Find your program at the UW-Madison Art Department

Expand your perspective and connect with your classmates, your community, and the world around you!
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMGRADUATE PROGRAM

Find your program at the UW-Madison Art Department

Expand your perspective and connect with your classmates, your community, and the world around you!
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMGRADUATE PROGRAM

The University of Wisconsin-Madison occupies ancestral Ho-Chunk land, called Teejop (day-JOPE) since time immemorial. In an 1832 treaty, the Ho-Chunk were forced to cede this territory. Decades of ethnic cleansing followed when both the federal and state government repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, sought to forcibly remove the Ho-Chunk from Wisconsin.

This history of colonization informs our shared future of collaboration and innovation. We respect the inherent sovereignty of the Ho-Chunk Nation, along with the eleven other First Nations of Wisconsin.

UW Art in the News

Read more >>

What I Create by Kari Dickinson

What I Create by Kari Dickinson

We asked six talented undergraduates in our Art Department to share what, how, and why they create. From life-size sculptures and tactile graphic designs to intricate jewelry and vibrant paintings, these students — including both art majors and those pursuing an art certificate alongside other studies — are using diverse techniques to make their unique mark in the world of art.

Amber Mans ’26

BFA, glass and printmaking

“I create sculpture and installation work from a variety of materials, ranging from found media like wood and industrial scrap to clear glass and neon light. Most of my work is crafted in the hot shop, through glassblowing and kiln-formed methods. I use glass as a material to explore relationships between the body, memory, and care, and because of how convoluted these relationships are, I use many different paths to explore this.”

Annabelle Zhang ’25

BS, graphic design

“My pieces blend 2D graphic elements with digital production techniques. I enjoy integrating other senses — like touch and sound — into the design process and experimenting with 3D-printed tactile elements, infographics, and typography to deliver dynamic forms of graphic design. To me, art builds on interactions, and I wish to create interactions beyond the visuals. I enjoy exploring how sensory inputs like touch can make a graphic design product more universally effective and inclusive.”

Ethan Hind ’24

BFA, graphic design and drawing

“I create to represent my intersecting identities as a queer, transmasculine artist of color and how these parts of myself shape the world around me. My multimedia artwork includes graphic design illustrations with punk and folk influences, as well as traditionally drawn artwork centering around trans identities and bodies. While my work typically takes reference from life, I enjoy incorporating more abstract and horror imagery into my forms.”

Kyle Gilbertson ’25

Certificate, sculpture

“My life-size sculptures often utilize the male form, emphasizing inter- and intra-personal relationships with themes of queer desire, perspective, and identity. My current body of work aims to navigate the often unpredictable, unseen aspects of desire. Using a ceramics technique known as the “pinch method,” I gradually build up my hollow figures. This process occurs over several weeks and requires a constant dialogue with the malleable clay to ensure structural stability.”

Madeleine Stoffel ’25

BFA, art metals

“I create cohesive sets of jewelry and small intricate vessels. I always explore ideas in my sketchbook first, drawing several iterations of a form with sprawling notations of design possibilities. Once I’m set on a design, I utilize a range of techniques to bring a piece together — my favorites being enameling and casting. Metalsmithing takes ample amounts of patience and precision, but that is what draws me to it.”

Wylie Knight ’25

BFA, painting and drawing

“My painting practice focuses on characters with unorthodox narratives and unconventional appearances. While I lean toward technical realism, oddities within the subject matter and color palette bring my pieces to fruition. Often I transcribe ideas into sketches, then create a digital collage to inform an acrylic sketch that I paint directly onto the canvas. I use underpainting techniques and acrylic glazing mediums to build up a painting, and create various textures.”

Read more at Learning Connections Winter 2025

Events

Spring 2025 Visiting Artist Colloquium

Come visit the University of Wisconsin-Madison Art Department!

Tours are now available by appointment, view our upcoming Art Department events for prospective students at Visit Bucky: apps.admissions.wisc.edu/visitbucky/

Carefully read the event information and COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Campus Visitor Agreement before your visit.

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM
GRADUATE PROGRAM
BFA Show Reception, Gallery 7 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
First Year Grad Show Reception, Art Lofts Gallery, Department of Art University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lynda Barry's Art 448 Making Comics 1 students pose with their final project comics on the last day of class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student works on an acrylic painting in the Advanced Drawing class.
Glass artist Yuki Wakamiya works with an assortment of tools and blown air to shape a piece of molten glass during a demonstration at the Glass Lab open house at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student talks about their artwork at Gallery 7 at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Lynda Barry reviews the work of one of her students, lecturer Allison Welch, at left, in the Making Comics class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
An undergraduate student works on a sculpture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student touches up their drawing on a lithography print at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students work together with an assortment of tools and blown air to shape a piece of molten glass and form Madison'’s largest glass ornament during a UW Glass Lab event in the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The public event featured students performing a number of interesting glass experiments and working together to create a giant Christmas ornament that was auctioned off for charity.
BFA Show Reception, Gallery 7 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
A student works on a project their Metals studio at the George Mosse Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
John Hitchcock reviews prints with a student in the serigraphy class in the George Mosse Humanities building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Fresh Hot Press Students pull a shirt printed with a design on the mobile serigraphy press at the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Katelyn Alain, a graduate student pursuing a master of fine arts degree in painting, works on a self portrait in her studio space in the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students critique each others' projects in the Digital Media class taught by Stephen Hilyard the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
What Can Art Do Show Reception Gallery 7, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Graduate art student Sarah Deppe works on a piece in her studio space in the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Art faculty Lynda Barry poses with a student in her Making Comics class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Art faculty Lynda Barry holds up assignment instructions for a student exercise in her Making Comics class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Katie Hudnall, Windgate Artist-in-Residence, sketches ideas for a woodworking project at her studio in the Humanities Building, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Graduate art student Noel Ash poses with her paintings in her studio space in the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Graduate art student Will K. Santino poses with his work in his studio space in the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Elise Berry cleans plaster-cast remnants from a glass sculpture she is finishing in the UW Glass Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students enjoy a tea party using handcrafted tea sets created in ceramics class at the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student examines the writing on a painting at the First Year Grad Show, Witnesses, on display at the Art Lofts Gallery.
Graduate student Justin Eccles passes out customized trucker hats at the Art Department new graduate orientation event at the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students watch a wheel throwing demonstration by a visiting artist in a Ceramics class at the Art Lofts.
Grad student Rebecca Kautz celebrates installing her MA Show Protagonyst at the Art Lofts Gallery.
A visitor views the University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student work on display at the Swap Meet trade show with the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Students work in the printmaking labs in Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during assistant professor Emily Arthur's (in red apron) Relief Printing course.
Visitors explore the Biennial Neon and Light Exhibit held inside the Stock Pavillion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Many of the sculptures and artwork were created using glass and varying light sources. In addition to UW-Madison artists, as well as independent artists from around the country, participating artists hail from schools including the Alfred University School of Art and Design, Pratt MWP, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stevens Point, UW-River Falls and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Students use a torch to heat a glass piece at the UW Glass Lab in the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Art faculty Fred Stonehouse poses with a student in his Drawing class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student places movable type in a bed for a letterpress project during the Book Arts class taught by Jim Escalante at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Student Michelle Bridwell prepares artwork to be displayed during a student art sale.
A student pulls a print off a lithography stone in Lithography class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
From back to front of canoe, Wayne Valliere, a Native American artist-in-residence with the Department of Art and member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, and Tim Frandy, an outreach specialist at the UW Collaborative Center for Health Equity, take a traditional Ojibwe birchbark canoe for an inaugural paddle in Lake Mendota near the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The canoe is known in Ojibwe language as wiigwaasi-jiimaan, and was handmade by Valliere as part of his residency.
Students work in the printmaking labs in Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during assistant professor Emily Arthur's Serigraphy course.
Visitors dance at Matt Mauk and Heather Sutherland's MFA Show Reception at Art Lofts, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lynda Barry leads a "drawing jam" with children during a Saturday Science outreach event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
An art education student practices hands-on learning teaching a youth art class. Art education students experience a four semester sequence of classes introducing students to the teaching profession, including child development, learning theories, inclusive schooling strategies, curriculum and instruction, history of American education, and rigorous Art Education methods courses, plus 200 hours of practicum and 18 weeks of student teaching.
A student constructs a sculpture project.
A student snaps pictures of Ben Skiba's technique throwing a tall pot in the Ceramics Lab at the Art Lofts.
Maixia Xiong poses with her artwork at the BFA Show Reception, Gallery 7 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Students work together to inflate a glass piece at the UW Glass Lab in the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Ceramics faculty Gerit Grimm reviews a project with a student at the Art Lofts Ceramics lab.
At left, Eric Adjetey Anang (standing at left), Ghanaian woodcarver, master-coffin builder and Windgate Artist in Residence in the Art Department, listens to undergraduate Jamie Dawson, a first-year student in the ninth cohort of the First Wave program, perform a spoken-word piece as part of an opening exhibit of Adjetey Anang's work at the Arts Loft at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During the event, Adjetey Anang led a gun-breaking ceremony and invited guests to participate in a symbolic breaking of the barrel of his gun-shaped coffin. The gun-breaking action was in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and against gun violence locally, nationally and internationally.
First Year Grad Show Reception, Art Lofts Gallery, Department of Art University of Wisconsin-Madison
John Hitchcock reviews prints with a student in the serigraphy class in the George Mosse Humanities building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
BFA Show Reception, Gallery 7 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Art faculty Fred Stonehouse poses with a student in his Drawing class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Visitors dance at Matt Mauk and Heather Sutherland's MFA Show Reception at Art Lofts, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Grad student Rebecca Kautz celebrates installing her MA Show Protagonyst at the Art Lofts Gallery.
A student talks about their artwork at Gallery 7 at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Fresh Hot Press Students pull a shirt printed with a design on the mobile serigraphy press at the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student pulls a print off a lithography stone in Lithography class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students critique each others' projects in the Digital Media class taught by Stephen Hilyard the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student examines the writing on a painting at the First Year Grad Show, Witnesses, on display at the Art Lofts Gallery.
Lynda Barry's Art 448 Making Comics 1 students pose with their final project comics on the last day of class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Graduate art student Noel Ash poses with her paintings in her studio space in the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students work in the printmaking labs in Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during assistant professor Emily Arthur's Serigraphy course.
A student snaps pictures of Ben Skiba's technique throwing a tall pot in the Ceramics Lab at the Art Lofts.
Lynda Barry reviews the work of one of her students, lecturer Allison Welch, at left, in the Making Comics class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A visitor views the University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student work on display at the Swap Meet trade show with the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Graduate student Justin Eccles passes out customized trucker hats at the Art Department new graduate orientation event at the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Art faculty Lynda Barry holds up assignment instructions for a student exercise in her Making Comics class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Lynda Barry leads a "drawing jam" with children during a Saturday Science outreach event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students work in the printmaking labs in Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during assistant professor Emily Arthur's (in red apron) Relief Printing course.
A student places movable type in a bed for a letterpress project during the Book Arts class taught by Jim Escalante at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Katelyn Alain, a graduate student pursuing a master of fine arts degree in painting, works on a self portrait in her studio space in the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Graduate art student Will K. Santino poses with his work in his studio space in the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Glass artist Yuki Wakamiya works with an assortment of tools and blown air to shape a piece of molten glass during a demonstration at the Glass Lab open house at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Ceramics faculty Gerit Grimm reviews a project with a student at the Art Lofts Ceramics lab.
Graduate art student Sarah Deppe works on a piece in her studio space in the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Art faculty Lynda Barry poses with a student in her Making Comics class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student constructs a sculpture project.
BFA Show Reception, Gallery 7 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Student Michelle Bridwell prepares artwork to be displayed during a student art sale.
Students work together with an assortment of tools and blown air to shape a piece of molten glass and form Madison'’s largest glass ornament during a UW Glass Lab event in the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The public event featured students performing a number of interesting glass experiments and working together to create a giant Christmas ornament that was auctioned off for charity.
At left, Eric Adjetey Anang (standing at left), Ghanaian woodcarver, master-coffin builder and Windgate Artist in Residence in the Art Department, listens to undergraduate Jamie Dawson, a first-year student in the ninth cohort of the First Wave program, perform a spoken-word piece as part of an opening exhibit of Adjetey Anang's work at the Arts Loft at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During the event, Adjetey Anang led a gun-breaking ceremony and invited guests to participate in a symbolic breaking of the barrel of his gun-shaped coffin. The gun-breaking action was in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and against gun violence locally, nationally and internationally.
A student works on an acrylic painting in the Advanced Drawing class.
Katie Hudnall, Windgate Artist-in-Residence, sketches ideas for a woodworking project at her studio in the Humanities Building, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student touches up their drawing on a lithography print at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Visitors explore the Biennial Neon and Light Exhibit held inside the Stock Pavillion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Many of the sculptures and artwork were created using glass and varying light sources. In addition to UW-Madison artists, as well as independent artists from around the country, participating artists hail from schools including the Alfred University School of Art and Design, Pratt MWP, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stevens Point, UW-River Falls and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Students enjoy a tea party using handcrafted tea sets created in ceramics class at the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students work together to inflate a glass piece at the UW Glass Lab in the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
An art education student practices hands-on learning teaching a youth art class. Art education students experience a four semester sequence of classes introducing students to the teaching profession, including child development, learning theories, inclusive schooling strategies, curriculum and instruction, history of American education, and rigorous Art Education methods courses, plus 200 hours of practicum and 18 weeks of student teaching.
What Can Art Do Show Reception Gallery 7, University of Wisconsin-Madison
From back to front of canoe, Wayne Valliere, a Native American artist-in-residence with the Department of Art and member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, and Tim Frandy, an outreach specialist at the UW Collaborative Center for Health Equity, take a traditional Ojibwe birchbark canoe for an inaugural paddle in Lake Mendota near the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The canoe is known in Ojibwe language as wiigwaasi-jiimaan, and was handmade by Valliere as part of his residency.
An undergraduate student works on a sculpture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students use a torch to heat a glass piece at the UW Glass Lab in the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Elise Berry cleans plaster-cast remnants from a glass sculpture she is finishing in the UW Glass Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students watch a wheel throwing demonstration by a visiting artist in a Ceramics class at the Art Lofts.
A student works on a project their Metals studio at the George Mosse Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Maixia Xiong poses with her artwork at the BFA Show Reception, Gallery 7 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Arts at UW

Did you know?

The UW-Madison Art Department is:

  • #1 in Printmaking
  • Ranked among the top 15 Fine Arts MFA programs
  • Founded the 1st collegiate Glass program in the U.S.
  • 1 of only 5 universities in the nation with a Neon program

Ranking Source: U.S. News & World Report

The University of Wisconsin-Madison ART DEPARTMENT is committed to teaching art in the context of a major research university and a vibrant intellectual community. Offering the following degrees: B.S., B.F.A., M.A., & M.F.A. in Studio Art, B.S. in Art Education, Certificate in Art Studio, and Certificate in Graphic Design.

Take a 720° virtual tour of the Art Department

 

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