News

GDUSA selects MIAD Students to Watch 2026
Communication Design senior Olivia Nava ’26 and junior Nola Hennen ’27 were named 2026 Students to Watch by Graphic Design USA magazine (GDUSA).

Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design junior Paul Budnowski ’27 (Interior Architecture and Design) was awarded 1st Place and Crowd Favorite in the Interior Design Portfolio Contest at the 2026 NARI Spring Home Improvement Show. A select group of students from MIAD,...

Leslie Fedorchuk, Professor of Writing & Humanities and Director of Service Learning, received the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) MIAD Values Recognition Award for February 2026. Leslie received nominations that highlighted her embodiment of MIAD’s Core Values, especially Integrity, Kindness and Community.

Through a partnership with the MIAD Lubar Innovation Center, stunning campaign artwork by a student at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) once again is helping to launch Art in Bloom – the Milwaukee Art Museum’s annual celebration of art and spring. Illustrations by senior Emily Porven ’26 are both vibrant and subtle, colorful and evocative, capturing the essence of the event.

Receiving a Ruth Arts Mary L. Nohl Alumni Award has both immediate and longer-term impacts for Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design Professor Jon Horvath; for himself as an artist, for the arts community and for MIAD students. Horvath, who teaches in MIAD’s Fine Art + New Studio Practice major, was one of three artists and one collective recently given the award, which provides $25,000 in unrestricted funds to each.

Nikki Ranney ’22 (Illustration), the new curator of the Cedarburg Art Museum, says she “is so grateful that I went through my Bachelor of Fine Arts and got to experience a traditional art education at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design because it laid the groundwork for the more academic side of the curatorial field.”

Last fall’s Museum Studies class at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) has solidified a career choice for at least one of the 16 students who took it. The class was on the go all semester, visiting museums throughout Milwaukee, meeting with professionals and thinking critically about the role of museums in our society.

Meet Jodi Eastberg, Ph.D., Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD)! Dr. Eastberg discusses her vision for MIAD, her experience at the college so far, and some welcome surprises about working in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward neighborhood.

A towering column of life-size red-crowned cranes molded out of mulberry pulp has visitors to the Haggerty Museum of Art craning their necks to take in the sculpture. Work by Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) Professor Jason S. Yi is featured as part of the Haggerty Museum’s exhibition “This Side of the Stars: Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” in the Company of Kite, Paglen, and Yi.”

Digital design students at Franklin High School say their class project through the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design’s Future Creatives program provided new skills in teamwork while increasing their awareness of career pathways in design.

Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) Communication Design professor Laura Farahzad Mayer and alum Nomka Enkhee ’25 (Fine Art + New Studio Practice) each received one of five Mary L. Nohl Fellowships for 2026. The recipients of emerging artist awards, Farahzad Mayer and Enkhee were selected from among 168 applicants.

From a Fine Art major to Illustration, Communication Design and Product Design – first-year student to senior – participants in the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design’s Independent Inquiry Program say they are building both knowledge and self-confidence.

MIAD senior Julianna Frixione ’26 (Product Design) says winning the 2025 Pallas Textiles Student Design Competition will mainly affect her remaining studies at MIAD by “pushing me to continue working hard at the path I’m on.”

Lisa Floading, Coordinator of Tutoring Services, received the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) MIAD Values Recognition Award for November 2025. Lisa received nominations that highlighted her embodiment of MIAD’s Core Values, especially Innovation and Community.

In its 2025 rankings, Animation Career Review named the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) the #1 Graphic Design School in Wisconsin and #11 in the Midwest. The college’s Animation and Illustration programs also received top rankings.

Kim Miller, professor of Fine Art + New Studio Practice, returned to the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) following her sabbatical year with a Ph.D. and an innovative presentation and practice for students, faculty and staff.

Marta Tereziya ’26, a Fine Art + New Studio Practice senior at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), is one of 50 Wisconsin artists selected for the 2026 Wisconsin Artists Biennial. The Wisconsin Artists Biennial is co-sponsored and organized by Wisconsin Visual Artists and the Museum of Wisconsin Art.

A sabbatical year immersed in Japanese culture, language and the study of Ukiyo-e – images of Japan’s “floating world” – led Professor Chelsea Holton to two main “aha” moments and development of a new course for students at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD).

For the second year in a row, Fashion and Apparel Design students at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) worked with Independence First to design adaptive clothing tailor-made for two people who use wheelchairs. The project is part of a junior-level Patternmaking & Construction course.

Nichole Uecker, Student Accessibility Coordinator, received the October 2025 MIAD Values Recognition Award at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD). Nichole’s nominations highlighted her embodiment of MIAD’s Core Values, especially Community, Inclusion and Kindness.

When senior Carmen Briones’ mother was diagnosed with breast cancer during Briones’ sophomore year at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), finding a bra that was comfortable with a medical port became an additional challenge. Briones ’26 (Product Design) answered that challenge in her Design for Human Interface class by designing a product that reduces pain while increasing mobility.

When she first got the internship offer from Squishmallows at Jazwares, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) senior Melody Frias ’26 (Communication Design and Illustration) thought she was in shock. Months after the internship concluded, Frias still reads that email when she needs a boost.

Visiting author and artist Faythe Levine is motivated by reimagining archives and collections through a queer feminist lens. She presents “Queer Investigation & Storytelling in the Archive: MIAD Foremothers Charlotte Partridge and Miriam Frink,” based on her many-year research process for her fourth book, “As Ever, Miriam” (2024).