Four Quad-City high school students have jumpstarted their art careers with an exhibit at the Figge Art Museum, Davenport, and $12,000 scholarships.

The Brand Boeshaar Scholarships were awarded to Branwen Cromer, Ayla Rexroth and Eric Wolever, all of Moline High School, and Heather Freedman of Bettendorf High School.

Awards of honorable mention went to Elizabeth Mason, Calamus-Wheatland High School, and Laura Krushak-Green, who is home-schooled in Dixon, Iowa.

The scholarship program was established in 1999 by Lillian L. Brand, a lifelong resident of Davenport. Brand created the scholarships in memory of her nephew, William Brand Boeshaar, a student at St. Ambrose University, Davenport, and in honor of her sisters, Isabelle and Lucille. One scholarship is named after Lillian Brand as well.

“Ms. Brand appreciated her nephew William’s achievements as an art student at St. Ambrose and wanted to create a scholarship fund that would help other young people to study art at the college level,” said David Dettmann, Lillian Brand’s attorney.

Applicants submitted a portfolio of 12 works, a transcript and two letters of reference. They also wrote a short essay. The portfolios were reviewed by area college art instructors. Twenty-seven students applied.

The recipients of the scholarships, whose work is on display in the Figge’s community gallery until Tuesday, said the hefty assistance will help pay for costly educations.

“It’s going to help me out a lot because the Kansas City Art Institute is a very expensive school,” said Rexroth, who submitted oil paintings, some of them nudes, for the competition.

Cromer and Wolever also said they plan to attend the Kansas City Art Institute.

“A lot of my art displayed at the Figge sort of expresses my life and the people around me,” Cromer said. “A lot of my stuff is self-portraits.”

Cromer credits several mentors for encouraging him to grow as an artist, including Moline High School art teacher Nick DiGioia; Chris Sederstrom, a teacher at Logan Elementary School, Moline; Laura Watt-Carter, who teaches in the Davenport school system; and Tim Van Hyfte, another local art teacher.

“They’re important to me because, in a way, I feel like at my age I can depend on other people to help me see what I cannot see. They can transfer onto me what they’ve learned.”

Wolever said his paintings stem from self-exploration and travel experiences. He said he is grateful he has had teachers like DiGioia.

“I’m fortunate growing up with teachers that were always willing to let me push the envelope a little bit further.” Wolever said he hopes to be an art professor one day.

Freedman plans to attend the University of Pittsburgh initially and an art school for graduate work.

“The scholarship definitely was nice recognition. I’m very lucky to get a scholarship in something that I will be doing for the rest of my life,” she said.

“I always wanted to be an artist, ever since I was little, then I came to my senses and decided to be a scientist or a doctor, something that would pay the bills. But now I’m back to art.”

Source: qctimes.net

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Sunday, May 28, 2006 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Scholarship. Tags: Ayla Rexroth, Bettendorf High School, Branwen Cromer, Calamus-Wheatland High School, Chris Sederstrom, College, Davenport, David Dettmann, Dixon, Education News, Eric Wolever, Figge Art Museum, Four Quad, Four Quad-City, Heather Freedman, Iowa, Isabelle, Kansas City Art Institute, Laura Krushak-Green, Laura Watt-Carter, Lillian Brandâ, Logan Elementary School, Lucille, Moline, Moline High School, Nick DiGioia, oil paintings, Scholarship, St. Ambrose University, Student, Study, Tim Van Hyfte, travel experiences, University of Pittsburgh, Williamâ, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.