When we launched our inaugural open solicitation for arts and culture grant applications early last year, we were not sure what to expect.
We certainly were aware that many arts and culture groups were struggling financially in the wake of flat revenue streams and growing costs, but we also weren’t certain we would get more than a couple of dozen applications given our relatively strict eligibility guidelines and our challenge in getting the word out.
Much to our pleasant surprise – and thanks in part to the help of groups like Imagine MKE and Create Wisconsin in disseminating our grant opportunities – we received 67 applications across four grant categories in 2025. We ended up awarding 36 grants totaling $638,000 to small arts organizations, arts education providers, arts and culture groups of any size seeking to launch new programs or projects, and media organizations seeking to enhance their arts and culture coverage in Milwaukee.
When we launched the same set of grant opportunities earlier this year, we figured we might attract a few more requests. Instead, we saw growth of more than 50%, with 107 applications hitting our grants portal before our April 10 deadline.
We are pleased to announce that given that overwhelming demand, the Herzfeld Foundation’s Board of Directors decided at its June 19 meeting to exceed our arts and culture competitive grants budget by nearly $300,000. For 2026, we’ll be issuing 52 grants totaling $818,000 across our four grant categories. Combined with already-committed second-year arts awareness funding to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to support a dedicated arts and culture reporter, that adds up to almost $900,000 to support arts and culture organizations and initiatives this cycle.
In the weeks ahead, we’ll be highlighting some of our 2026 grantees on our new social media pages and in this space. The full list also will be printed on our website.
In the meantime, the breakdown by category is as follows
• For arts awareness, we awarded $75,000 as part of a multi-year grant to WUWM Radio to support a new dedicated arts and culture producer and a new media collaboration between WUWM and Radio Milwaukee.
• For arts education, we awarded 17 grants totaling $278,000. Grantees include traditional arts education organizations like Artists Working in Education and Arts@Large, as well as a pair of museums (Betty Brinn and the Milwaukee Art Museum) and the Zoological Society of Milwaukee County for arts education programming at well-known Milwaukee cultural anchors.
• For the combined category of small arts organizations (defined as those with annual operating budgets of less than $750,000) and new arts projects, we awarded 34 grants totaling $465,000. These include first-time general operations funding for six small arts groups and funding for nine new projects or programs.
We sincerely thank all who took the time to apply.
We wish we had the resources to support even more worthy organizations and initiatives. We do anticipate providing similar grant opportunities next year, so those groups we reluctantly had to turn down will have another chance to seek our support then.
