MIAD Values Recognition Award: Grant Gill

Grant Gill and MIAD President Jeff Morin

Grant Gill ’13 (Photography), Photography & Digital Media Lab Technician, received the August 2024 MIAD Values Recognition Award at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD). Gill’s nominations speak to his values of Community and Integrity.

The MIAD Values Recognition Award (VRA) celebrates faculty and staff who consistently model MIAD’s values of courage, integrity, kindness, community, innovation and inclusion. After employees nominate a colleague for the award, a committee made up of faculty, staff and previous VRA winners convenes to vote on the month’s recipient. Awardees receive a $250 prize.

“It means a lot,” says Gill. “I feel like I just come in and do my job, and it’s really nice to be seen for doing that job without any expectations from the school.”

One of Gill’s nominators said, “Grant has established an environment that is thoughtfully organized, energetic, and increasingly welcome for all to participate. Since he began the position last year, the area has been vibrant and regularly active with students working. It’s clear that students feel welcome and desire to spend more time using the Photo area … Grant is active in building meaningful programming for our community through initiating … and facilitating off-site experiences.”

A frequent refrain in Gill’s nominations highlighted his focus on building a community-minded and inclusive photo department focused on student experience. “When I started my position as the Photo & Digital Media Lab Technician, I really wanted to dedicate myself to opening those doors as much as possible,” he explains. In this case, Gill means physically opening doors to photo lab spaces, allowing students to explore and work in specialized spaces like the lighting studio. “Opening up the space and getting it to a place where you can work inside any of the labs has been my focus. A lot of the feedback I’ve gotten is students feel like they can finally work in this space, not just their studio or off campus.”

Another nominator says, “[Grant’s] focus on inclusion, community, and integrity is very admirable. He is … unafraid to be authentically himself. Therefore, it is inspiring to observe him navigate his position at MIAD and within the greater Milwaukee artist community.”

“I think it’s also really important to get students thinking outside the school as well,” continues Gill, who also teaches and often organizes student exhibitions at local galleries. “These are people that [students] will have the opportunity to exist with when they graduate if they choose to stay in Milwaukee, which I hope they do! … This community ecosystem that we cultivate at MIAD, it needs to exist outside of the walls for everything that we do inside the school to matter.”

Learn more about MIAD’s Values Recognition Award or nominate a colleague at miad.edu/vra.