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Resources & Opportunities

Our campus and local communities provide a special array of art opportunities for students and alumni.

It's always fun in the foundry — where molten metal and academics mix to make magic.
A peek into our main art building, McMicheal Academic Hall, with professor Stacy Lotz advising students.
Art majors work in multiple areas of the arts, including the theatre scene shop.
Artists, alumni and juror at the big event of the year, juried student art show, held in the Len G. Everett Gallery in Hewes Library.
Local potter Linda Sickmon came to campus to give a lecture in our ceramics lab.
Our art alumni returned to campus at homecoming to talk with current art students.

On campus

McMichael Academic Hall is the primary studio art space on campus. We have studios for ceramics, sculpture, painting, drawing, graphic design, photography, and individual studio spaces for junior and senior art majors.

The good stuff

A foundry in the sculpture studio, a 3D ceramics printer, a dedicated graphic design lab outfitted with iMacs and Adobe Creative Suite applications, and a classroom set of digital SLR cameras with a collection of lenses for students to borrow.

Hewes Library contains a carefully curated selection of art books and magazines as well as the Len G. Everett Gallery, the primary venue for art exhibitions on campus. Gallery 104 displays art and artifacts from our permanent collections.

Added bonus

Students meet, talk with and socialize with artists at gallery receptions throughout the year.

In the community

The Buchanan Center for the Arts Located in downtown Monmouth, our local arts organization contributes to our rich art community. The BCA features exhibitions with gallery receptions that are free and open to the public, as well as classes offered to the local community, and internships for our students.

Recent student internships have been at the Buchanan Center for the Arts in downtown Monmouth, the Figge Museum in Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island Art Guild in Rock Island, Illinois.

Art students have participated in short-term study abroad trips to Belize, South Africa, Italy, France, Holland and the United Kingdom.

Scholarships for students

Any incoming student with an interest in the fine arts can apply for a scholarship. Visual art applicants apply with a portfolio of artwork. Talk with your admission counselor for more information and to schedule an audition.

Scholarships for art majors:

The Helen McClure Weiland Scholarship
The Lila and Harlow Blum Scholarship

Art prizes

Open to all students, not just art majors

Home Again Prize(Cash Award)

The gift of Len ’67 and Mary Ellen Biceste Porter ’67, this prize was inspired by the work of Frazier Hunt, a celebrated author and war correspondent from Western Illinois.

Criteria:

Full-time Monmouth College freshman, sophomore or junior
Must submit piece of art visualizing his/her interpretation of “home”

The Harlow Blum Prize in Painting(Cash Award)

Established by the late Jane Eidt Graham ’66 and her husband, Richard, this
prize honors Professor of Art Emeritus Harlow Blum.

Criteria:

Any Monmouth College student may enter
Work must be a painting in oil, acrylic or watercolor

The Ruth Waltershausen Prize in Sculpture(Cash Award)

Presented in memory of his artist mother by Professor of Art Emeritus George
Waltershausen, this prize recognizes excellence in three-dimensional projects.

Criteria:

Any Monmouth College student may enter
Entry must be a sculpture in all permanent materials, ceramic sculpture, and mixed media sculptural constructions.