The Art Renewal Center is very pleased to announce the winners of the 2006 Annual Scholarship Competition. This clearly testifies to the high level of training they have received. In only 6 years ARC has helped advance the state of schooling in the fine arts. From little more than 100 students being properly trained in 14 Ateliers, today there are nearly 2,000 students studying in 63 ARC Approved Ateliers and Academy Art Schools. ARC Chairman Fred Ross predicts that "we are perhaps 10 years away from the best of the best of the world's living masters, equalling the masters and masterpieces of the past 500 years." Now in its sixth year, the ARC Scholarship program has helped students from all over the world continue their studies at ARC Approved Ateliers and Schools. With a minimum of $10,000 awarded annually and over $70,000 awarded to date, the Art Renewal Center strives to ensure that current and future generations of artists receive proper instruction in the traditional and classical methods of representational art.
If anyone reading this would like to send us a donation for the next ARC Scholarship competition, there are dozens of other deserving talented young people who cannot afford even the low tuition of our average ARC Approved atelier. If there is some angel out there who could send us thousands of dollars, or even afford to set up an endowment, where each one hundred thousand dollars will ensure that every and every year for many decades to come, we will be able to pay the full tuition of another talented young artist, any one of whom may one day be the next Botticelli, Bouguereau, Raphael or Rembrandt, who will spend a lifetime painting some of history's greatest masterpieces. Send donations to Art Renewal Center Scholarship Fund, 100 Markley Street, Port Reading, NJ 07064.
Choosing winners from this year's overwhelming pool of entries proved to be an extremely difficult task for our esteemed panel of judges: Dr. Vern G. Swanson, Director of the Springville Museum of Art, world expert and author of the Catalogues Raisonne on Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and John William Godward; Stephen Gjertson, ARC Living Master, founding member of the American Society of Classical Realism Guild of Artists; and ARC's own Chairman and Founder, Fred Ross.
First Place: Cody Swanson
First Place, with an honorarium of $4,000 has been awarded to Cody Swanson. Cody, age 21, is entering his 4th year in the Sculpture Program of Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. His instructors describe his talent as "rare," "natural," and "instinctive," but assert that Cody does not take his gift for granted. Through self-imposed challenges and extra-curricular projects, Cody has devoted himself to the acquisition of skills beyond those academically available. We recognize Cody not only for his exceptional ability, but his dedication to the core philosophy of the Art Renewal Center; a concern not only for his own success, but that of his atelier and its students. Cody has accepted a student teaching position for the upcoming year and plans to improve and expand the current curricular offerings. When informed of his scholarship, Cody felt that his words would not express how overwhelmed, grateful and honored he was to not only win, but to be a part of the Art Renewal Center.
Second Place: Evelyn Choi
The Second Place award of $2,500, goes to Evelyn Choi, 20, who is finishing the 4 to 5 year program at the Academy of Realist Art in Toronto, Canada in an astonishing 2 years. Even more incredible is that Evelyn arrived at the Academy with no prior art training nor ability to speak English. Instructors praise her incredible talent, exceptional work ethic and endless dedication. Evelyn (who supplements her art classes with English classes) clearly stated how grateful she is for this scholarship, without which her tuition would have been too much to afford.
Third Place: Matthew Mancini
Winning the Third Place prize of $2,000 is Matthew Mancini, 23, who will continue his studies at the Academy of Realist Art in Toronto, Canada.
Fourth Place: Shane Wolf
In Fourth Place, $1,500 is given to Shane Wolf, 29, who studies with Michael John Angel at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy; and our Fifth Place prize of $250 goes to Jordan Sokol, 26, a student of the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy.
Other Awards
This year, in light of the increasing quantity and outstanding quality of representational art submitted to this competition, the Art Renewal Center has felt the need to add two additional award categories beyond the original five: Merit Awards and Purchase Awards.
A Certificate of Merit and $100 award goes to each of the following artists: Katherine Stone; Laura Tundel (The Atelier Studio Program of Fine Art, Minneapolis, MN); Carolin Peters (Laguna College of Art & Design, Laguna Beach, CA); and Will St. John (Studio Incamminati [Nelson Shanks], Philadelphia, PA).
Purchase Awards have been presented to the following artists: Cody Swanson, for his life-size bronze sculpture of Eve ($16,000) and Maddalena ($2,300); Evelyn Choi, for her still-life painting Message of Spring ($5,000); Shane Wolf for his drawings Isadora ($4,000), Mark ($500), and Vanessa ($500); and Carolin Peters for her paintings Category Accepted ($950), Category Endured ($950), and Category Rejected ($1200).
On behalf of our Chairman, Fred Ross and everyone here at the Art Renewal Center well-deserved congratulations are extended to all of our scholarship recipients. We thank these young talented artists and the fine institutions in which they study for their dedication and upholding of artistic traditions and values sought by the ARC, and we wish them continued success on their artistic journey.
