This regranting initiative is a partnership with local organizations to offer individual grants to artists in Wisconsin. The program, established in 2023, distributes $435,000 across regranting partners annually.

The current regranting partners are three Milwaukee-based organizations: Lynden Sculpture Garden, The Milwaukee Institute for Art and Design, and The Open Fund.

Lynden Sculpture Garden

River Hills, WI

Red sculpture in the Lynden Sculpture Garden.

Image courtesy of Lynden Sculpture Garden. Photo: Claire Ruzicka

The Lynden Sculpture Garden offers a unique experience of art in nature through its collection of more than 50 monumental sculptures sited across 40 acres of park, lake and woodland.

With support from Ruth Arts, the Lynden Sculpture Garden expands its Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowship Program, one of the longest standing and most prominent grants for individuals in Milwaukee that provides unrestricted funds for established and emerging artists. The Ruth Arts Mary L. Nohl Alumni Award offers a new layer of support for former Nohl Fellows by providing unrestricted funds to selected artists, and by working alongside current and former awardees to build a program that centers artist self-determination and supports artist-defined forms of success.

Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD)

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Group of students standing and seated around a piece of art during a critique session.

Image courtesy of MIAD

The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) is Wisconsin’s only four-year, private college of visual art and design, offering a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Communication Design, Illustration, Industrial Design, Interior Architecture and Design, and New Studio Practice: Fine Arts. MIAD is also a recipient of the Foundation’s RDK Legacy Fund—a unique program dedicated to honoring and continuing Ruth DeYoung Kohler’s steadfast support of regional and craft-based organizations and artist-built environments.

Through the support of Wisconsin Artist Grants, MIAD administers the Ruth Arts + MIAD Artist Grant Program. The grant program supports research and development of work by individual artists who are faculty and staff at the college.

The Open Fund

Wisconsin

Photograph of a dimly lit home among trees.

Image Courtesy of The Poor Farm

The Open Fund supports visual artist initiatives that are public oriented and experimental, with support from Ruth Arts and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Regional Re-granting Program. Examples of past grantees include the presentation of creative and experimental work via film screenings, exhibition series, pop-up presentations, zines and media, educational models, civic sites in addition to other inventive models of artistic engagements.

The Open Fund is administered by two Wisconsin artist-run spaces: The Poor Farm and The Open. In 2024, the Open Fund distributed $120,000 to 14 Visual Arts Projects within the Milwaukee County. In 2025, funding eligibility will expand to artists throughout the entire state of Wisconsin.