Center’s desire to create a welcoming campus experience in which all belong and feel at home,” said Mark Guthier, associate vice chancellor for Student Affairs and the Wisconsin Union director. “We are honored to be the campus living room and to support MSC’s work to ensure that all who enter our spaces and other places on campus know they are welcome and that we celebrate who they are.”

Funds raised from the limited-edition chair sales will support the $50,000 year-long fundraising effort that kicked off at the 35th anniversary of the MSC on April 4. The effort will support the MSC’s satellite food pantry and meal card distribution for students facing hunger. Patrons can make tax-deductible donations to support the MSC’s work at go.wisc.edu/MSC-gifts. 

Past limited-edition mini chairs from the Wisconsin Union have included a cow-print chair in 2019 supporting the UW School of Veterinary Medicine’s building expansion project; a 2020 chair that featured a painting of the Earth benefitting the UW–Madison Green Fund; and a 2023 purple and teal chair supporting University Health Services’ Suicide Prevention Fund.

Patrons can still purchase a limited supply of cow-print mini chairs in the Union’s online Terrace Store and the Union’s Badger Markets at Memorial Union and Union South. The Wisconsin Union team also sells mini red, green, yellow and orange Terrace chairs and tables in its Badger Markets at Memorial Union and Union South as well as in its online Terrace Store. Patrons can purchase full-size red or white Terrace chairs and tables exclusively in the online Terrace Store.

Full-size Terrace chairs appear in yellow, orange and green each spring at the Wisconsin Union’s outdoor dining and entertainment space, the Memorial Union Terrace. The trademarked sunburst design of the chair has become a recognizable symbol of the Terrace and Madison summers, and the chairs’ return has become a highly anticipated occurrence. It is followed by the Wisconsin Union’s Terrace season of free concerts and film showings, free and low-cost art opportunities and low-cost outdoor recreation experiences. 

As of April 5, to purchase the limited-edition, multi-colored mini chairs while supplies last, patrons can visit the Badger Market at Memorial Union, the Badger Market at Union South and the online Terrace Store. 

To learn about other giving opportunities to support MSC programming and services, patrons can visit go.wisc.edu/MSC-gifts.