Thanks to the generosity of alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the college, the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) will award $7,085 to 44 seniors to directly support the fabrication and installation of their senior exhibition capstone projects.
The United Adworkers, Milwaukee’s premier organization dedicated to advertising, marketing and creative excellence throughout and beyond Wisconsin, awarded all of 2025’s Student Showcase Awards to current or recently graduated MIAD students.
The “Bridge Work: Ten Years of Making” exhibition on view at MIAD has offered not only a showcase of creativity and professional accomplishments by 23 recent BFA graduates, but also a unique opportunity for current students to learn from them and build a plan for their own careers.
The projects being undertaken by the 12 faculty and staff at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design who received 2024-25 Ruth Arts + MIAD Artists Grants are as varied in disciplines and topics as the artists themselves.
MIAD faculty Lexi S. Brunson ’14, one of ten faculty and staff members who received a Ruth Arts + MIAD Grant for the 2023-24 academic year, recently shared with the college a presentation of her year-long project, “Culture: Between Space & Place.”
When award-winning illustrator and author Keith Negley ’00 isn’t completing projects like his most recent book of “forgotten trailblazers,” he’s creating portraits of celebrities like Taylor Swift, Emma Stone and Chelsea Clinton, and doing editorial illustrations on topics like neurodivergence, organ transplants and the opioid crisis.
Two alumni from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) have received Emerging Artist fellowships from the 2025 Mary L. Nohl Fund for its 2025 cycle: Margaret Griffin ’23 (Fine Art + New Studio Practice) and Open Kitchen, co-founded by Rudy Medina ’12 (Integrated Studio Arts).
Brian Bowles ’01, professor of Communication Design at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), finds freelance projects “deeply fulfilling” and beneficial to himself and to his students.
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.
Of the seven Milwaukee artists selected for the gener8tor Art x Sherman Phoenix 2024 Fall Cohort, three are part of the community at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD). Assistant Professor Morgan Bouldes, current senior Nomka Enkhee ’25 and Photography & Digital Media Lab Technician Grant Gill ’13 (Photography) were selected as part of the grant and mentorship program.
It’s over 20 years and 30 miles from a figure drawing class at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design to the new Painting is Dead Gallery in Fredonia, Wis., owned by Katie Musolff ’04 (Painting) and Andy Fletcher, who first met in the class.
MIAD alum Morgan Tillisch ’24 (Illustration) wrote and illustrated a book to help neurodiverse kids feel comfortable sharing. With the help of her professors and the Lubar Innovation Center, Tillisch recently published “I Can Share My Toys” through Barnes & Noble.
