Peter Barrickman selected as NSP: Fine Arts full-time faculty
Following a national search, Peter Barrickman has been selected as the newest full-time faculty member in New Studio Practice (NSP): Fine Arts at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD). An internationally recognized artist, Barrickman also co-founded Mazzzagine, a publication dedicated to supporting artists and fostering collaboration.
While Barrickman is primarily a painter, his practice extends to film, illustration and animation, performance, and sculpture and installation. “[S]tudents show each other how their work is performing beyond a discipline-specific conversation,” he says of MIAD’s NSP: Fine Arts program. “Our cross-disciplinary program leads us to embrace and grapple with different values and dimensions while also addressing multiple ways of being in the world.”
Peter Barrickman
Peter Barrickman
Peter Barrickman, Blue Music Room, 2022
Peter Barrickman, Blue Music Room, 2022.
Peter Barrickman, Burning Trash, 2022.
Peter Barrickman, Burning Trash, 2022.
Peter Barrickman, El Condor, 2022.
Peter Barrickman, El Condor, 2022.
Peter Barrickman, Thomas Jefferson Park, 2023.
Peter Barrickman, Thomas Jefferson Park, 2023.
Peter Barrickman, Apartment, 2022.
Peter Barrickman, Apartment, 2022.
As an instructor, Barrickman emphasizes collaboration and community, experimentation and making and above all, humanity. “My teaching philosophy changes, depending on the learning style of my student!” he explains. “[C]ultivating humanity is at the root of teaching … I teach while acknowledging my own humanity and that of my students. Art is one way that we can give form to these dynamics.”
Barrickman received his BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and his MFA from Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. He has taught at MIAD as an interim faculty member since 2014.
Learn more about MIAD’s NSP: Fine Arts program!
News
MIAD Values Recognition Award: Leslie Fedorchuk
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.
MIAD Innovation Center and MAM provide career experience
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.
Nohl Alumni Award propels lasting impact for MIAD professor
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.
Arts education lays groundwork for MIAD alum curatorial role
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.”
Museum Studies class: Hands-on exhibition and career experience
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.