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Reports

Annual Report

Our vision is to be a galvanized educational and creative community, addressing universal needs through our thought, design and expression. Each year we share with you highlights of our college community’s amazing achievements and acknowledge our generous supporters who help ignite curious minds through art, design and service.

Interested in making a gift to this year’s MIAD Annual Fund? Donate here.

Previous Year Reports

Five-Year Strategic Plan

Launching Milwaukee’s Creative Professionals
Art and design practice is rapidly changing in a world defined by emerging technologies, an entrepreneurial spirit and new ways of communicating. MIAD’s programs and experiences hone the top skills employers worldwide demand. Students ask “What’s Possible?” and then develop real solutions to meet real needs.

Nowhere are these top professional skills more needed than in Milwaukee, and nowhere is a college more poised to provide them.

MIAD is growing its enrollment, integrated academic programs and student and community experiences. Unique applications of emerging technologies are flourishing through the MIAD Innovation Center.

All these achievements help students excel on a professional journey that begins from their first moments on campus.

At the midpoint of our strategic plan, the college already has exceeded many of our aggressive goals – growing enrollment 40% over the past five years and retaining 80.5% of first-year students from their first to second year. Out of state enrollment is approaching 50%, and many of our graduates remain in Wisconsin after graduation for at least their first job.

Through this strategic plan, MIAD is launching the programs and creative professionals who are transforming our community.

 

Goals & Objectives

1. Recruiting: Seeking future artists and designers
  • Increase new student enrollment to 274 (14 percent) by fall 2022.
  • Provide scholarship and grant aid at appropriate levels to maintain affordability of, and access to, MIAD’s education.
  • Diversify enrollment of new students demographically and geographically.
2. Retaining: Promising our students a four-year professional journey
  • Increase first-time, first-year student retention 2 percent annually, to reach 82 percent by 2022.
  • Increase sophomore-to-junior retention rates in the majors to 90 percent by Fall 2022 (i.e., sophomore attrition no higher than 10 percent).
  • Increase retention rates of various groups such as first-generation students, minority students and commuters, among others with identified needs, by fall 2022.
3. Learning: Launching new and compelling curricular programming
  • Create new curricular tracks to respond to students’ evolving interests in contemporary design and art programming and careers.
  • Energize student learning through increased role of digital technology in studios, classrooms and courses.
  • Build inclusivity and diversity in our curriculum and academic experiences (Adopted April 2019).
4. Making: Revitalizing the campus to transform learning
  • Create a compelling physical and external presence that invites the community to engage with MIAD’s galleries, programs and facilities.
  • Establish our brand throughout the campus to reinforce the MIAD experience.
  • Create an engaging learning environment to transform student learning.
  • Promote MIAD’s distinctive strength in professional preparation (Adopted April 2019).
5. Living: Building a life of purpose in the professions and the community
  • Develop a center to foster innovation and entrepreneurial thinking.
  • Strengthen the college’s commitment to Service Learning to continue to distinguish our students’ roles in the community.
  • Develop programming to increase the economic, cultural and societal role MIAD plays in the region.
  • Strengthen the college’s commitment to inclusivity by making visible, educating about and celebrating diversity (Adopted April 2019).

For more information about the Strategic Plan, contact President Jeff Morin at jeffmorin@miad.edu or 414-847-3210.

(Updated September 2019)

Accreditation

The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) is a private, non-profit corporation chartered by the State of Wisconsin for the purpose of providing a professional education to students of the visual arts and related design fields. The college offers Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Communication Design, Illustration, Industrial Design (Product Design), Interior Architecture and Design and New Studio Practice: Fine Arts.

MIAD is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art & Design (NASAD), and the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), (info@hlcommission.org, 800-621-7440).

The Wisconsin State Approving Agency under Title 38, US Code, approves the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree of MIAD for the training of veterans for federal veterans’ education benefits.

News

FYE Juried Media Arts Festival 2024 celebrates first-year student works

Seven students received awards at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design’s juried FYE Media Arts Festival – an in-house screening and celebration of video, animation and sound design works by current and former First-Year Experience (FYE) students held on November 26. The 56 entries were judged by multimedia and filmmaking professionals Emma B. Barany, Gabe Leistekow and Sara Sowell.

Independence First and MIAD students produce adaptive clothing

Students in a junior-level Fashion and Apparel Design class at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) collaborated with Independence First to design adaptive clothing. Two Independence First employees worked closely with MIAD students on customized outfits specific to their needs and preferences.

‘GQ Rebranded’ series is a hit for MIAD alum’s new studio

When Justin Thomas Kay ’04 (Communication Design) opened his own studio, JTK Studio, Inc., in New York City early this year, he hoped that his work “would contribute positively to helping to make things look nicer and more enjoyable and speak honestly to people broadly.” The new GQ Sports series “GQ Rebranded” turned out to be a good fit to do just that.

MIAD student support system receives national SMILE Award

Choose Mental Health, the national voice for children’s mental health, named the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) the 2024 SMILE Award–Organization Winner for the college’s commitment to promoting mental health and well-being among its students.

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