Select Page

Two MIAD students finalists for Grilled Cheese Grant

A group of people sit in a room festooned with balloons and decorations.

2023 Grilled Cheese Grant. Photo courtesy of Adam White/docMyArt.

The ninth annual Grilled Cheese Grant finalists include two Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) students: Stella Koslowski ’24 (Fine Art + New Studio Practice, Illustration) and Makenna Schibler ’25 (Fine Art + NSP). They are two of five finalists who are in the running for the crowd-funded grant.

Possibly Milwaukee’s most delicious fundraiser, the MIAD alumni-run Grilled Cheese Grant awards funds to artists working in Southern Wisconsin. In previous years, the grant focused on seniors at MIAD and UW-Milwaukee to help fund their senior exhibition projects. This year, the Grilled Cheese Grant has expanded to accept applications from any emerging visual artist working in Southern Wisconsin.

The Grilled Cheese Grant event will take place on Saturday, March 23, 2024, 3 – 8 p.m. at MIAD alum-owned Vanguard Sculpture Services. Regular admission is $10, or $5 for students with a valid ID, with funds raised during the event going to support the 2024 finalists.

At the event, attendees will receive a grilled cheese sandwich with locally-sourced ingredients (gluten free and vegan options available). More importantly, they will also receive a ballot to cast their vote for their favorite finalist. While funds vary from year to year, first-place winners can expect their project to be fully funded and runners up will receive partial funding. In 2023, the event generated enough revenue to fully fund all five finalists’ projects.

The volunteer-run grant is organized annually by a small group of MIAD graduates, who include Rachel Hausmann Schall ’15 (Integrated Studio Arts), Alyssa Anderson ’15 (ISA), Joe Acri ’17 (Sculpture), Sal Nicholson ’19 (New Studio Practice: Fine Arts), Alyssa Kaboskey ’19 (NSP: Fine Arts) and Margaret Griffin ’23 (NSP: Fine Arts). Read an interview with last year’s organizers.

Support Stella Koslowski and Makenna Schibler, as well as the other three finalists, at the event on March 23, 2024, view Koslowski’s senior exhibition project at MIAD’s Senior Exhibition and learn more about MIAD’s Fine Art program!

News

Haggerty Museum of Art features work by MIAD Fine Art professor

A towering column of life-size red-crowned cranes molded out of mulberry pulp has visitors to the Haggerty Museum of Art craning their necks to take in the sculpture. Work by Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) Professor Jason S. Yi is featured as part of the Haggerty Museum’s exhibition “This Side of the Stars: Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” in the Company of Kite, Paglen, and Yi.”

MIAD professor, alum named 2026 Mary L. Nohl Fellows

Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) Communication Design professor Laura Farahzad Mayer and alum Nomka Enkhee ’25 (Fine Art + New Studio Practice) each received one of five Mary L. Nohl Fellowships for 2026. The recipients of emerging artist awards, Farahzad Mayer and Enkhee were selected from among 168 applicants.

MIAD Independent Inquiry Program: Building knowledge, confidence

From a Fine Art major to Illustration, Communication Design and Product Design – first-year student to senior – participants in the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design’s Independent Inquiry Program say they are building both knowledge and self-confidence.