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.

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
Bronzeville initiatives by MIAD alums garner state and local awards
Community advocate, business owner, writer and editor Lexi S. Brunson ’14, an alum and assistant professor of Writing and Humanities at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), recently accepted two awards: Best Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Initiative (Business) at the 34th annual Wisconsin Main Street Awards and Historic King Drive Business of the Year.
Fine Art senior selected for Tidal Shift Award
Marta Tereziya ’26 (Fine Art + New Studio Practice), a senior at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), was recognized with a 2025 Tidal Shift award for her oil painting “Global Warning.” The award celebrates young artists who want to solve the climate crisis.
Meet Makenna Schibler and 2025 Senior Exhibition Project Day Ten
Meet Makenna Schibler and 2025 Senior Exhibition Project Day Ten. Makenna Schibler ’25 (Fine Art + New Studio Practice) is from Louisville, Ken.
Product Design class uses virtual reality for shoe design
Product Design students at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) are keeping up to date with the emerging technologies that are becoming industry standard. In the junior Advanced Digital Modeling course, instructor Frank Savage has incorporated Gravity Sketch, a virtual reality platform, into a shoe design assignment.
Senior Communication Design project wins national GDUSA award
Cultivata, the 2025 Senior Exhibition project by Frankie Mallerdino ’25 (Communication Design) at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), was named a Gold Foil winner in Graphic Design USA’s 2025 Digital Design Awards. Only 10 percent of the more than 3,000 entries earn this national distinction.