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.
Bullard_Growing Resistance
Hj Bullard, “Growing Resistance,” exhibition at MIAD, 2024. Ruth Arts 2025.
Castelaz-Morton_RuthArts25_proposal
Anna Castelaz and Lou Morton, “Time Keeper,” reference image, Ruth Arts 2025.
Kaempf_IntheFutureSomethingWillHaveHappened
Kevin Kaempf, “In the Future, Something Will Have Happened.” Ruth Arts 2025.
“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 ’92, 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, Matthew Lee and Jason S. Yi.
News
Student commission celebrates previous MIAD board chair
Deanna Tillisch, outgoing chair of the board at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), received a student-commissioned monotype print in recognition of her service. “Deanna Dancing” was made by Anna Louise Barr ’26 (Fine Art + New Studio Practice).
MIAD elects new board chair and three new trustees
MIAD elects new board chair and three new trustees: Amanda Singh to board chair; Abim Kolawole, Lauren Hurley, and Bob Schwartz as trustees.
Meet AJ Schramek and Senior Exhibition project Life is a Drag!
AJ Schramek ’25 (Animation Track in Illustration) is a President’s (Honor) List student from Villa Park, Ill., who received a 2025 MIAD Alumni Senior Thesis Award.
Bronzeville initiatives by MIAD alums garner state and local awards
Community advocate, business owner, writer and editor Lexi S. Brunson ’14, an alum and assistant professor of Writing and Humanities at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), recently accepted two awards: Best Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Initiative (Business) at the 34th annual Wisconsin Main Street Awards and Historic King Drive Business of the Year.
Fine Art senior selected for Tidal Shift Award
Marta Tereziya ’26 (Fine Art + New Studio Practice), a senior at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), was recognized with a 2025 Tidal Shift award for her oil painting “Global Warning.” The award celebrates young artists who want to solve the climate crisis.