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!