UW-Stout's School of Art & Design Speaker Series invites professional artists and designers to provide special studio and classroom experiences for the student body’s various classroom disciplines. These professionals provide master classes and workshops visiting classes in the applicable fields that overlap with their art and design practice from across campus. In some cases, these creative professionals also collaborate with the Furlong Gallery to exhibit works. The highlight of the visiting artist/designer is a public presentation open to the Stout campus community.
2025-2026 Featured Artists
Amy Schmidt
Public Presentation: Monday, February 16, 2025 | 6:00-7:00 p.m. (Harvey Hall, Room 118)
From Page to Stage, Amy Schmidt will be speaking about the process of bringing costumes to life from a script, to help tell a story. Amy Schmidt is based in Minneapolis, MN, and is currently a Costume Manager at the Guthrie Theater. She brings experience from previous roles at Omaha Community Playhouse. Amy holds a Master of Fine Arts in Costume Design from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
Beth Hetland
- Public Presentation: Friday, March 6, 2026 | 6:00-7:00 p.m. (Applied Arts, Room 321)
Beth Hetland is a Professor, Adjunct at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she teaches several comics and comics adjacent courses. She received a MFA in 2011 from The Center for Cartoon Studies and a BFA in 2009 from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Beth has a varied practice that includes self publishing and traditional main stream comic publishers. She most recently had her debut graphic novel, Tender (2024) published with Fantagraphics. Her self published projects include collaborative pieces with writers, artist books, fiber works and paper crafts. She has worked in the academic and professional world of comics and is very passionate about education through and with comics.