The ARC Scholarship Fund Distributes over $30,000 in Direct Scholarships to Aid Students at ARC Approved™ Art Academy and Atelier Schools
As those familiar with ARC and its mission know, the organization is involved in numerous projects, all in support of a return to an appreciation of great and enduring art, to the visual expression of shared humanity, and to academic, skill-based, art education. At ARC we view our scholarship program as one of the most important. In order for future generations to produce great art, we must not lose the accumulated knowledge of the last several centuries. At our ARC Approved Atelier™ schools, we know these methods are still taught by some of the greatest artists alive today and the students who are the recipients of these scholarships will receive the training necessary to create great works of art and carry the knowledge to the next generation. For 17 years now, the ARC Scholarship Fund has awarded scholarships to some of the most talented emerging realist artists in the world and helped them continue their studies at ARC Approved Ateliers and Schools. From relatively modest beginnings in 2001, the number of entrants and qualifying Ateliers has expanded rapidly. In 2001 there were 14 ARC Approved Ateliers and today we proudly list over 70 schools and programs. We are proud to have been able to provide over $350,000 to date, enabling us to support an ever-growing number of students and the institutions they attend. The quality of the work continues to astound us, and many of our past winners have gone on to achieve great things in their careers already. Some who have won scholarships in the past have now opened their own ateliers with their own students competing in this very same competition. Others have stayed to contribute their expertise at their alma maters, continuing the great academic tradition so important to our philosophy here at ARC. The Art Renewal Center™ is very pleased to announce the winners of the 2017 Annual Scholarship Competition. This year three first place winners, seven second place winners, and seven third place winners have been awarded.
This Year's Judges
Fred Ross ARC Chairman
Frederick C. Ross, Founder and Chairman of the Art Renewal Center, Ross is the leading authority on William Bouguereau and co-author of the Catalogue Raisonné William Bouguereau: His Life and Works. Ross received his MA in art education from Columbia University. His speeches and essays are read by thousands of professionals, educators, students and fans each year; and have become required reading in countless classrooms. Ross is also a well known collector of 19th century European painting and of Contemporary Realism as well. Art Educator/lecturer; President of Bouguereau Committee; Art Expert and Collector, Writer; Artist; Published Art Historian on the 19th Century; ARC Salon and Scholarship Judge
Dr. Vern Swanson
Swanson has his Phd from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England and is the former Director of the Springville Museum of Art, Utah, where he served for 30 years. He is a lecturer/scholar/writer and expert on 19th Century European Art and Russian Art through the 20th Century. Swanson is the leading authority on Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and John William Godward and author of the Catalogue Raisonnés for both artists. In total, the number of books Swanson has published is well into the teens.
Awards are given based on a portfolio of 10 to 15 works, as well as a biography/CV, essay, and three letters of recommendation. Click on the artists listed below to view a selection of some of the best work submitted by the winning individuals.
I have been determined to be an artist since I was very young. In Kindergarten the one complaint the teachers had was that, “Miriam will not stop her art projects when it is time for the next class or for lunch”. I think I was about 6 when I decided I wanted to be painter after watching my dad's friend work on a landscape oil painting. This strong passion and diligent work ethic has continued in my work at the “Toronto Academy of Realist Art” first as a part time student (when I was still in high-school) and as a full time student since Sept. 2016. It has been a struggle so far for my parents to pay for my school and supplies (only one of my parents is working and I am one of four children), so this scholarship would greatly help me to reach my goals and develop my talents and vision to share meaningful art with others.
My belief in the tradition of realism is rooted in exploring a moment. I believe in allowing ourselves to be confronted with the experience of honest and humble observation, abandoning the mediation of device, authority, and previous assumptions. I believe in fostering an ability to appreciate what is in front of us—being more fully alive through heightening our sense of wonder. With my professional art career approaching, one desire is to encourage people (not just artists) to seek out ways of reconnecting with their senses. While there is some cultural movement towards awareness, the greater part of our culture is on the fast track to numbness through artifice and over-stimulation. The practice of drawing and painting, however, requires engagement in a single moment. I aim to foster this practice both as an instructor in the atelier tradition and through writing and speaking to a broader audience.
I have studied figurative drawing and painting full-time since 2012, in many different institutions including Angel Academy of Art, Italy, 2012-2013, and Grand Central Atelier, New York City, 2014-2016. The more I learned, the more passionate I became. Art is what I want to dedicate my life to. My reason for changing schools was partly due to financial limitations ( depending from year to year on the possibility of scholarships and grants) but as I result I have learnt enormously from this constant change. I adopted from each school a different piece of puzzle, naturally through a personal inclination and understanding of what I wished my art to become. I am incredibly grateful to every artist I had the honor of studying with; each new way of working that I was exposed to embraced a distinct philosophy, a distinct process, but all of them were linked by a great passion for the history and beauty of the representational tradition. Each teacher helped me realize just how much I still have to learn.
