Emeritus Faculty

Al Balinsky received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Photography from The City University of New York, Brooklyn College. He is Emeritus Professor of Fine Arts and the Founder of the Photography Programs (in 1980) at MIAD. Al has been teaching and photographing for over 30 years and is the recipient of numerous grants and awards; including a Wisconsin Arts Board / National Endowment for the Arts, and two Wisconsin Humanities Council / National Endowment for the Humanities Grants.

Al’s work has been exhibited and collected both Nationally and Internationally. His current photographic / oral history exhibition of People with Disabilities in the Workplace, created during a MIAD sabbatical, in conjunction with Independence First, Milwaukee, has been exhibited at over 35 venues in California, Illinois, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin, and is still being exhibited at this time. Al was awarded the National Council on Independent Living Advocacy Award, presented to him in Washington, D.C., for the People with Disabilities project. That project is currently being exhibited in DVD format.

Waldek Dynerman received his MFA in painting from the Warsaw Fine Arts Academy and joined MIAD’s faculty in 1983 teaching fine arts courses in drawing, printmaking and painting. He works in a wide range of media including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, video and sound. Influenced by his childhood in post-WWII Poland, his work is driven by personal experiences mediating tension and darkness, at times, with humor. Dynerman finds inspiration from outside the cultural mainstream. His pursuit of “absolute honesty in the artistic gesture” is reflected in his fondness for simple materials (found objects, commercial paints) and “lowbrow” art.

His awards include an Air Le Parc artists residency in Pampellone, France (2015), a Mary Nohl Fellowship in the Established Artist category (2010), and a Milwaukee County Artist Fellowship (2001). His work is exhibited work regularly in the U.S. and Europe including more than thirty solo exhibitions and over a hundred group shows. Most recently, his 2015 solo exhibition titled Rio Te Amo was on view at Gallery Apteka Sztuki in Warsaw.

See more of Waldek’s work at dynerman.com

Quotes:
“Paul Rand, Bradbury Thompson, Armin Hoffman, Wolfgang Weingart, and Herbert Matter have inspired my work to clarify information in order to inform the design and communication of messages. I look at the photographs of Dorthea Lange, Bruce Davidson, Henri Cartier-Bressan, and Peter Trunley and see a deep empathy and compassion for their subjects. In the work of Marc Chagall, I see the joyous use of color and line.”

“MIAD is filled with energy. Students and faculty from a mix of disciplines share a passion for creativity and invention. It is located on the Milwaukee River in a loft-filled corner of the city. Thousands of people circulate among galleries, museums, and studios on Gallery Night. “

“Communication Design students at MIAD bring an artistic sensibility to the classroom. Though digitally expert, they can appreciate and use handmade materials. The inclusion of Korean, German, and Polish students in my classes has made it possible to explore the challenges of designing for an international community.”

Education:
BA, Yale University
MFA, Yale University
Post-Graduate Study, Basel, School of Design

Career Highlights:

Society of Environmental Graphic Design, 2003 Merit Award and Special Award for Doing a Lot with a Little, for “Thinking and Making: An April Greiman Retrospective”

National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Artist’s Fellowship, Photography

National Endowment for the Arts, Design Arts Fellowship

Vice President, Director of Creative Development, Silver Burdett Ginn Professor

Department Chair, Graduate Studies Faculty, University of Cincinnati

Frank (Francis) Lukasavitz, laid to eternal rest on November 7, 2021, was one of the seven co-founders of MIAD and a lifelong Industrial (Product) Design educator, leader, mentor and friend to countless MIAD students, alumni, staff and faculty. Frank received the first MIAD Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013, after 50 years of dedicating himself to the education excellence the college embodies today.

“I wanted people to not just walk away with a degree, but to be the best people they can be, just like my goal for the college was for it to be the best college it could be.” –Frank Lukasavitz, 2013

From the Layton School of Art, to the Milwaukee School of Art, to the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, from the boardroom to the classroom to the 3D Lab that he helped found and build, Frank contributed to the college’s growth and successes we still see today. Frank taught students that creative fear is a part of growing and hosted students and alumni for weekly dinners in the 3D Lab. He embodied the best of MIAD faculty and their lifelong connection with students and graduates.

Dr. Barbara McLaughlin designs and teaches courses in both writing and humanities. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts–Boston (BA, MA in English) and of Marquette University’s doctoral program in English, she has presented and conducted workshops nationally on writing, literature, teaching practices and service learning. McLaughlin’s short story, “The Sin List,” won first place in the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s November 2017 “Tell Us a Story” contest. Currently, Professor McLaughlin’s writing and scholarship explores memoir, autobiography, creative nonfiction and the role of story in culture.

Jill Sebastian grew up in steel towns of the Midwest rust belt which has formed her as an artist. Her sculpture, drawings and installations have been exhibited in museums and galleries across the United States and internationally (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Milwaukee, Tele Aviv, Amsterdam and more). Sebastian’s public art includes: a musical fence in New Orleans; an architecturally integrated literary project for the Milwaukee Convention Center (with Woodland Pattern Book Center); a streetscape (with Ken Saiki Design) for Madison, WI; and a mosaic for the Genome Center at UW-Madison. Her concerns with community participation and subliminal choreography underlying all her public work is expressed in the site-specific sculptural pocket park she developed among five baseball fields in Wick Park, Milwaukee. Sebastian has collaborated with Deb Loewen, Wild Space Dance Company to create a site-specific installation and hour-long multi media work, Art of the Ordinary, at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Other collaborators include composers Burt Levy and Josh Schmidt, writers John Koethe and Jon Erickson and filmmaker Jake Fuller. Among her awards are a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship 1985, City of Milwaukee Artist of the Year 1997 and Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award 2016. Jill Sebastian is a Professor Emerita at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. 

Visit www.jillsebastian.com for more information.