MIAD Winter-Spring 2024 Exhibitions showcase Milwaukee’s environmental injustice; Vintage wood type, printing & new works from Two Rivers’ Hamilton Museum

MILWAUKEE (January 2024) – Unique stories of Milwaukee’s environmental injustice and a rare view of American advertising art and contemporary letterpress printing headline the 2024 winter-spring exhibition season and the 50^th anniversary year at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), 273 E. Erie Street in Milwaukee’s Third Ward.

The feature exhibitions, opening in January in MIAD’s two main galleries, are complemented by student exhibitions in the college’s auxiliary galleries. All lead up to the MIAD 2024 Senior Exhibition April 19 (Gallery Night) – May 11. MIAD Galleries are free and open to the public. Gallery hours: Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., unless otherwise indicated for receptions and events.

Growing Resistance: Untold Stories of Milwaukee’s Community Guardians runs January 8 – March 2 in MIAD’s Brooks Stevens Gallery. The opening reception is on January 18, 6 – 8 p.m., with Milwaukee Through Embodied Research dance interventions. Other programs, such as zine making and a community story circle, with community partners are on Jan. 25, Feb. 17, Feb. 22 and March 2 (info here).

“Growing Resistance” showcases everyday voices of resistance and resilience around environmental injustice from some of Milwaukee’s most historically underrepresented neighborhoods – predominantly the North and Northwest Sides. The community guardians are residents/citizens, block leaders, elders, organizations, grassroots groups and sometimes youth.

Their stories and accounts of urban growing, food, housing and green space are expressed through dance, photography, sculpture, environmental sound, painting, interviews, poetry, video, architectural models and more. They are drawn from over 10 years of partnership between MIAD, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Milwaukee School of Engineering, and community experts, to co-create more representative histories of the neighborhoods, prompting us to ask how we might amplify these grassroots actions and voices – which are often erased in the archives or ignored in the media.

“This is an unusual exhibit because it represents an ongoing community collaboration,” says co-curator and MIAD Professor Helen J. Bullard. “While it includes work from several well-known local artists, it also includes many voices from community guardians who may never have considered themselves to be artists before. This work will never be done – it’s ongoing.”

The exhibition is hosted by MIAD and co-curated with MSOE and UWM. It is funded in part by a grant from Wisconsin Humanities, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Wisconsin Arts Board.

Old Type, New Ways: Work from The Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum runs January 16 – March 9 in MIAD’s Frederick Layton Gallery, with a reception on Thursday, January 25, 5 – 8 p.m. Starting at 6 p.m., visitors may Make and Take a letterpress print using wood type assisted by MIAD students (at no cost).

The Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wis., houses an enormous collection of vintage prints, wood type and machinery going back to the founding of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company in 1880. It is a working museum that prints with its collections and continues to create new wood type using the original tools and machines from the factory. The museum holds the world’s largest collection of wood type, with over 1.5 million pieces. This exhibition showcases original prints, type, printing blocks and new works created by contemporary artists from the collections at the museum; it is a unique and rare view of American advertising art and the contemporary state of letterpress printing.

Followed by 2 student exhibitions and MIAD’s Senior Exhibition in April!

please excuse my dope asian swag

On view: January 12 – February 2, 2024

Closing reception: Feb. 2, 5 – 7 p.m. | MIAD Community Hub & Gallery (160), open to the public

Lead Curator: Lee Judilla, Fine Arts ’24

This exhibition features the art and design works of MIAD’s Asian student body, curated and organized by members of the Asian Creative Union (ACU) student group. Nearly three dozen works highlight the diverse experiences of emerging Asian creatives, from first year to senior year and an impressive variety of media. Intended to amplify and showcase student voices while also affirming dignity and belonging, the works speak to the ongoing rise in anti-Asian violence nationwide and to the dynamic exploration of identity happening across the college.

Freedom Dreaming

On view: February 9 – 29, 2024

Opening reception: Feb. 9, 5 – 7 p.m. | MIAD Community Hub & Gallery (160), open to the public

Lead Curator: Noah Teague, Communication Design ’25

Inspired by the abolitionist concept of “freedom dreaming,” in which Black people and others who experience racism are freed from its deadly and world-altering impacts, MIAD’s Black Leaders and Artists Coalition (BLAC) student group presents a conceptual exhibition of works created directly in response to its title. The included works are in conversation with each other, encircling a central space for performance and exploring abolitionist texts. Recordings of Black students’ voices can be heard throughout the space, nudging visitors to a new future.

Fine Art + New Studio Practice, Small Group Shows of Senior Exhibition projects, Kim Miller, Chair, Fine Art + New Studio Practice

• First Show: March 18 – 22; Reception March 22, 6 – 8 p.m.
• Second Show, March 25 – 29; Reception March 29, 6 – 8 p.m.
• Third Show, April 1 – 5, Reception April 5, 6 – 8 p.m.

MIAD 2024 Senior Exhibition, April 19 (Gallery Night) – May 11, all MIAD Galleries

Anticipated statewide and beyond, MIAD’s Senior Exhibition celebrates the capstone projects of nearly 180 emerging creative professionals representing all of MIAD’s majors and programs. MIAD seniors combine a passion for meeting societal needs with innovative technology and time-honored talent.

MIAD’s Brooks Stevens Gallery and Frederick Layton Gallery are free and open to the public, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. More information at miad.edu/galleries.

MIAD’s offsite gallery, MIAD Gallery at The Ave., 301 W Wisconsin, Ave Suite 104 (enter from Wisconsin Ave.), also offers exhibitions and consignment work, with “Punks, Geeks and Lovers: A MIAD Zine exhibition running through Jan. 27. The gallery was included in Midwest Living Magazine’s “10 Fresh Places to Eat, Drink, Play and Stay This Fall” (2023). The gallery is open Tuesday – Saturday: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. galleryattheave.miad.edu

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.