Ruth Arts + MIAD Artists grantees launch multidisciplinary projects

The projects being undertaken by the 12 faculty and staff at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design who received 2024-25 Ruth Arts + MIAD Artists Grants are as varied in disciplines and topics as the artists themselves.

The grant program supports research and development of work to further the artists’ individual practices and expertise as educators. A panel of three national jurors reviewed 37 MIAD applications before selecting the 2024-25 awardees: James Barany ’92, Phoenix S. Brown ’19, HJ Bullard, Anna Castelaz and Lou Morton, Melissa Dorn ’96, Zuhal Feraidon, Grant Gill ’13, Kevin Kaempf, Kayle Karbowski ’15, Brit Krohmer, Matthew Lee and Phillip McFarlane.

“I’m really excited about re-engaging and refining my research thesis! It largely centers on reinterpreting technology and our use of and connection to it by examining and integrating aspects of folklore and fantasy,” says Phillip McFarlane, Teaching Fellow in Design. “I’m hoping to come away with and share new ways with students to chart their own paths, combining storytelling and technology with their ongoing practices.”

For Melissa Dorn ’96, First-Year Experience faculty, “The Ruth Arts + MIAD grant will support the creation of two new Fem-utility Closets, immersive installations that are a cross between a utility closet and a cozy cocoon. I’m obsessed with how craft can be used as a form of maintenance. How can it give people a soft place to land in a world full of indifference and the hard edges of patriarchy and capitalism.…”

“My project is a large inter-institutional partnership, working with MIAD students, Menominee Tribal Enterprises, Milwaukee Public Museum, WaterMarks MKE, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee Area Technical College, UW-Madison and others,” says HJ Bullard, MIAD Service Learning and Critical Studies faculty. “Our primary focus is to share voices, stories and creative work around sustainability, botany and water, and to do so with accessibility (physically, invisibly and culturally) as a leading guide.”

“This grant presents an exciting opportunity to further the production of Beautiful Insignificance aboard the USS COBIA, a World War II submarine docked at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, WI,” says James Barany ’93, First-Year Experience professor. “The COBIA will serve as both an authentic setting and a symbolic stage to reenact the sinking of my grandfather’s transport ship, the USS JOSEPH HEWES (AP-50), which was torpedoed … in November 1942. The production will engage MIAD students and faculty…. Additionally, a section of the Florentine Men’s Opera Chorus will contribute to the performance….”

Ruth Arts awarded $145,000 to MIAD for the new cycle, nearly double the amount MIAD received as one of three Milwaukee-centric organizations to pilot the program in 2023-24. The 2024-25 grant provides $120,000 for the selected artists and $25,000 to support administration and promotion of the work, which must be completed by March 1, 2026.

“The college community is grateful for the foundation’s continued belief in, and increased support of, our mission of educating a younger generation of creatives by supporting the faculty and staff who themselves are makers,” says MIAD President Jeffrey Morin. “The diverse and innovative projects also uplift and enhance learning and dialogue with students and colleagues across all majors.”

Grant recipients from the 2023-24 cycle are currently making college-wide presentations of their work. Read about the projects of Alexia (Lexi) S. Brunson ’14 and Matthew Lee.