Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design


The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design is a private college of art and design in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded in 1974, it offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 5 majors: Communication Design, Illustration, Industrial Design, Interior Architecture and Design, and New Studio Practice: Fine Arts. The college also offers 18 academic minors in areas such as Furniture Design, Digital Media Production and Arts Management. MIAD is considered the successor to the Layton School of Art, and was formerly known as the Milwaukee School for the Arts.

History

MIAD’s predecessor was the Layton School of Art. Layton was founded in 1920 by Charlotte R. Partridge and Miriam Frink. The two women worked together from 1920 until their retirement in 1954 to establish Layton as an accredited institution of higher education. The Layton School of Art attracted some of the finest faculty in the region and by 1954 the school was serving over 1000 students through both day and evening courses.
Upon closure of Layton, seven faculty members co-founded the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. These included Roland Poska and Jack H. White.

Academics

Degree programs include communication design, illustration, industrial design, interior architecture and design, and new studio practice.
The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design is a private, non-profit corporation chartered by the State of Wisconsin for the purpose of providing a professional education to students of the visual arts and related fields. MIAD is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art & Design. The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design is accredited by the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The BFA degree of MIAD is approved by the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board for training veterans.

Faculty

MIAD's faculty consists of about 100 working artists, designers and scholars. With about 650 full-time students, the ratio of student to faculty is 15 to 1.

Enrollment

MIAD's campus is located in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward, one of the city's arts districts, bordered by the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan. MIAD occupies three historic buildings:
In 1992, after a complete renovation, the college moved into the Jane Bradley Pettit Building. This is MIAD's main academic building, with of space on five floors.

Galleries