News

Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design students in a junior-level Product Design class recently visited Walker’s Point Tattoo Company to learn about tattoo equipment.

The National Veterans Resource Center Gallery in Syracuse, New York is currently exhibiting selected works from the Veteran Print Project, including 13 prints by Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design alumni and faculty. The exhibition runs through March 10, 2023.

Although the show is only up for a few more days, the Black Art & Design Juried Student Exhibition at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design remains a gem in the institution. Noah Teague ’25 (Communication Design), one of the 14 students showing work, explains his multimedia collages and creative philosophy.

“The Grim Reaper” by Zara Dixon ’25 (Illustration), currently on display at the Black Art & Design Juried Student Exhibition, is a deeply layered work by a Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design sophomore.

When Ladasia Bryant ’23 (Communication Design) was tapped to create a mural for the Milwaukee Bucks, she turned to her fellow students in the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design’s Black Leaders and Artists Coalition (BLAC).

The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design has announced its first recipient of the MIAD Values Recognition Award. Laura Baranyk-Morales, Assistant Office Manager in the Admissions Center, was recognized as embodying all of MIAD’s values, particularly Kindness and Community.

Glitch art is just one of the varied creative styles to be found in the Black Art & Design Juried Student Exhibition at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. Darryl Wedgeworth ’24 (Communication Design) explains his creative process and his experience at MIAD so far.

At the onset of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, at least 20 percent of Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design students lacked access to sufficient hardware or reliable internet that would allow them to participate fully in online classes. The college’s response took the form of the Digital Equity Fund, which seeks to alleviate the digital divide in MIAD students by providing technology and looking for sustainable solutions.

Usually known as the Charles Allis Museum, the institution is temporarily changing its name in conjunction with its new exhibition highlighting women, femme and nonbinary artists. The Sarah Ball Allis exhibition is curated by MIAD Associate Professor and Chair of First-Year Experience Kate Schaffer and includes work by MIAD alumni Melissa Dorn ’96 (Sculpture) and Artemis Sidikman ’22 (New Studio Practice: Fine Arts).

In their first exhibition, Faith Allen ’25 (Illustration) went big. The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design sophomore submitted two artworks to the Black Art & Design Juried Student Exhibition and reveled in the freedom to create the largest pieces they could.

Unfinished Legacy, a brand started by Milwaukee artist Brema Brema, enjoyed a promotional video created by current Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design senior Hannah Davis for her Digital Media: Video Production elective course in fall 2022. The semester-long project culminated in a three-minute video and three shorter clips advertising the brand.

Milwaukee high schoolers are getting a head start on their creative careers through the Design Internship at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. The free, year-long program was recently approved for a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to expand the program for 2023-2024.

The Arts Midwest Grow, Invest, Gather (GIG) Fund has awarded the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design a $4,000 grant to fund the upcoming exhibition “Wig Heavier Than a Boot: The Work of David Johnson.” Funding is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

After two years of planning and work, André Saint-Louis ’01 (Sculpture) and Brandon Minga ’04 (Illustration) have finished a monumental public sculpture project for Milwaukee’s Near West Side neighborhood. The last four of the seven neighborhood markers will be installed in different Near West Side communities at the end of the month.

Wyethe Smallish ’23, currently studying Illustration and Communication Design, started re-drawing Disney characters with fuller and more proportional figures this August. The recordings she took of the process went viral on TikTok and resulted in a Buzzfeed feature in September of 2022.

Dominic Chambers ’16 (New Studio Practice: Fine Arts) will be exhibiting his first solo show with Lehmann Maupin, the New York gallery that represents him. The exhibition, scheduled for 2024, features Chambers’ reflective paintings, which most recently explore leisure and contemplation and their relationship with the Black body.