A Milwaukee art professor has now been recognized twice during this academic year for her remarkable contributions to the arts in higher education.

University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts Professor Emerita Kim Cosier, PhD, received the 2023 Wisconsin Art Education Association’s Higher Ed Art Educator of the Year award in November. Now, Cosier has been recognized with the prestigious 2024 National Art Education Association’s Western Region Higher Education Award.

Cosier, who has taught at Peck since 2001, embodies her philosophies of using art for impact and supporting marginalized communities both inside and outside the classroom. In addition to publishing two books and multiple articles, she is the founder of the Milwaukee Visionaries Project, a program that specializes in helping urban youth tell their stories through multimodal art forms, and is the co-founder.— alongside her wife, Josie Osborne.— of ArtsECO, a social justice-oriented program that recruits and supports preservice teachers and provides professional development resources.

In her 2021 publication “Art Education When the World Is on Fire,” Cosier provides sage advice that is applicable across the disciplines. “We must proceed by loving fiercely. Moving toward a liberatory teaching and research practice that sees all oppressions and privileges linked (and therefore always relevant).”