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

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UW-Madison Art Department 2025 Fall Open House

Saturday, October 25 @ 12–5pm

Mark your calendars for Saturday, October 25th from 12 to 5pm as we host our annual Fall Open House. This event is free and invites current students, prospective students interested in studying at UW-Madison and the general public to interact and celebrate the Art Department.

12 to 3 pm

  • With a self-guided tour (map provided day of event), get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of our classrooms and art studio labs and join select demonstrations from our art areas. 
  • Meet our MFA graduate students and visit their open studios in both the Humanities building and Art Lofts.

1 to 3 pm

  • Join our prospective student academic advisor in a two-hour guided tour of our classrooms and art labs in the Humanities Building and Art Lofts. Space is limited, register here.

3 to 5 pm

  • Celebrate our undergraduate art students and student organizations in their showcase of artwork exhibited in the Art Lofts Gallery. Reception with light refreshments will be provided.

Locations

  • Humanities Building, 6th and 7th Floors, 455 N Park St: Only one Humanities Building elevator goes to the top 6th and 7th floors. Enter the Humanities building through the open breezeway on the ground floor and go in the doors marked “ART” in large white letters (E01-02) that are nearest to the Chazen Museum’s back entrance (the Chazen is next-door, immediately to the east). In the lobby the stairs and elevator are to the left.
    • Labs & Graduate Studios: Printmaking, Graphic Design, nodeLab, Art Education, Metals, Sculpture, Furniture/Wood, and Drawing/Painting
  • Art Lofts, 111 N Frances St: The Art Lofts building is located to the east next to the Kohl Center.
    • Labs & Graduate Studios: Ceramics, Papermaking, Glass/Neon, Photography, and Drawing/Painting

 

RSVP for the 2025 Fall Open House

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
Students work together to inflate a glass piece at the UW Glass Lab 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.
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.
A student snaps pictures of Ben Skiba's technique throwing a tall pot in the Ceramics Lab at the Art Lofts.
Elise Berry cleans plaster-cast remnants from a glass sculpture she is finishing in the UW Glass Lab 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.
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.

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

 

HUMANITIES
ART LOFTS