Awards & Honors

This year’s Penfield Poster winners have been announced! In collaboration with advertising agency Cramer-Krasselt, 80 juniors at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) designed posters for the Annual Croquet Ball fundraiser at the Penfield Children’s Center.

Representatives from Fromm Petfest selected the winning design for their annual poster competition, a long-standing collaboration between Fromm Petfest and the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD). Of the 75 posters submitted by illustration students, a mid-century style design by MIAD senior Maggie Carroll ’23 (Illustration) was selected as the winner.

Five art and design students, including three seniors from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), were selected as finalists for this year’s annual Grilled Cheese Grant. After an extremely successful event on April 1, 2023, all five students will receive full funding for their senior thesis projects for the first time in Grilled Cheese Grant history.

Chad Alexander ’24 (New Studio Practice: Fine Arts) is one of only 26 students nationwide to be accepted into the prestigious Yale Norfolk School of Art Summer Program. Alexander, currently a junior at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) will participate in the six-week residency in Norfolk, Connecticut.

Four winners and three honorable mentions were selected at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design’s (MIAD) First-Year Experience Student Exhibition opening reception on Friday, March 24, 2023. Renato Umali, Mariah Tate Klemens and Gabrielle Banzhaf, the three jurors, commended all the participating students for their strong work.

Catherine Currie ’23 (Communication Design), a senior at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), was selected for the highly competitive graphic design internship at Nike. The internship will take place over 10 weeks this summer at Nike’s headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.

Thanks to the generosity of alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the college, the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design will award $6,857 to an unprecedented 28 seniors to directly support the fabrication and installation of their Senior Exhibition capstone projects. Winners were selected by a panel of 21 MIAD alumni with experience in fine art and design career fields.

Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design has been named the 2023 #1 Animation School in Wisconsin by the Animation Career Review. The college was also honored to be named as one of the top 25 Animation Schools in the Midwest. MIAD’s Animation track, part of the Illustration major, is a new program which launched in fall 2021.

Janelle VanderKelen, an assistant professor at MIAD, has been awarded a 2023 Mary L. Nohl Fellowship in the Established Artist category. The Nohl Fellowship, funded by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund and Joy Engine, and administered by the Lynden Sculpture Garden, selected four other artists.

MIAD’s First Year Experience Media Arts Festival took place at the beginning of December and showcased work from 43 students who completed the FYE 151 Digital 4D course during Spring and Fall 2022. Participants submitted creative works ranging from video, sound design and digital animation to stop motion and gifs.