Awards & Honors

Four MIAD Interior Architecture and Design students received international recognition for their work in the 2020/21 Juried Drawing Exhibition by the Design Communication Association (DCA). 

Jade Watring ’11 (Illustration) created the campaign art for the 2020 Milwaukee Film Festival. The artwork features technicolor butterflies emerging from chrysalis to represent the film festival transforming to a virtual platform this year. 

Amanda Levinate ’20 (Communication Design) was awarded a professional American Web Design Award by GDUSA for her 2020 Senior Exhibition project called Co- The Together App.

Vanessa Lara ’23 (New Studio Practice: Fine Arts) won the VIVO Masks $1,000 Masquerade Scholarship Design contest with the mask she created celebrating Mardi Gras and “Dia de Los Muertos” in Mexican culture.

Three New Studio Practice: Fine Arts seniors were selected as recipients for the fifth annual Grilled Cheese Grant. 

Eric Bailey ’01 (Illustration) took top honors in the Wisconsin Sign Association’s 2019 Sign Design Contest. He won first and second place for brand signs at Saint Kates Arts Hotel and Ironworkers Local 8.

Teena Wilder ’20 (New Studio Practice: Fine Arts) is the recipient of the 2020 McClure-Scanlin Visual Artist Residency award. She has had numerous exhibitions in South Carolina and Wisconsin, and her work has appeared in publications such as Jet Magazine.

Maria Alfaro ’20 (New Studio Practice: Fine Arts) received the 2020 SGCI (Southern Graphics Council International) Gamblin Student Award. Each year, Gamblin presents awards to three SGCI members.

LaNia Sproles ’17 was named a 2019 recipient of the Mary L. Nohl Individual Artist Fellowship! Sproles was one of three chosen for this prestigious prize for Wisconsin emerging artists. Alumni David Najib Kasir ’01, Grant Gill ’13 and Daniel McCullough ’18 also were named finalists for the fellowship …

Deb Wolf ’95 (Interior Architecture and Design) won first place in VMSD (Virtual Merchandising and Store Design) magazine’s Retail Renovation Competition for her redesign of a Ben Bridge Jeweler store. She works at SkB architects in Seattle.