The 2024 ARC Scholarship Competition
The Art Renewal Center® (ARC) will award $30,000 to talented students attending ARC Approved ® schools through the 24th annual ARC Scholarship Competition.
This year the bulk of the ARC Scholarship Fund ($25,000) has been generously provided by the MacAvoy Foundation. The MacAvoy Foundation is dedicated to the creation and preservation of beauty and history. They support a variety of organizations that uphold classical values and support artists using timeless principles and masterful techniques.
As those familiar with the ARC and its mission know, the Art Renewal Center® is involved in numerous projects, all in support of a return to an appreciation of great and enduring art, and to academic, skill-based art education. Student painters and sculptors who are chosen to receive these awards will have submitted examples of their works which clearly reflect the principles espoused by the classical methods of drawing, painting and sculpture and reflect a level of visual literacy. From the contest participants, we will select a group of students, no less than 10, though perhaps quite a few more, to receive between them $30,000. The scholarship jurors will discuss all materials provided by the participants and divide them into tiers of achievement. Because winners are divided in this fashion, there is the potential for numerous 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th and 5th place winners, depending on the number of applicants and the overall quality of work submitted.
Also included in these awards will be The Brian Yoder Memorial Scholarship, which will be an ongoing award in the ARC Scholarship Competition. This award will go to one student as the top prize winner of the competition. Brian Yoder (1961–2021) was a founder of the Art Renewal Center®, served as its webmaster for many years and stayed a member of our staff as a technical advisor until his passing. Brian's legacy endures in the lives of those he encountered. Brian loved art. He indulged his passion to educate the world about fine art and realized his goal in collaboration with Fred Ross with the creation of the Art Renewal Center®. His encyclopedic knowledge of myriad subjects, including philosophy, science, history, politics, economics, business, art, music, literature, design, and computer science were appreciated by all who knew him and always kept him poised for the next great debate. His visionary ideas were often years, if not decades, ahead of their time.
Also included will be a generous award on behalf of The American Artists Professional League (AAPL):
AAPL Frank C. Wright Scholarship ($5,000)
The American Artists Professional League (AAPL) is dedicated to the advancement of traditional realism in American fine art, through the promotion of high standards of beauty, integrity and craftsmanship in painting, sculpture and the graphic arts. As a longtime President of the AAPL, Frank C.Wright (1904-1982) generously created an endowment to further his passion of cultivating traditionally trained American artists. This award amount has been donated to the Art Renewal Center by the AAPL.
No entry fees will be required.
Student Scholarship Outline
The ARC 2024 Scholarship Competition is devoted to supporting students whose works reflect the concept of traditional and contemporary realism. The ARC seeks examples of paintings and sculpture rendered from life and representative of nature as reflected in figurative studies and compositions, landscapes, still life, and portraiture; work that seeks to capture a fully recognizable likeness of the subject. Compositions rendered with the aid of projectors or copied directly from photographs do not represent the mission and goals of this competition. Although the scholarships are based on merit, need is also taken into consideration to a lesser degree. If you are in particular need of the funds to continue your training, please make this clear in your application.
Procedure
The ARC Student Scholarship is an online based competition. To make a proper submission, be sure to include all of the materials listed below. All materials are uploaded directly through the ARC website.
10 to 15 Images
ARC's panel of jurors are located all over the world, making it necessary to evaluate applications via the Internet. Therefore, students who wish to apply are asked to send not less than 10 and not more than 15 images in a JPEG or JPG format. Image files should be between 1MB and 10MB in size and need to be uploaded via the online application form.
3 Letters of Recommendation
A minimum of 3 letters of recommendation are required. One recommendation must be from a current art instructor; preferably the master painter or sculptor with whom you are currently studying, or under whom you will be studying during the 2023/2024 academic year.
Letters of recommendation must include the following:
- Applicant's name and level of study
- Name of school or program of study
- Complete address, phone and/or fax, and email address of the school or nominator.
NOTE: Letters of recommendation should be sent in the form of an email, as an attached file to [ scholarship@artrenewal.org ]. All letters of recommendation must be sent from the teacher or person writing the recommendation on the student's behalf. They should not be sent directly from the student. All letters must be received on or before the scholarship deadlines noted herein.
Biography or CV
Students must include a biography or CV, including information regarding their education to date, a list of any honors and awards received, and/or exhibitions in which they have participated. Also, please include any instructional experience.
Essay
A 250-word essay: My Long-term Educational and Career Goals.
Deadline
Applications must be completed by end of day on May 31, 2024 in order to qualify for consideration for scholarships awarded for the Fall 2024 or Spring 2025 term. Again, no applications will be accepted if they are submitted after May 31, 2024. Winners will be notified by the end of August 2024.
Should you have any questions regarding this competition, please contact Yvette Lytle [ yvette.lytle@artrenewal.org ].
Terms and Conditions
To be eligible for an ARC Scholarship you must be accepted or presently enrolled in an ARC Approved™ program for the 2024 fall term. To view a list of ARC Approved™ schools please visit our ARC Approved™ school listing.
The applicant should be intent on becoming a career artist. The scholarship is not intended for individuals who are only studying art as a hobby. Since the goal of the ARC Scholarship Competition is to train a new generation of artists who will use their newly acquired skills on a lifelong pursuit of the creation of fine art, applicants should not exceed 30 years of age. ARC reserves the right to disburse funds in whole or in part after evaluation of the merits of applicant's entries as exhibited by their work and proof of enrollment at an atelier, academy, studio-school or program approved by ARC.
The decision of the jurors shall be final. ARC reserves the right of sole discretion to withhold awards if, in its judgment, the work submitted fails to comply with the standards as noted herein. Awardees must use scholarship funds to further his/her art education, i.e. tuition and art materials. Scholarship funds must be used at ARC Approved™ institutions who teach proper methods of training. The schools must be up to date with their membership fees and be in good standing. In all cases, funds will be paid directly to the studio or institutions where the winners will be studying. ARC reserves the right to make recommendations regarding the disbursement of funds, or to request that the use of scholarship funds be monitored by a representative of the faculty or staff of the institution where the student is enrolled. Scholarship winners must claim their award within one year of the time it is awarded. This is done by enrolling in the ARC Approved™ course(s) he/she desires and having the bill sent from the school on his/her behalf to the Art Renewal Center as proof of enrollment. ARC will then pay the bill on the student's behalf up to the sum of the award amount.
This competition is not open to students inspired by abstract, conceptualist, neo-conceptual or non-traditional forms of constructions. Also excluded are examples of commercial design arts such as fashion and interior design, crafts, architecture, collage, photography, computer graphics, animation, commercial illustration or related genres. It is the determination of the Board of Trustees that illustration clearly can rise to the level of fine art; therefore example illustrative works will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Incomplete applications will not be submitted to the jurors for evaluation.
Announcement of the awards will be made by email and on the ARC website/social media shortly after a decision has been made. The names of winners and their schools will be announced and an example(s) of their work along with their provided bio-photo will be published on the ARC Website. We may also choose to publish quote(s) from their essay. By entering the ARC Scholarship competition, you are granting ARC irrevocable limited copyrights allowing the Art Renewal Center® to publish images of your submitted work on the ARC website and in materials intended to promote the ARC and ARC Scholarship Competition.
Suggested Entries: Portraits rendered from life, landscapes, still life, drawings or paintings from the figure, cast studies in charcoal or grisaille palette, or completed thematic works.