Yale Norfolk Summer Program accepts Fine Art junior

Greta Berens ’26 (Fine Art + New Studio Practice) was accepted to participate in the summer Yale Norfolk program in Norfolk, Connecticut. The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) junior is one of 25 students who will attend the six-week program.

The intensive Yale Norfolk residency program invites rising seniors to Connecticut for six weeks to learn and grow. They are housed in cottages on campus and work in studios in the campus Art Barn.

“I’m very excited to continue my practice and also kind of explore making art in a place outside of MIAD,” says Berens. “I’m also excited to do more drawings in addition to my painting practice, because I would say I’m primarily an oil painter. So it’ll be cool to bring that back into my artistic practice.”

Berens uses portraiture in their work to relate to viewers. “Everything in my work is to the scale that if it would be in real life or if it is something fictional, then the scale I would imagine it to be,” they explain. “[I]f I want to draw a full size human, that means the painting has to be six feet tall or more … A lot of my work has also been … making various humorous portraits of poodles. That sort of came from just taking pictures of my dog. He’s very funny. So I just sort of stylized him into oblivion.”

Earlier this year, Berens also received second place in MIAD’s inaugural Art Forward award, which awards a cash prize for selected Fine Art + New Studio Practice sophomores, juniors and seniors. The award is sponsored by Thomas and Malena Koplin and IllumiStart LLC.

“I think my work is also incredibly influenced by the idea of experience and interesting life experience. I do a lot of research on historical figures and their lives and just sort of the strange little events that you wouldn’t often hear about,” continues Berens.

On MIAD’s Fine Art major community, Berens says, “We’re all super supportive of each other, but we’re also able to critique each other and encourage each other and kind of push each other to go further, which I think is really beautiful. Another big thing is the teachers have been super impactful to me. I feel that I’ve been able to really improve my art through their feedback and refine my ideas and my skills.”

Learn more about MIAD’s Fine Art + New Studio Practice major!