This article offers a practical game plan for those of you who are trying to track down and win Art Scholarships that will help you on the path to a career in the visual arts. Get ready, though, because there’s a lot to do before you can even think about filling out applications and putting together a portfolio.

PART 1: WHERE TO LOOK FOR ART SCHOLARSHIPS

Start a list…it could get big! Here’s a sample of groups and organizations that often offer art and design scholarships:

School, College and University Art Departments

Community and Civic Groups

Professional Organizations

Your Employer, Local Businesses and National Chains

Charitable Foundations

Arts Festivals and Competitions

The first step for you will be to identify as many of these possibilities as you can. I’d suggest starting with the phone book to really hone in on the local ones; you’ll want to search the Internet, too, of course – but (believe it or not) an awful lot of the local groups that offer your best chances of winning still aren’t on the Web.

Next – start a table, a chart or a spreadsheet with columns like “Sponsor,” “Scholarship Name,” “Contact Name,” “Phone number,” “Amount,” “Requirements,” and (very importantly) “Deadline.”

Of course, you only want to put your valuable time into applying for the scholarships which best suit your ambitions… or the ones you can make out to fit your ambitions (we’ll get to that in the section below on “Winning Art Scholarships”). For now, though, put down everything you come across that’s even close, and once you’ve finished your list, you’ll be able to take a good, hard look at which options are most worth your efforts.

Hopefully, the ideas in the next section will get you going with a good list of choices.

Excellent Starting Points

Your High School

Talk to your high school Guidance Counselor to see what kinds of scholarships and awards are available. Many of them consider it part of their job to help you find scholarship opportunities, so they keep a file of them or a bulletin board with recent flyers they’ve received. This could prove to be a treasure trove of opportunities for Art Scholarships!

Check in with your high school Art Teacher, too. Many of them also keep half an eye on this sort of information, or they may also be members of professional organizations that have scholarship opportunities for art students (see the section below on Professional Organizations).

Very often, the high schools themselves offer monetary rewards for the best students in the arts, or the most dedicated from clubs and activities, which could include an art-oriented club. If your high school doesn’t offer a scholarship or award of its own, then at the very least, either your Counselor or your Art Teacher should be able to steer you toward other sources because they hear about stuff like that all of the time.

Your University

Most Art Departments offer scholarships to students attending their schools, either directly through the school or through business, benefactors and foundations that support the school. Many schools also offer them to prospective students.

If you’re attending or planning to attend a university, BE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN to contact your Program Advisor to ask what scholarships may be available through the school or department (if you’re already attending, definitely check in with your Art Instructors, too!). Don’t forget to look for scholarship opportunities on the university department’s web site or on a bulletin board near the Art Department office on-campus, where they also are often posted. Here are some typical departmental scholarship listings:

Baum School of Art

Birmingham Southern College

Cranbrook Academy of Art

Goshen College

Hendrix College

St. Lawrence University

Most universities do offer scholarships to students attending their schools. That’s because they really, really want to keep you there. These kinds of scholarships are the easiest to find out about, but somehow overlooked by many students who could benefit greatly from the funding…and from the prestige of winning!

Just to reinforce this idea of funding from your university or college, the Department of Education reports that at public universities, scholarship and fellowship expenditures have risen consistently from 1980 through 1995.

This may be an indication that there are opportunities waiting for you. Again, at the very least, you should ask your Advisor about other sources if there are none available at your university for your circumstance.

Your Employer (or Your Parent’s Employer)

Many, many businesses offer some kind of funding program for their employees and their employee’s children, as part of the benefits package. This might be in the form of “reimbursable tuition,” “continuing education” or even internal grants, scholarships or awards. Even if you’re only working part-time, you still might be eligible.

Somehow, this is another fabulous financial outlet for academic funding that is overlooked year after year by many students. All you have to do is ask!

Community and Civic Groups

Chances are, there are some local community groups that are involved in the arts, whether it’s a “friends” organization to support a local gallery or museum, or a group of people who get together every other week to paint and share stories. Very often, members of these groups pay dues, hold art shows and auctions, organize fund-raisers, and then…. Guess what? They offer scholarships to local people like you who want to pursue an education in the arts!

These kinds of groups may not be easy to find because they generally keep to themselves, but you might try the following:

Check your local yellow pages for art organizations

Check in with your City Hall and ask about what community groups involved in the arts are registered or where you can find out

Look in the local newspaper’s calendar section for art-related events, and mark down the sponsoring groups…or, better yet, call the arts editor or reporter and ask them what they know

Scan the web with a search for towns in your area or your county and your area of interest in the arts

But these aren’t the only groups to try in your community! There are many other local groups that may not appear to be directly involved with the arts, but have a definite interest – or maybe they simply want to support artistic endeavors.

1) Be the early bird. Start applying for scholarships and lining up low-priced college options right now. “You want to make sure you are the first one in line,” says Cheryl Maplethorpe, director of financial aid for the Minnesota Office of Higher Education. Many grants are awarded on a first-come-first-served basis, she notes. And many low-cost colleges are cutting off applications especially early this season. College students who haven’t already filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid this year should do it as soon as possible. (High school seniors have to wait until January to apply for next fall.) You can search for nongovernmental scholarships by asking your high school counselor, your college’s financial aid office, and your college’s department for scholarship possibilities and advice. Many are also listed on websites like this one, scholarsite.com, or the College Board.

While there aren’t many private scholarships still awarding money for this academic year, students can—and should—start applying now for private scholarships for next year, because some of the biggest and best private scholarships, such as those offered by the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, have October deadlines. And the most popular cheap four-year schools in California, including San Diego State University and Sonoma State University, will stop taking next year’s admissions applications for many types of students November 30.

2) Ask the boss. Check with the student’s and parents’ employers to see if they offer any kind of education or scholarship benefit.

3) Try low-cost colleges. Prepare applications (including transfer applications for students already in college) to some low-cost, in-state community colleges and public universities to provide a “financial safety school” option, says Eileen O’Leary, assistant vice president of student financial services at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass. That way, even if you don’t get any free money, your bills still will be much lower.

4) Become a catch. Prepare applications to at least two (or even more, to increase your chances of setting off a scholarship bidding war) public and private schools for which you’d be a catch because of higher-than-average grades or some special skill or talent. Students whose grades or test scores are higher than the school’s average have a good chance of receiving merit grants. “Put as much detail as possible into your college application,” says Sandra Bartholomew, dean of enrollment management at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vt. “Colleges have money to award for lots of nonacademic credentials” like leadership, community service, environmentalism, visual and performing arts, etc., she adds.

5) Fill out forms in January. As soon as possible in January, fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to qualify for aid next fall. While it is easier to complete the form if the student and parent have also filed their taxes, it is better to fill out the FAFSA with estimates (which can later be corrected) early than to wait past February 1. Students hoping to attend one of the approximately 300 schools that also require the College Board’s more exhaustive CSS/Financial Aid Profile application should also complete that before mid-February.

6) Appeal. Draft an appeal letter if the student has any financial difficulties not covered by the FAFSA, such as a parent’s job loss or mortgage problems. The student should send letters explaining the problem (with documentation, if possible) to any target schools and private scholarship programs, financial aid officers say. The letter to schools should request a “professional judgment review.”