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.

When you think about scholarship scams, two types should come to mind. The first is scholarship programs that are fraudulent, meaning there are no scholarship awards being given out and students don’t actually receive any funds. The second is less-than-reputable scholarship search services that take advantage of students while they are searching for scholarships. With both types of scams, there are certain warning signs that you should be aware of that indicate that the scholarship program or search service may not be what it appears to be.

Suspicious Scholarships

To avoid applying for scholarship programs that are scams, there are some red flags you should be looking for:

• Application fees – While there are a few legitimate scholarship programs that do require students to submit a small processing or application fee, most require no payment to apply. If you learn of a scholarship with a fee and you are concerned, contact the scholarship “provider” (i.e., the organization, company, or individual that is offering the scholarship) to find out exactly why there is a fee to apply and what happens with the “fees” collected from applicants.
• Hard-to-reach scholarship provider – How easy is it to contact the scholarship provider? If you call and the phone is disconnected, or if you email and your email is bounced back, there is a good chance that no one is handling scholarship requests. A legitimate scholarship provider will give applicants access to a valid email address or phone number.
• No recent winners – If you cannot find anything about prior winners, contact the scholarship provider to try to find some proof that previous scholarships were awarded. If it’s a new scholarship program, be sure to find out the specifics of how and when the recipients will be chosen; well-managed scholarship programs should provide answers to your questions about the award winners and selection process.
• Website Woes – Another possible warning sign of a questionable scholarship program is the quality (or lack thereof) of the scholarship provider’s website. Does the website work? Is the scholarship information updated? Not all scholarship providers have enough time on their hands to make sure the website is in pristine condition, but websites should (at a minimum) list the current details about the scholarship.

Search Services of Which to Steer Clear

There are many scholarship search services out there to help students find scholarships; unfortunately, some may be more harmful to students than you know. Watch out for the services that claim to have or offer things that are just not possible:

• “Secret” Scholarships – Services that promise to find scholarships for you that you can’t find anywhere else are usually not legitimate. Scholarship search services have access to the same information students have access to, so don’t let them fool you into thinking they have the inside track.
• Guaranteed Scholarships – If any service insists that it can guarantee you a scholarship, run the other way. Yes, there are lots of scholarship dollars available, but the truth is that no one can secure a scholarship for you but you. Only the student can complete the application process.

Also, be aware of the quality of the service you are using. Protect yourself by avoiding scholarship search services that:

• Inundate you with pop-ups – Don’t use a scholarship search service if you spend more time closing pop-up windows than you do actually looking at your scholarship information.
• Are overly “commercial” – If you are on the website to find scholarship information, you should be able to navigate through the website and access that information without being distracted or pulled away from that core purpose.
• Compromise your privacy – Look for a service that has a clearly stated and easy-to-understand privacy policy; you do not want your personal information sold or shared without giving your explicit permission to do so. The last thing you need is an inbox full of spam and a mailbox full of unwanted solicitations.

Although there are many questionable scholarship programs and scholarship search services out there, there are also trustworthy and reputable ones as well. These services can be invaluable in aiding students in scholarship searching and paying for college. A legitimate scholarship search service should save students time by providing them with customized lists of scholarships that are accurate and continually updated by a team of research specialists. For more information about scholarship scams and scholarship searches, be sure to visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website.

Now that you know the difference between scholarship scams and legitimate scholarship programs and search services, you’re ready to take the plunge and start searching for free money for college. Good luck!