A visit to the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD)
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) is located in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward, the city’s official arts district, bordered by Lake Michigan and the Milwaukee River. While not co-located with an art museum, the beautifully designed (Eero Saarinen, David Kahler, and Santiago Calatrava) Milwaukee Art Museum is a 20 minute walk away.
The school’s main academic building has five floors of naturally lit, airy, open work spaces, classrooms and galleries including fully equipped 3D labs for wood, metal and plastic design. Students have access to a broad spectrum of resources from emerging technologies (3D printers, laser etchers, virtual reality, etc.) to traditional labs for photography. The building is equipped with a sculpture studio with a foundry, as well as a textile lab to support their newest major in Fashion and Apparel Design.
Even though only summer school was in session when we visited, student, faculty and alumni art was displayed everywhere in the building which makes the whole space feel like a collaborative working art gallery!
This small private art college (920 students) partners with Marquette University, about a 20 minute bus ride away, to give MIAD students access to Humanities and Sciences classes, a university library, health care, intramural sports and health club facilities. Students can combine their MIAD degrees with Marquette to minor in Advertising, Business, Copywriting and Psychology. MIAD offers 6 BFA majors: Communication Design (graphic design, advertising, interactive media), Illustration, Animation, Product Design (invention, product development and design, furniture design), Interior Architecture and Design, and New Studio Practice “a multidisciplinary major centered on making, community and entrepreneurship that positions you to flourish and thrive in a competitive 21st century market and the contemporary visual arts world.”
The First-Year Experience foundations program explores classes in drawing, composition and color theory, fabrication, digital 2D (image and content creation using Adobe Suite), and digital 4D (animation, video editing, audio tools). Students conduct research and engage in a creative process that leads to a body of visual work culminating in presentations of final projects in MIAD’s FYE Gallery.
Along with study abroad options, MIAD also participates in the AICAD Exchange program which allows students to attend another member art school in the 31 school consortium for a semester.
MIAD offers Summer Pre-College programs for high school students. Core studio concepts classes are two-week intensives for beginning and intermediate students which allows them to explore 2 areas of study with MIAD faculty. The advanced studio concepts intensive is a three-week deep dive into one area of study and students receive 3 MIAD elective credits upon completion.