Success stories

[emily g]

Hello, if you have been successful in getting a scholarship, please post about it here!
This is a place for you to celebrate your success and also so others can learn more about how you did it.

Just write a little bit of information, like how you found out about the scholarship, what you did to apply, etc.

thanks!
emily

[I.was.ink]

I recently won a scholarship through http://art-opp.com/giving/index.html.
I dont exactly remember how I found out about it, but I believe it was through one of these websites.
http://illustrationfriday.com/
http://drawn.ca/
http://illustrationmundo.com/

One of the important things to do when looking for different scholarships or opportunities is to look everywhere, especially on the internet. I frequent websites like the ones I mentioned above often and I think its important to branch out and see what other types of art and sites those lead to. A lot of the times, artists will link to different sites that we may not like, but I tend to check em out, because somewhere throughout all the linkage, I'll stumble across something I didn't even know existed.

Another thing I'll do to help me out is search for contests and scholarship info across the internet and make bookmarks out of them to remind me to check back later and submit work. That helps me stay on top of things and it only opens up my chances.

Btw, I barely won. I had visited the art-opp website a few months before the deadline due date and I only remembered to submit my work a few hours before the contest was over. So I barely made it.


-Oskar

[emily g]

Awesome, I.was.ink!

Thanks so much for sharing your experience and insight.
See, it's good to keep your eyes open and explore around.

Even though you didn't submit until the last minute, it was still worth it to take that chance. So you're probably glad you went ahead and submitted.

thanks again,
emily

[Grendel Grack]

This is a great place to find all sorts of scholarships, not just art: http://www.fastweb.com/

Also, be sure to check your local art stores. I received a $500.00 gift cert. via my university that was donated by a local art store. I didn't help with tuition, but my art supplies for that semester were covered. I also received a simmilar award from a different art store in town which gave me unlimited supplies for one year ( I got that two years in a row).

Through my university, I won a scholarship that provided a free apartment for one year when I was a Junior. This worked out really well, because they kick out upper classmen from the dorms and I had no place to go.

Be sure to pay attention to bulletin boards and your university's website. New scholarships are being created all the time. Ask at the office of your specific department, sometimes they will have work-study programs and up-to-date info on deadlines and requirements for submissions. Also, be sure to look in to contacting your local arts council. In NC, we have the NC Arts Council which is also divided up by county.They regulary hold contests and award grants, all you have to do is apply (and make art, of course). Be sure to check at the local and state level.

Here is a site geared toward the SouthEastern US but they also maintain a national data base of info: http://www.artsopportunities.org/
Regularly read artists' magazines. They usually will host contests that are either free to enter or have a small fee. Most often they offer cash prizes.

I paid for my entire college tuition, room board, utilities...everything, myself. I could probably go on forever listing all the ways and various ramen recipes I used to save money. It can be done and on a very small budget, too. You just have to do your reserch and plan ahead.

PARTICIPATE ON CONCEPTART.ORG! It's the best exposure a new artist can get and IT'S FREEEEE.

[Capt. Sklar]

Maybe this'll be useful. I was a finalist this year in NFAA's Arts Recognition and Talent Search; I got a level 1 award (not to mention an offer to buy a piece or two). My bio is on their site (justin sklar), my portfolio however isn't up on their site yet, but it's posted a couple times in different places in the forums here. You can find all their information at www.artsawards.com.

The only real advice I can give is the following: have a cohesive portfolio and have some sort of issue to talk about. All of the visual finalists had cohesive portfolios; that is they were working on one certain idea or in one certain style, etc. It shows that you're focused and are going somewhere. And definitely have an issue. I know that the people who won more than me all had some sort of issue they were talking about in their work, something religious or racial or sexual or something like that. I'm not much into that and I dunno how much that actually affected me in the judging; it really sort of depends on who the judges are for your year. But yeah. Oh, also. You can look through the portfolios of winners from the past. Take note of what they did that got them noticed. But recognize at the same time that good work isn't gonna do it for you alone. The judges bring you down to miami to talk to you about your work, and someone who creates beautiful work but can't talk about it will not do as well as someone who creates average work but has big ideas and knows how to talk about them.

If you get selected as a finalist (they pick somewhere around 20 visual arts finalists, there's no set number they have to select though), they fly you down to miami for a week to hangout with the finalists in all the other disciplines. ARTS week is quite possibly one of the most ridiculous gatherings of people that I have ever experienced ever and consider yourself lucky as hell if you get to go. It's a very interesting and humbling experience.

It's also important to note that ARTS is the only thing that can get you nominated for Presidential Scholar in the arts. You don't get any scholarship money for presidentail scholar, but presidential scholar opens up a ridiculous amount of opportunities and alot of colleges will throw money at you.

If you have any questions about ARTS or anything that I could help with, don't hesitate to email me at [email protected] and I'll see if I can offer anything of value (I apologize for my suggestions being completely haphazard).
That was a very stream of consciousness set of advice. If you have any more questions about ARTS stuff.

[emily g]

Wow, Capt. Sklar! Thanks so much for that advice and information! Very helpful.

[thesinfulsaint]

I just found out yesterday that I won a local portfolio scholarship for $1.5k! It's just a drop in the bucket, but every little bit certainly helps!

It's called "The Medina County Art League Scholarship". I originally found out about it through a family friend, but it's existence was later confirmed by my art teacher.

[emily g]

That's great, the sinfulsaint! Congrats and thanks for sharing!

[megadubitably]

Fastwebs has helped me a bunch. I've entered many contests, but I've only won one major award (1k in scholarship money from a local organization). Through friends and art teachers (art teachers can be an EXCELLENT scholarship resource, they are always getting e-mails and letters about different awards) I've heard of other awards.

For the Greater St. Louis Art Association, I had to submit some slides and essays. Many organizations (and AP exams) still require slides instead of digital, so it's wise to hold onto slides for different contests. I was one of four one thousand dollar winners.

I was an honorable mention (100 bucks) at the Pasta House Company Works of Art contest, 1st place in duck stamp (50 bucks, although if I was able to go onto the national level, I would have a chance at 5k, but I rushed my picture ), 100 dollar winner in a small high school art show, and a 25 dollar winner in another small show (but I now have a chance at 1k nationally wooo). Basically, I went crazy and entered many local contests, heh.

I also entered NFAA (mentioned previously) and scholastics, but I got a 7 in NFAA and scholastics never contacted me back so I don't even know if they received my pictures I think I might still be of age for NFAA this upcoming year, so I might try again. My portfolio was really random and weird... like pictures of giant onions, some hand pictures, random crap.

[emily g]

Thanks for sharing your advice megadubitably. That is exactly the way to do it...enter a bunch of contests and you are bound to win something. Congrats on the $1,000 one, that's awesome.

[Lord Vagabond]

Hi everyone! I lived in a struggle being in Iraq a country of War and indeference towards Art but I have survived it by a will made of steel!!!

I've got accepted in UCLA recently through the Fulbright scholarship. I found out about it from a friend of mine in the last year in college and he found out about it through the internet. We went through the process a year and a half ago. My friend wasn't interested in Art instead he cared about Computer Science. The first thing that have got us selected for an interview was the two essays we wrote and an impressive score in the TOEFL that we stated in our application. There were approximately 800 applicants on that year and the number is increasing each year like for this year it was approximately 1200. I went through the interview and made an impressive plea and they were so impressed. We took several tests after that and we were ahead of the other applicants to the end... That was the part concerning getting accepted in the program, but afterwards it was all about the work I've done over the years before that got me accepted at UCLA. I've selected pieces from the piles of Practice sheets, Drawings and even the work I've done when I was 10 years old and sent it to UCLA on a CD as a Portfolio.

Now I'm getting ready to head into UCLA in the coming 2-3 weeks for the fall 2007 Course of an MFA in Animation at the School of Theatre, Film and Television-The Animation Workshop...

Thanks

Anmar (Lord Vagabond)

[Seedling]

Thanks for sharing the great stories, everyone!

A tidbit about deadlines (and not just for scholarships): I almost didn’t get my internship at LucasArts because I found out about it after the deadline – and I didn’t apply. Through some amazing luck, however, when I applied to Industrial Light and Magic (which is another Lucas company, and had a later deadline) someone forwarded my portfolio over to LucasArts, who then called me because they had not had any acceptable candidates apply by the deadline.

There’s no way you can make luck like that happen, but something you certainly can do is to apply for scholarships (or internships) even after the deadline, if you learn about the opportunity too late. Maybe, just maybe, they are still looking for someone to hand that money (or job).

[tensai]

I received a scholarship to do my Master degree in Tokyo from the Japanese Ministry of Education. At the time I was just starting my thesis project while in Holland (I studied to be an architect) and while walking through the hall way I saw a note saying 'Are you an excellent student? Have all A grades?' etc etc. Well I wasn't a model student and didn't have all A grades but I was ambitious and worked hard and had done good design work. I decided to apply even if I had only 3 days till the deadline. I selected my best work, made a portfolio and wrote an essay, gathered letters of recommendation etc etc. I thought I could think later about if I really wanted to, or could, go or not.

The stupid thing was, many many people were talking about this grant, how they were going to apply, how you could go to Tokyo, Have 2 years tuition fee waived (roughly 50 k) get plane tickets, and get a monthly fee of rent/eat/spend money which was basically a really fair salary compared to what you'd get as a starting architect (roughly 45 k for the two years).

But...

nobody applied, except me and one friend of mine.

So, what I'm saying is - it's all a lot of work, and often looks really intimidating, but if you don't try you'll be sure you won't get it. Do your research, put your war paint on, work work work and then edit edit edit till you can't see no more and submit that shit. You will not know if that is good enough, but you will know that for that grant, in the time frame that you had, you did the absolute best you could give it.
Didn't get it? Try another one.

I just applied for two artist in residency programmes to stay in Seoul or Beijing and do free work.

Never had as little time for those but we'll see, hehe.

[tensai]

It might seem really obvious but in case it's not -

-It really helps to have all your best work in one place.
Then select among those for the particular grant you're applying for.
-Have your CV ready, long and short version.
-Have your bio more or less ready. Again, adjust/edit for the particular grant you're applying for.
-Have your artist statement/story about your images or project more or less ready. Again, adjust/edit for the particular grant you're applying for.

It really saves time which you can then focus on your particular submission, or that one last wicked illustration you wanna include.

[emily g]

Thanks so much for the advice, tensai. I think having all of that stuff written out can really help, especially if you are applying for multiple things. Then it's just copy/paste, with a few adjustments.

Also, someone asked about this in another thread, but if you are having trouble writing about yourself and your artwork, just google "how to write an artist's statement." A ton of links will come up that will help you get started.

I also had a similar situation where I applied for something and only myself and one other girl applied. Most people just don't buckle down and do the work of applying for things like this, so if you are the one with the ambition to actually apply, you can get things that may have seemed out of your reach.

[tensai]

Thanks so much for the advice, tensai. I think having all of that stuff written out can really help, especially if you are applying for multiple things. Then it's just copy/paste, with a few adjustments.

Exactly my point.

Also, someone asked about this in another thread, but if you are having trouble writing about yourself and your artwork, just google "how to write an artist's statement." A ton of links will come up that will help you get started.

One of the most no-nonsense practical ones I found was this one.

I can really recommend going to the library, a coffeeshop or ride the train and just put that stuff down on paper. Don't think too much just let it flow. When you have all that, you can see some themes/things that keep coming back and that therefore might be worth writing about. If you're lucky, your little brainstorm will have produced some actual stuff that you can use as is, or edit a bit (although that's not the point).

If anything I think putting your thoughts about your work down like this will teach you what you find important and what not. Very useful even if you don't apply for a scholarship.

[Sirio_Brozzi]

I recently was lucky enough to get a scholarship with the McMillen Foundation, http://www.mcmillenfoundation.org/art.htm which operates in the Washington State/Alaska area. They are a privately funded scholarship that gives out full tuition coverage each year to a few students every year in various degrees(medical, art, etc.). They came to our school and posted fliers about 3 years back regarding their art scholarships.

I came out very close for 2 years, not getting it, but in the third year finally managed to score it(persistence!). They asked for a portfolio and an essay or two, the key was being creative in how you presented your work. I turned my essay into a sequential comic, and put together my best stuff on a cd. Afterwards after being sent a letter saying I was a finalist, I headed there for an interview, art review, and a test related to what you wanted to study with the McMillens, and Cassandra Town, who deals with students and recipients. They were all extremely friendly, we had a good laugh during the interview process and notified me a few hours later that I had received it.

Since then things have been real good, its like a small family. We always meet up with other scholarship recipients, go out to lunch sometimes, and have activities around the year where we can all gather up and be together, discuss where we're at. And as a plus, it was one of the only scholarships I could find that helped international students, instead of limiting it to US students. Its talent based, encourages creativity, and encourages scholars to participate in community events. I'd recommend it to anyone in the area.

[emily g]

Thanks for the link, tensai. I think that one is really great.

Congrats Sirio_Brozzi! That's awesome. And thanks so much for writing about the process you went through in applying. Even though each scholarship is different, this kind of information is very helpful to people who have never done anything like this before.

Things that stood out to me:
1. You didn't give up after 2 years of trying. We take rejection so hard sometimes and think we are "losers" when in reality we may have been nearly chosen and could have a good shot if we tried again.
2. You considered your presentation. Putting that extra work in to make things look nice, or to do something a little creative creates a great impression.

Thanks also for mentioning that the scholarship is open to international students--I will post about it in the International thread.