Our Crowdfunding Groups
What is it for?
Each summer, world renowned crafts schools like Anderson Ranch in Colorado, Peters Valley in New Jersey, Penland in North Carolina, and Arrowmont here in Tennessee offer colleges partial “matching” scholarships for ambitious art students across the country to gather and study advanced craft techniques, build community, network, and expand their horizons for their artistic careers.
However, colleges need to provide the other half of the matching funds for our students to attend. This year, we are raising the funds to match Anderson Ranch’s partial scholarship to send one of our best students to partake in this career-altering opportunity.
Why is it important?
This opportunity to recognize and launch our students on a national scale is invaluable for opening up future avenues for their art careers.
This is the second time we have run this campaign. We were extremely successful in our pilot year last year as we were able to fully fund two students to attend Anderson Ranch workshops. Jaime and Genn broadened their artistic community, their skill sets, and their horizons with the digital fabrication workshop they took last summer in Colorado.
With your help, we hope to achieve the same success in sending one of our students this year!
Who will receive the scholarship this summer?
Emily Ellis is a senior in the Studio Art Concentration. She was born in China in 1997 and then later that year became a United States citizen. Adopted by a couple in their 50’s from the Kansas City area, Ellis spent her childhood in the Midwest before moving to Virginia. Ellis transferred from Thomas Nelson Community College in 2017 and began attending the University of Memphis. She is a graduating senior BFA candidate with a concentration in studio art and an interdisciplinary practice. During her academic career, Ellis achieved many successes: she is a Dean’s list student and was elected to positions of leadership within the University of Memphis Clay Club, including but not limited to the roles of President and Vice President. Ellis has shown her work in five shows throughout Memphis and has been nominated by faculty to receive the Norfolk Yale summer scholarship in 2020 and a scholarship to Anderson Ranch in 2022. IN 2022 she was selected by the majority of department faculty to present as a nominee for the Dean’s Undergraduate Outstanding Achievement Award representing the College of Communication and Fine Arts for the University of Memphis.
Help us send Emily on to Anderson Ranch!
Raku fired, hand sculpted rock form. These are thrown on the wheel initially, then are modified by hand to resemble a rock-like form. They are fairly lightweight as they are hollow, and the raku glaze flows over the pocked, craggy, irregular form in a visually satisfying way.
These stones imply the presence of the artist, their hand and intention in an easily read format. The unglazed ceramic allows for the artists fingerprints to become a part of the design and surface texture. The stones are solid, giving these works a comfortable heft and the possessor can "hold hands" with the artist and experience a form of distant touch and memory.
Rudyard Kipling's poem If-- has been a literary mainstay of my life. It's a work written by the author to his son, and the world at large, signaling and guiding others to a "manly" stoic life. In turn, prior to turning 25 years old,I chose to write a response poem, in order to cement a foundation for living and then share my own life philosophy. This poem is written in my own handwriting with additional embellishments.
