By
Angela Orlando
Arizona Daily Wildcat
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.
Of all the groups on campus deserving financial support, Tom Freeland, studio art senior, said he feels art majors are most needy.
"Artists in general are underfunded for many reasons," Freeland said. "Often art students have to pay their own way through school, and they have to pay for expensive supplies on top of textbooks."
Financial awards, however, are not the scholarship's only benefits.
"We are giving this money to art students because a real big part of an artist's life is applying for grants and finding money (to enable their work)," said Suzanne Macdhomhail, a non-degree-seeking student who is enrolled in the class. "This is practice for them, and practice for ourselves by being on the other side of the table."
Additionally, receiving a scholarship can give an artist public attention.
"(The scholarship) helps with a resume and helps artists become known in the community outside the realm of UA professors and students," said Michelle Waltz, a fine arts senior.
The award process is completely managed by students in the class. After judging slide submissions, the class will award the anticipated prize of anywhere from $500-$3000 to the winning students. The scholarship amount awarded depends on how much the bake sale raises.
"We're not raffling a car or anything, so the reward won't be huge," Freeland said. "The more money we get through the bake sale, the greater the possibility that two scholarships might come around."
The student judges are looking for strict adherence to scholarship specifications.
"It definitely helps with my application process to be behind the scenes in awarding a scholarship," Freeland said. "We will pick out the most professional slides." Typically, this means the slide is well-labeled and the art work will have been photographed against a black background.
Class members are looking not only for the applying artists' skill level, but also their ability to convey what they've learned through UA's art school.
"(Awarding the scholarship) gives us the opportunity to see how other students are coming along, and what they're learning in the art department," said Michelle Waltz, senior in fine arts studies. "We want to see whether they're conveying what they've learned through the clarity of their art."
In addition, many students said they have found helping struggling student artists gratifying.
"I think it's really good to help out the other art students that are deserving of a scholarship," Waltz said, "and those who need it to better their career."
Freeland agreed.
"(Participating in this scholarship) is a way of giving back," he said. "Not having to worry about funds gives artists time and freedom to create."
Those wanting to contribute to the "Artists Helping Artists" fund can do so at the scholarship fund-raising bake sale today through Thursday from 8 a.m. to noon. The bake sale is located in the lobby of the Art building in the Fine Arts complex. All proceeds go to the scholarship award.
