Feature image: Courtesy of The Grilled Cheese Grant
Saturday, March 21st, 2026, 3-8 pm
Vanguard Sculpture Services, 3374 W Hopkins, St, Milwaukee, WI, 53216
Submitted
Milwaukee, WI – Since 2016, the 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 over $50,000 for local visual artists since its inception, the Grilled Cheese Grant is now celebrating its eleventh year on March 21, 2026. GCG organizers invite art enthusiasts to join 2026 finalists Grace Barden, Emmanuel Guerra, James Kramer, Jaaron Langford, and Amanda Smithivas for a one-day event filled with un-brie-lievable energy!
With $15 admission ($5 with a valid student ID), attendees can view the artwork of each finalist, order a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich, participate in community-led activities like a coloring contest and screen printing, take a tour of Vanguard Sculpture Services’ fine art foundry, enjoy cocktails, purchase cheese-themed merchandise, and cast a vote for their favorite finalist. Community partners will present free art-making activities throughout the event with music and ambiance provided by Ambulante y Clandestino 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 Eleventh Annual Grilled Cheese Grant supports the contemporary art scene in Wisconsin by providing funding for the participating artists.
The Eleventh Annual Grilled Cheese Grant features work by artists:
Grace Barden
Grace Barden is an artist and metalsmith based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Born and raised in the heart of the Midwest, she creates work that explores themes of feminism, grief, and matrilineage, often drawing from deeply personal experiences. As a second-generation metal artist, Barden’s practice is profoundly influenced by her mother, whose creativity informs her passion for craft. Her work has been exhibited across the Midwest, showing at the 407 Gallery in Green Bay, the Rahr West Art Museum in Manitowoc, the Ella Sharp Museum in Jackson, Michigan, and the INOVA Gallery at Kenilworth Square East in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Currently, she holds an internship with Jost Jewelry Manufacturing, where she is pursuing a bench jewelry certification through the Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America. She is in the final semester of her Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio arts, studying jewelry and metalsmithing, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. After graduation, Barden plans to intern for the Heidi Lowe Gallery in preparation for graduate school, while keeping a consistent studio practice going. https://www.96metalwrx.com/
Emmanuel Guerra
Emmanuel Guerra is a Mexican-American interdisciplinary artist based in Milwaukee whose practice spans drawing, painting, object-making, and video. Rooted in the complexities of a Midwest and Mexican-American upbringing, Guerra’s work excavates the terrain between cultural memory, ancestral sacrifice, and the act of dreaming — both passive and active — as a means of reclaiming what displacement has rendered ephemeral. Through found imagery, reimagined histories, and cultural iconography, they negotiate shared experiences of grief and kinship, reshaping lost narratives into new, tender contexts. Guerra’s recent exhibitions, including let sleeping dogs lie (2026) and Nuestros Sueños (2024), reflect an ongoing reformation of creative practice concerned with the porousness of identity and remembrance. They hold an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a BFA in Printmaking from Ball State University. https://eeguerra.com/
James Kramer
James Kramer is an artist living and working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His arts practice reflects on the notion of unseen labor and the invisible processes, efforts, and bodies that sustain cultural production. Through this lens, Kramer highlights the systems of visibility and invisibility, lengthening the structures beneath images and objects that shape contemporary life. He is the co-founder of Triple 3 Magazine (est. 2024), a biannual print publication that celebrates art, fashion, and culture. https://www.lurrring.com/
Jaaron Langford
Jaaron Langford is a Milwaukee-based artist, born and raised on the city’s Northside. He is pursuing a BFA in Photography and Printmaking at the University of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he has studied various photographic techniques and alternative processes in both mediums. His work explores themes of the domestic environment through a research-driven process, utilizing the city’s archives, local literature, and community conversations. He aims to show a side of the city many don’t appreciate, highlighting both the beauty and current challenges Northside residents face. https://www.instagram.com/_jaaronsart/
Amanda Smithivas
Amanda Smithivas is a sculptor and undergraduate student at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. She is best known for her stained glass and metal sculptures, which combine decorative aesthetics and contemporary issues. Amanda has exhibited her work in museums and galleries across the Midwest, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Woman Made Gallery, the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago, the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, the Var Small Works Gallery, and the Satélite Gallery. https://amandasmithivas.com/home.html
About Grilled Cheese Grant
The Grilled Cheese Grant (GCG) is an annual community fundraising event and visual artist grant that provides financial support for 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.
Eleventh Annual Grilled Cheese Grant Sponsors include Artdose Magazine, aryn kresol, Current Projects, Heinn Chapman, Kpop Events Wisconsin, Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Moody the Zine, Real Tinsel, and Saint Kate.
Thank you to food and drink donors Mullins Cheese, Hill Valley Dairy, Troubadour Bakery, Cactus Club, community partners Cactus Plus, and event venue Vanguard Sculpture Services.