UA art students pool money, work fundraisers to provide scholarships for needy artists

A professional artist's life will never be mere play.

After graduation, artists must acquire initial funding to execute their work, market their art and ideally retire early - not simple tasks in such a competitive field.

For the second consecutive year at the University of Arizona, the upper-division art course "Career Development for Visual Artists" is exploring the processes of scholarship application and judging by providing money to art students with financial need.

Known as the "Artists Helping Artists" scholarship, each class member is initially asked to donate $20 to get the fund up and running.

The remainder of the money for the scholarship comes from this week's fundraising bake sales - featuring coffee, tea and cookies - which students in the class take turns working.