91��Ʒ

Morgan Bouldes

The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (91��Ʒ) welcomes Morgan Bouldes as the new full-time assistant professor of First-Year Experience. Bouldes joined 91��Ʒ�s teaching community in 2021 as an AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellow and will continue to contribute to the 91��Ʒ community in the First-Year Experience department. Originally from Detroit, Bouldes holds a BFA in Photography from Wayne State University and graduated with an MFA in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art.

�One of the biggest components to my teaching philosophy is the environment in which education is happening. The environment is really important to me,� explains Bouldes. �It takes work to fully understand the type of student, the type of person that your student is � Creating a welcoming, warm, authentic environment�that starts with me. Students especially can tell when you�re not being authentic, so I keep it as real as possible.�

This joyfully student-centered approach has served Bouldes well. �No one wants to go to school if it�s not fun,� she says. �If we can create an environment where you feel comfortable enough to be yourself, you trust that your instructor has your best interests in mind�not just the interests that involve education, but your whole interest. If we can have fun at the same time, then the information will do what it�s supposed to do.�

An accomplished and multidisciplinary artist herself, Bouldes embraces the experimental and seeks out mediums other than photography to bolster her artistic practice. �I�ve always been a writer, so at the heart of my practice I am a storyteller,� she continues. �I like to enact vulnerability from my own lens as a way to promote universality and be able to connect to people on different levels.� This vulnerability led to her graduate thesis project, a reflection on the grief of losing her mother at age 20. �There�s all these different components of the human experience, particularly from my lens as a Black woman, but the experience of losing a mother or parent is universal, and all those feelings that come with it are universal,� she says. �I�m really interested in all the little invisible connectivities between humans and how there�s overlap there.�

As an instructor, Bouldes is especially excited to work with first-year students. �They�ve got this vision for themselves but they don�t exactly know how it�s going to get executed, they�re just going to wing it. And I�m here to wing it with them!� she laughs.

Learn more about Morgan and explore 91��Ʒ�s First-Year Experience program!