For as long as I’ve been in Milwaukee, I’ve loved the city for its ever-shifting and always-inspired arts, culture and culinary scene. It’s amazing. It’s vibrant.
I’ve also noticed a common thread among Milwaukee’s artists — one of struggle. It presents in different ways, but quite a few can’t make full-time jobs of their passions. And if they do go full-time, their income doesn’t match the cost of living. When it comes to the visual arts, in particular, that’s where the city of Milwaukee and state of Wisconsin truly fall short in supporting its creators.
Rob Henken is executive director of the Herzfeld Foundation, which makes grants in the areas of arts and culture, education, and civic improvement. Sitting on a recent panel about the state of public-arts funding, he shared that Wisconsin’s allocation of 18 cents per capita in annual state support for the arts puts us 49th in the nation (just above Georgia). Compare that to our Midwest neighbor Minnesota, which ranks first at more than $9 per capita.
While current funding ideas fall short, there are many burgeoning programs to bridge the gap. Most are still in the incubation phase, leaving it up to grassroots, hyper-focused individuals and groups to lead the way.
One of them is the Grilled Cheese Grant, a program born in 2015 to support art and design students’ senior projects by awarding funds to Milwaukee undergraduate seniors at MIAD and UW-Milwaukee. Now, it’s expanded to help artists from across southern Wisconsin.
As an annual community fundraising event, the Grilled Cheese Grant has partnered with different venue spaces each year to offer freshly made, locally sourced grilled cheese sandwiches in exchange for a small entry fee. Attendees view the five finalists’ work on display, vote for their favorite, and enjoy beverages, raffle items, live music, community and, of course, delicious grilled cheese sandwiches.
I spoke with two of the Grilled Cheese Grant’s current organizers, Milwaukee artists Joe Acri and Sal Nicholson, ahead of this year’s event.
Acri shared that “the original conception was very much focused on student artists. Because as some people may know — and some people may not — most every artist grant or project-based grant excludes current students from eligibility. So there really aren’t a lot of opportunities for emerging artists inside these institutions to find funding to create really ambitious works, and I think that’s really stifling for our creative community.”
The grant has taken that challenge head-on and seen their ability to support the creative community grow from one artist to several each year. Among the five whose projects were fully funded in 2024 was Makenna Schibler, a current MIAD student and fiber artist. “I remember when I got the email … I was sitting alone on my couch, and it was like 9 o’clock at night, and I really didn’t believe when I got it,” she recalled. “It was really special.”
At last year’s event, Schibler showed three fish bowls as part of a series she was working on. Getting that email not only made it possible for her to purchase more materials and finish the series, but also invest in materials for a different medium so she could expand her artistic knowledge.
To hear more from Acri, Nicholson and Schibler about the Grilled Cheese Grant and its impact, using the player at the top of the page.
The 10th annual edition of the Grilled Cheese Grant culminates with a free event from 3-8 p.m. this Saturday, March 15, at Vanguard Sculpture Services. The five finalists seeking support are Lucy Mattern, yo yo collective, Max Van Loan, Madi Weglarz and Siren Harris, and the evening also includes coffee from Wonderstate, ice cream from Purple Door, a raffle and entertainment from DJs Mia, Ambulante y Clandestino and Language Models.
