Saturday, March 15, 2025, 3-8 pm
Vanguard Sculpture Services, 3374 W Hopkins St, Milwaukee, WI 53216
Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Since 2016, artist-run project the Grilled Cheese Grant (GCG) has organized an annual community fundraising event that supports emerging artists in Wisconsin with grilled cheese sandwiches. Raising nearly $20,000 for local visual artists since its inception, the Grilled Cheese Grant is now celebrating its tenth year on March 15, 2025. GCG organizers invite art enthusiasts to join 2025 finalists Siren Harris, Lucy Mattern, Max Van Loan, Madi Weglarz, and yo yo collective for a one-day event filled with un-brie-lievable energy!
With $10 admission ($5 with valid student ID), attendees can view the artwork of each finalist, order a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich, participate in a raffle, take a tour of Vanguard Sculpture Services’ fine art foundry, enjoy ice cream, coffee, and cocktails, purchase cheese-themed merchandise, and cast a vote for their favorite finalist. Audience members can also pick up a uniquely-designed 10-year catalog that features highlights of Grilled Cheese Grant’s history, including interviews with previous finalists, sponsors, organizers, as well as summaries of each year, and an archive of all things cheese! Enjoy music during the event by Ambulante y Clandestino, DJ Mia, and Language Models. Stick around for a sure-to-impress awards ceremony at 7:30 pm, when results of this year’s fundraising efforts and votes are announced live!
All money raised during the Tenth Annual Grilled Cheese Grant supports the contemporary art scene in Wisconsin by providing funding for the participating artists.
The Tenth Annual Grilled Cheese Grant features work by artists:
Siren Harris is a metal artist pursuing a BFA in New Studio Practice at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, expected to graduate in 2026. Siren creates intricate, emotionally charged works that explore personal identity, transformation and personal meditation. Drawing on a diverse range of life experiences, her art functions as both a form of catharsis and a tool for navigating complex emotional landscapes.
Lucy Mattern is a Milwaukee-based artist completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her large scale paintings test the limits of gestalt perception while exploring semiotics through subtle color shifts, contrast in paint thickness, and reference of signs. She currently serves as a Gallery Assistant at Real Tinsel and is a recipient of the Else Ulbricht Scholarship. In pursuing her interest in perception and language, she hopes to teach English in Prague before advancing with a Masters of Fine Art in Painting at the international Alfred-Düsseldorf MFA program.
Max Van Loan is an experimental filmmaker and artist. They received their BA in Cinema from Binghamton University (NY) and their MFA from University of Colorado Boulder. Their work is diaristic in nature and often takes the form of short analog films and videos and occasionally multimedia installations. They are interested in play and a sense of wonder in the mundane.
Madi Weglarz grew up in the small, north-eastern Wisconsin town of Crivitz. She moved to Milwaukee in 2021 to attend the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and is set to graduate spring of 2025 with her BFA. She is now a local emerging Milwaukee artist and designer who works primarily in 3D programs and sculpture. They have shown work in group shows at MIAD’s Gallery at the Ave, SomeFools, Hawthorn Contemporary, and a solo show at Ergonomica. She has also tabled at MIAD’s ZineFair twice, selling her printed risograph works.
yo yo is an artist collective based in Milwaukee, WI. Their practice is rooted in memory and recollection, preserving fragments of past experiences through performance, sculpture, and installation. As first and second-generation immigrants, they are perpetually in motion going to and from, similar to the wooden object attached to a single string that moves back and forth when played. The movements are, at times, tangible, invisible, solitary, communal, and ever-evolving. As they pay homage to their ancestry and to each other, they invite the audience for active engagement and critical conversation within the community.
About Grilled Cheese Grant
The Grilled Cheese Grant (GCG) is an annual community fundraising event and visual artist grant that provides financial support for undergraduate seniors and emerging artists in Wisconsin by making grilled cheese sandwiches. The Grilled Cheese Grant is voluntarily organized by Rachel Hausmann-Schall, A Van Anderson, Joe Acri, Sal Nicholson, and Alyssa Kaboskey.
Tenth Annual Grilled Cheese Grant sponsors include Artdose magazine, aryn kresol, Blanket Editions, Current Projects, docMyArt, gener8tor Art, Heinn Chapman, Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Monica Miller, Moody the Zine, Nice Hair, No Instructions Gallery, One MKE, Pabst Theater Group, Portrait Society Gallery, Riverwest Co-op, Sculpture Milwaukee, Tanager Sculpture Works, Task Creative, Young Space. Funding is provided in part by a grant from the Open Fund. Thank you to food and drink donors Mullins Cheese, Hill Valley Dairy, Troubadour Bakery, Wonderstate Coffee, Purple Door Ice Cream, and Cactus Club.
Thank you to community partners Cactus Plus and event venue Vanguard Sculpture Services.