Cynthia Hayes

Cynthia Hayes has been a Lecturer in the Department of Art and Design at the UWM Peck School of the Arts since 1998. As a 1987 UWM Alum, her 28+ years of service teaching at UWM have been especially fulfilling. She loves teaching Figure Drawing, Drawing I & II, 2D Studio, and Color Theory. In addition to teaching, as the Art and Design First Year Program Director she supervises 19 adjunct instructors of first-year Art courses.

Hayes also serves as the PSOA Coordinator of Student Services and Scholars for the UWM PSOA partnership program with the Hubei University of Technology in Wuhan, China. Every summer as a visiting scholar to HBUT, she teaches a design class to 60 students. Her most recent series of paintings titled “The Fantastic Mundane” are inspired by her travels throughout China during these visits.

In addition to teaching at UW-Milwaukee, Hayes teaches Figure Drawing classes at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield, WI.

Hayes’ research as an active painter has included many exhibitions – local, regional, and international, having had two solo exhibitions in Kolkata, India sponsored by The Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund Suitcase Export Fund for Visual Art. Recent exhibitions in 2026 included a Featured Member Exhibition at Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, Milwaukee, and a solo exhibition “The Fantastic Mundane” at the Roberta Avonn Fiskum Art Gallery at UW-Whitewater. Upcoming solo exhibitions include Drury Gallery, Portage Center for the Arts (September, 2026), Ann Lloyd Gallery, Decatur, IL (October, 2026), and Carnelian Gallery, Madison, WI (March 2027).