Select Page

First-Year Student Exhibition promotes professional skills

The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design hosts the First-Year Experience Student Exhibition from late March through September 2023. A juried exhibition of work by MIAD’s first-year students, the installation celebrates the creative and personal growth that students experienced over the course of the year.

Local professionals will judge the exhibition and award hundreds of dollars in prizes at the reception on March 24, 2023. Renato Umali, Mariah Tate Klemens and Gabrielle Banzhaf are the jurors for this year’s exhibition. Representing a wide range of interdisciplinary art forms, the jurors’ experiences range from filmmaking, music and sculpture to woodworking and fiber arts.

FYE Student Exhibition, MIAD 2nd Floor; opening reception March 24, exhibition on view March 24 to September 2023

First-Year Experience Assistant Professor Janelle VanderKelen explains that in addition to celebrating the creative accomplishments of this year’s first-year students, the exhibition aims to help students begin to develop professionally. “[It’s an] opportunity for students to start developing key professional skills, like preparing work for external exhibition and considering their class projects as creative works that have lives outside the classroom,” she says.

The Milwaukee community is invited to attend the reception on Friday, March 24 from 2 – 3:30 p.m. on the second floor of MIAD’s building at 273 E Erie St. Follow MIAD’s First-Year Experience on Instagram to stay up to date with exhibition news and learn more about MIAD’s FYE program!

News

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.

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.

MIAD faculty Yi receives Wisconsin Academy Fellows Award

Multidisciplinary artist, curator, mentor and Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) professor Jason S. Yi has been named a 2026 Fellow of the prestigious Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. Yi is one of “16 extraordinary Wisconsinites who have demonstrated a lifelong commitment to intellectual discourse and public service,” the Academy said in its awards announcement.