MIAD Labs
At more than 25,000 square feet, MIAD offers one of the most expansive maker facilities in the nation. This creative hive will offer you limitless opportunities to bring your ideas to life. Here, you’ll find space and resources to define your creative path.
In MIAD’s labs, you will have access to cutting-edge technology, equipment and machinery. Expert lab technicians are available to help you use all equipment.
Check out MIAD’s 3D & Sculpture Lab, Lubar Emerging Technology Center, Lubar Innovation Center, Printmaking Lab and Textiles Lab.
3D & Sculpture Lab
MIAD’s 3-D and Sculpture lab space boasts approximately 20,000 square feet of workable space for students in all disciplines to work and create. Accommodating needs for students of varying backgrounds, the lab supplies the needed machinery and technology for working in wood, metal, plastics, vacuum forming, model building, bronze casting, ceramics, clay and much more. Found among the open, general space are separate rooms allowing for individual spray booths, tool rooms of shared usage, classroom space, in addition to many individual workstations for needed projects and ideas. True to the nature of the rest of MIAD’s Jane Pettit Bradley building, a wall of windows spans the length of the lab, allowing natural light to flood the facilities opening up the expansive facility even more.
Lubar Emerging Technology Center
The Lubar Emerging Technology Center (ETC) is a place where MIAD students, staff and faculty engage with technologies as they develop. The purpose of the Lubar ETC is to help students learn how to learn to use technology to support their creative practice. All students have full access to the center, regardless of course of study or discipline.
Lubar Innovation Center
The MIAD Lubar Innovation Center connects real-world clients with our best and brightest students.
Through our creative development program, we foster innovative and entrepreneurial thinking to challenge our students’ individual interests, support academic programming and collaborate with corporate and nonprofit partners.
Printmaking Lab
MIAD’s Printmaking Lab is a unique space on the third floor overlooking the Milwaukee River. It includes a full letterpress shop, intaglio relief printing shop, photo darkroom, lithography shop, screen printing and paper making capabilities and a risograph printer.
Textiles Lab
MIAD’s Textiles Lab is an open workspace available to students in all disciplines. Located on the sunlit second floor the lab houses home to industry-grade equipment, many handwork processes and an ever changing array of donated materials. The lab is monitored and maintained by the Textiles Lab Technician and knowledgeable student workers. Curriculum based projects, such as Product Design’s Everyday Carry project, Visual Language’s embroidery project and the majority of Fashion and Apparel Design projects are accomplished in the Textiles Lab alongside individual projects and explorations. This lab is designed for technical skill building, conceptual advancement and exploratory research.
News
Meet Kas Cook and 2026 Senior Exhibition Project Mcallaster’s Special
Cas Kook ’26 (Animation Track in Illustration) is a Dean’s List student from the Greater Chicago area and a recipient of a 2026 Alumni Thesis Award. “Project Calvin Sazerac” is about Calvin Sazerac, a seasoned barkeep, who creates new cocktails for his favorite regulars. When he is challenged to meet the demands of a picky saloon patron, he creates something life changing.
Meet Mac Bronnson and 2026 Senior Exhibition Project MENd
Mac Bronnson ’26 (Communication Design) is a President’s (Honor) List student from Milwaukee and a recipient of a 2026 Alumni Thesis Award. MENd – No Bro Left Behind is a men’s mental health app that is not designed as a mental health app.
MIAD faculty designs for Brewers Wisconsin Artist Series
Faculty member Ric Stultz, who teaches Illustration at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, has designed what is sure to become iconic apparel during the Milwaukee Brewers 2026 season.
Meet Cyrill Reyes and 2026 Senior Exhibition Project NECROZOIC
Cyrill Reyes ’26 (Illustration) is a President’s (Honor) List student from the Greater Chicago area. My thesis is game concept art and visual development of the world of NECROZOIC, a prehistoric fantasy that retells the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Meet Bailey Staerkel and 2026 Senior Exhibition Project Stitched Together
Bailey Staerkel ’26 (Fashion and Apparel Design) is a Dean’s List student from Vancouver, Wash., and a recipient of a 2026 Alumni Thesis Award. My thesis, Stitched Together, is an exploration of Gothic horror through fashion, taking classic horror archetypes and reinterpreting them into a collection of fully realized couture looks.