Kate Schaffer

Kate Schaffer is an Associate Professor and Chair of First-Year Experience at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), where she has taught since 2017. Her pedagogical focus centers on fostering creative exploration and critical thinking among first-year students, encouraging them to engage with the broader possibilities of art and design.

Education:

• BS, 2006, MLC (Minneapolis College of Art and Design?)
• MFA, 2016, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)

As an interdisciplinary artist, Schaffer operates at the intersection of feminism, queer theory, and abstractionist aesthetics. Her practice includes paintings, installations, performances, and writings that interrogate the fluidity of time and space, often through conceptual and process-driven approaches.

Schaffer’s recent exhibitions and projects include Body of Work (MIAD), The Everyday Feminist series (Ploch Art Gallery, UW-Madison), and contributions to group shows such as The New (re)Public: Nowheres (314: Ripon College Project Space). She also founded the collaborative initiative 3rdCoast4thWave, emphasizing feminist and queer discourses in contemporary art.