Travel HDR Panoramic #1, Oct 2009, Rachel Rainer (Richmond), Digital photograph, 9 x 24 in.
Applications due November 7
“In a finance-based culture, sometimes it’s difficult to rationalize being an artist at all,” explains Rachel (Rainier) DeFrank, who received a VMFA Arts Fellowship in 2011. “All cultural measurements of achievement—in my case earning a living, having children, so many other things—are ignored in order to pursue something abstract and seemingly impractical. Some artists create art as outreach or social commentary. My art is neither of those things: it’s completely self expression. So the recognition from the VMFA goes a long way to encourage being an artist for art’s sake.”
VMFA’s Visual Arts Fellowship program will be celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2015. Over the past three-quarters of a century, the program has awarded more than $4.6 million to help more than 1,100 professional artists, art students, and art historians in Virginia realize their educational and career goals. Monetary awards are $4,000 for undergraduate students, $6,000 for graduate students (including art history), and $8,000 for professional artists.
Recipients benefit not only from the monetary award, but also from the recognition, with past recipients going on to great professional success. Some examples include 1987 Fellowship recipient Vince Gilligan, who is the creator, writer, producer, and director of the Emmy-winning series Breaking Bad. Another notable artist Cy Twombly received two awards in the 1950s, using the funds to study in Europe. You can view Twombly’s painting Synopsis of a Battle in the VMFA Lewis Contemporary Galleries.
Learn more or apply for a Visual Arts Fellowship (there’s no application fee). Deadline is Fri, Nov 7.