Where to look for scholarships

[emily g]

You want to apply for scholarships, but where do you find them?
Well, the easiest way is to type the words "scholarships" or "art scholarships" into Google.
But I'm thinking of more specific suggestions.

First, start looking locally. From The Art and Design Scholarship Guide (http://www.artschools.com/articles/scholarships/):
"Your best chance of winning an Art Scholarship is to focus on local organizations.
Sure, you can chase after the really big bucks that are widely publicized. But, your odds are far greater in your own local area with a local group because you may only be going up against a few other local students versus the entire student population of the country."

Here's some ideas of local places to look (some taken from the above article):
community and civic groups
arts organizations
businesses
local newspaper (they love to do articles on students who get awards and scholarships)
professional organizations
local chapters of national organizations
clubs (Rotary, Kiwanis)
charitable organizations
local art festivals and competitions
religious organizations
education associations
government agencies
museums
fraternities/sororities
nearby college or university
high school counselors

If you have any other ideas, please post them!

[emily g]

I'll give you an example how this can work.
There's a local public radio station I listen to at work sometimes, and they have a section on their website called "Community Calendar (http://www.kpcw.org/calendar/community)."

So I went to the website and this is what I found scanning down the listings:
Park City Professional Artists Association--I wonder if they offer scholarships?
Kimball Art Center--by following the link to their webpage, I see that they have different events and arts festivals
Park City Gallery Association
Arts-Kids Fourth Annual Fundraiser--ok, this is for kids, but they have art events and need volunteers
Wasatch Back Student Art Show--could I have been in this show if I was a student? Will they do it next year?
Visual Art Institute
Scholarships for Environmental Technology Program--ok, I know this is totally not related, but see the kinds of things you can find?
The Museum of Art and History
Art Holiday Sale

it took me just a few seconds to google the public radio stations in my state, and they all seem to have community calendar pages:
kuer (http://events.publicbroadcasting.net/kuer/events.eventsmain)
krcl (http://events.publicbroadcasting.net/krcl/events.eventsmain)
ksl (http://events.ksl.com/)
kcpw (http://www.kcpw.org/calendar)
upr (http://events.publicbroadcasting.net/upr/events.eventsmain)

[Idiot Apathy]

*cough* I can be your local Utah guinea pig. :)

(Thanks for starting up this section!)

[Storyboard Dave]

One other suggestion would also be for accepted students to check with the schools that they've applied to. Sometimes within the schools themselves are all sorts of departmental and school only scholarships. So don't be shy and go to their Financial Aid offices and ask!

Speak up! It's only money!!!

[emily g]

Yes, thanks for that Dave!

It's pretty easy to do a quick check on the website of your school and see what is listed. I looked up different schools in my area, and they all had scholarship pages.

BYU (http://cfac.byu.edu/index.php?id=1000)
UofU (http://www.finearts.utah.edu/scholarship.html)
Utah State (http://www.hass.usu.edu/Document/index.asp?Parent=7226)
Snow College (http://www.snow.edu/~art/pages/scholarships.html)
UVSC (http://www.uvsc.edu/scholarships/)

Go talk to the financial aid or student resource dept. and ask for help or ask if they know about any other opportunities.

It might be a nice idea to check out the websites of schools in your state (even of schools you don't plan on attending) because it might give you leads to scholarship money that is available for people in your area.

[emily g]

I found a GREAT resource: high school web pages.

I'll use a high school in my area as an example:
This high school has a Scholarship Counselor who's job is specifically to help students find scholarships. On the school web page (http://pchs.parkcity.k12.ut.us/index.php?page=42), she has posted tons of resources:
scholarship advice
a list posted every month that shows scholarships with deadlines that month
info about Scholarship Club meetings
info about Scholarship Club seminars (guest speakers come and talk about things like "College Financial Aid and Planning for any Income Level" and "How to Complete the FAFSA Form")

She also has a section in each school newsletter where she gives advice and/or talks about upcoming opportunities.

Do a search for the web sites of high schools in your area. If they have scholarship info on their site, it is usually listed under "Counseling" and/or "Scholarships." Also, check out the newsletters--lots of schools have them online and they could have info as well.

A quick search led me to several scholarship pages of schools in my area:
OHS (http://oremhighschool.com/scholarships.htm)
TVHS (http://www.timpview.provo.edu/counseling/scholarships/available_scholarships.html)
PHS (http://www.phs.provo.edu/~lorir/scholarship/list.htm)
THS (http://timpanogos.alpinedistrict.org/COUNSELING/current%20scholarships%20by%20deadline.pdf) (pdf)

High schools are great because they often know about the local scholarships--these are often easier to get because there is less competition compared to national scholarships.

If you are still in high school, go talk to YOUR counseling office and get someone to help you individually. :)

[emily g]

Using newspapers to find info

Good areas to look:
Community section: stories about students who’ve won scholarships
Community calendar: upcoming meetings of art associations in your area
Arts & entertainment calendar: calls for entry for shows and awards
Education section: available scholarships & stories of students who’ve won awards
Business/Money section: articles about saving for college and finding financial aid

I’ve started looking in my newspaper every day and cutting out things I find. I tape them to the pages of a notebook so they are all in one place.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far:
One of the high schools publishes scholarship information in the school notices section almost every week.
My city has an Arts Council
Utah has a Utah Arts Alliance
The state gov. is offering Individual Artist Project Grants from $500-2,000.
Utah has a Utah Watercolor Society
A notice about someone getting a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
An article about a student winning a photography competition.
An article in the Business section with tips for filling out FAFSA applications.
A general article about finding financial aid for college.

You can also look up your newspaper online and read current articles or search in the archives.
Here’s what I found by searching for “art scholarship”:
An article (http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635203148,00.html) about someone who was a finalist in a National Portrait Gallery competition.
An article (http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635191984,00.html) about the award winners of the All-State High School Art Show. Three students won $3,000 scholarships and their pieces will be displayed in the U.S. capital.
The art museum hosted a “Portfolio Day” (http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635176982,00.html) for high school seniors where they could meet representatives of the local universities and get scholarship money.

Newspapers are a really good resource because you can find info that isn’t listed in the larger scholarship search websites.

[emily g]

State government: what resources does your state have to offer?

My state has a Utah Arts Council (http://arts.utah.gov/home.html). They have lots of information and services such as:
Funding--lists of available grants, competitions, fellowships, exhibitions
Artist Resource Center--holds seminars on getting grant money, marketing, etc.
ArtOps newsletter--quarterly publication of funding opportunities, competitions

We also have a site called Utah Mentor (http://www.utahmentor.com/), from the Utah System of Higher Education. They have a whole section on paying for college with info on scholarships and grants.
They even have a scholarship search feature which can be narrowed to only search for scholarships in Utah.

[Vboyz]

hei sometimes unfair....people from 3rd world cannt do..cause their age so late..mybe he 25 years old..24 years old..and u know why?..cause thy dont know this info..but he is so talented,,what about that?...any good news for that issue?

[emily g]

Hey Vboyz, look in the International Students (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=89797) thread. Maybe you could find something there.

[Vboyz]

thnx em...i hope thats nice info

[Idiot Apathy]

Just a quick dump of a few I found while doing some other searching:

http://www.fastweb.com/
http://www.finaid.org/
http://www.collegeboard.com/splash/
http://72.3.140.137/
http://www.supercollege.com/
http://www.fastaid.com/
http://www.sssc.com/website/english/home/sections/general/pages/default.html
http://www.fidm.com/about/scholarship-competition/