From David Martin, Acting Provost

There’s a story here!

That’s what I hear constantly at MIAD, whether it’s from our students, our faculty, our staff, or visitors.

It has been the great joy of my life to spend the last fifteen years teaching at MIAD.  When people ask me why, what is it that I love about this school, the answer is easy.  The students.   The faculty.  There’s a community here--a buzz.  Call it a fierce energy, a compelling desire to create, to think, to imagine.  You feel it surrounding you when you walk the halls and explore the studios.  You hear it in the classrooms and the dialog between students and teachers.  This is a place of learning, of growth.  This is a story unfolding. 

Over the past few weeks, in my new position as provost, I’ve been prowling the corridors to witness what’s happening.  In the Drawing studios, junior Mark Scheiber is creating a three-dimensional drawing comprised of wire and action figures and books and all manner of found objects.  Every day the piece grows out into the world, threatening to entwine us in its web.  Just Sunday I visited State Fair Park where our Interior Architecture and Design juniors constructed a life-sized contemporary bedroom/study.  The edgy style blew away the competition!  Last week, art history classes visited Chicago museums for a field trip to explore deign.  In our painting studios, seniors are preparing for their senior exhibition.  Freshmen are completing amazing figure drawings in wet and dry media.  Our second floor is wrapped in the human body!

These are just a few of the stories unfolding right now.  We are presently installing 50” monitors in the halls to display student animations and videos.  There’s a hilarious installation of giant spit wads spattered on the wall of our east stairwell.  At this very moment, Industrial Design sophomores are concocting innovative solutions to our annual egg drop contest.  Next week, sculptor faculty Will Pergl will be leading seven doctors-in-training to study the human form in clay.  On Tuesday we will participate in a national web cast entitled “2010 Imperative: Global Emergency Teach-In” sponsored by the New York Academy of Science.

This place bristles with engagement!  As I write this, I am listening to a panel of artists and scholars discussing our latest exhibition, “Sacred Texts/Contemporary Forms,” a gorgeous collection of artist’s books gathered from across the country.  (A digital catalog of the exhibition, as well as access to curator Leslie Fedorchuk’s exhibit blog, is available on this website.)  Last week, students and faculty and staff participated in our sixth annual African-American Read-In; MIAD is the only college in Wisconsin to celebrate in this national event!

If you are looking for a school that is living and breathing a creative story every day, you have found it.  Our walls are shimmering with our students’ art and design!  If you are looking for a place where you will be challenged, where you and your talent and ideas will be taken seriously, consider this place.   There’s a story here.  Join us.