Overview

When you join the Peck School of the Arts Department of Art & Design, you’re embracing more than just a classroom experience. You’re entering a vibrant community of visionary artists and innovators, where your creativity is nurtured to prepare you for your future.

Our commitment to fostering meaningful connections sets us apart. You’ll develop valuable relationships with our artist faculty, dedicated staff, fellow creatives and the wider arts community. These connections are seamlessly integrated into your education, equipping you with a robust network of industry professionals.

Located in Milwaukee, our department grants you unrivaled access to Wisconsin’s thriving creative economy. As an Art & Design student, you’ll have exclusive opportunities to intern and collaborate with leading arts organizations and innovative agencies in the region. And you’ll do it all from a supportive launch pad. Every space within our department feels like home, carefully designed to serve as an incubator for your artistic growth.

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Faculty and Staff

Our inspirational faculty and staff make sure students feel welcome and empowered to think outside the box and explore all possibilities of making art at UWM. Visit the Peck School of the Arts directory to meet these artists, explore their biographies and engage with recent work.

Scholarships and Aid 

Financial constraints shouldn’t hinder your artistic dreams. Our comprehensive range of scholarships and aid programs is designed to empower and support artists like you.

Study Abroad

We believe that a complete education in the arts should take you beyond the classroom and the local community. By studying abroad, you’ll gain more than a change of scenery. You’ll embark on a transformative educational experience and bring a global perspective to your field of study. Explore upcoming trips offered in partnership with the Center for International Education.

Mission 

The Department of Art & Design develops creative thinkers, art and design professionals, and cultural leaders through a cross-disciplinary curriculum that balances innovation and tradition and is supported by a vital program of creative research. Committed to Milwaukee’s diverse urban communities, our practicing artists and scholars foster visual literacy, critical inquiry, and civic engagement for lifelong creative work.

View the Art & Design Student Handbook

The Department of Art & Design advances its mission by:

  • Providing a curriculum that emphasizes civic engagement, advanced studio practice, and thinking through and with the arts. 
  • Producing active and ethical artists and scholars that use their work to educate and facilitate social and cultural awareness, both locally and globally. 
  • Actively contributing to research and philosophy regarding the relationships between tradition and new technologies. 
  • Providing an active environment that facilitates opportunities to work with materials, tools, and emerging technologies, to forge and reinvent the visual language of art and design. 
  • Expanding the role of the artist in society through emphasis on collaborative relationships, entrepreneurial spirit, and internationalization. 
  • Practicing flexibility in quickly changing/advancing professional fields, and encourage innovation, accountability and ethics.
  • Supporting, promoting and expanding inter-media and interdisciplinary practices and collaborative research across the university, community and beyond. 

The Departmental Mission is directly related to the missions of both the Peck School of the Arts and UW-Milwaukee

  • The mission of the Peck School of the Arts is to provide the highest quality education and professional training in the arts at the baccalaureate and master's degree levels. The school is committed to recruiting faculty, staff, and students who reflect the richness and diversity of artmaking in a variety of cultures. As the only school of the arts in Wisconsin in a major urban environment, the Peck School of the Arts encourages collaboration with community arts organizations and artists to provide professional experiences for its students.  
  • To fulfill its mission as a major urban doctoral university and to meet the diverse needs of Wisconsin’s largest metropolitan area, the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee must provide a wide array of degree programs, a balanced program of applied and basic research, and a faculty who are active in public service.  

Fulfilling this mission requires the pursuit of these mutually reinforcing academic goals

  • To develop and maintain high quality undergraduate, graduate and continuing education programs appropriate to a major urban doctoral university. 
  •  To engage in a sustained research effort which will enhance and fulfill the University’s role as a doctoral institution of academic and professional excellence. 
  • To continue development of a balanced array of high-quality doctoral programs in basic disciplines and professional areas. 
  • To attract highly qualified students who demonstrate the potential for intellectual development, innovation, and leadership for their communities. 
  • To further academic and professional opportunities at all levels for women, minority, part-time, and financially or educationally disadvantaged students. 
  • To establish and maintain productive relationships with appropriate public and private organizations at the local, regional, state, national, and international levels. 
  • To promote public service and research efforts directed toward meeting the social, economic and cultural needs of the state of Wisconsin and its metropolitan areas. 
  • To encourage others from institutions in the University of Wisconsin System and from other educational institutions and agencies to seek benefit from the University’s research and educational resources such as libraries, special collections, archives, museums, research facilities, and academic programs. 
  • To provide educational leadership in meeting future social, cultural, and technological challenges. 

Programs

Undergraduate Majors

Undergraduate Certificates

Minors

Graduate Degrees

Undergraduate Advising

Academic advising is a collaborative process that empowers students to realize their maximum educational potential. Students are encouraged to visit the Peck School of the Arts Advising & Student Services page to meet with your advisor prior to each semester’s registration period. Advisors provide students with individualized appointments to assist with degree requirements, course selection, campus resources, college success strategies, graduation assessment, academic policies and more.

Graduate Advising 

Individual Peck School of the Arts graduate advisors are assigned upon admission. Your advisor will work closely with you during your time here. To connect with your graduate program representative, please visit the Graduate tab on the Peck School of the Arts apply page.

Art and Design Courses

Art Education Courses

NameRankDegreeSchoolGraduate FacultyEmeritus Faculty
Kyoung Ae Cho Professor MFA Cranbrook Academy of Art Yes No
Kimberly Cosier Professor Emeritus PhD Indiana University No Yes
Robert Grame Associate Professor MFA Kansas State University Yes No
Debra Hardy Assistant Professor PhD The Ohio State University No No
Adam Hawk Associate Professor MFA Southern Illinois University Yes No
Cynthia Hayes Teaching Faculty III MFA Michigan State University No No
Yevgeniya Kaganovich Professor MFA State University of New York at New Paltz Yes No
Oksana Kryzhanivska Assistant Professor PhD University of Calgary Yes No
Nicolas Lampert Teaching Faculty II MFA California College of the Arts No No
Wesley Larsen Assistant Professor MFA Cranbrook Academy of Art Yes No
Katie Martin-Meurer Teaching Faculty III MFA University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee No No
Erica Meier Teaching Faculty II MFA University of Wisconsin-Madison No No
Jessica Meuninck-Ganger Associate Professor MFA Minneapolis College of Art and Design Yes No
Lisa Moline Professor MFA University of Wisconsin-Madison Yes No
Joseph Mougel Professor, Co-Chair MFA University of New Mexico Yes No
Josie Osborne Teaching Faculty IV MFA University of Wisconsin-Madison No No
Angela Piehl Associate Professor MFA University of Arizona Yes No
Elizabeth Rex Teaching Faculty III PhD Northern Illinois University Yes No
Nicole Ridgway Teaching Faculty III MA; MPhil New York University; Columbia University Yes No
Nathaniel Stern Professor PhD Trinity College Dublin Yes No
Leslie Vansen Professor Emeritus MFA University of Colorado No Yes
Melissa Wagner-Lawler Teaching Faculty II MFA Minneapolis College of Art & Design No No
Glenn Williams Associate Professor, Co-Chair MFA University of Northern Iowa Yes No