Resources for Foundation Students

Scholarships and Awards

The School of Art has a number of Scholarships and Awards available to students. Some of these are awarded within specific areas, some are awarded only to rising juniors, seniors or graduate students, some are exclusively for Foundations students and yet others are open to all applicants within the School of Art. Foundation Students are strongly encouraged to apply for scholarships and awards particularly the Foundations Supplies Award of which two are available each year. Faculty will notify students about these items at an appropriate time.

Exhibition Opportunities

Every year the School of Art sponsors an exhibition of undergraduate work in the Wellington B. Gray Gallery. The Foundations Area is allotted a space within the Gallery to exhibit the best work from Foundations classes since the last exhibiting period. It is an honor to have your work exhibited at this show. There are also Merit Awards given both within the whole exhibition and within the Foundations Area specifically. These awards change from year to year depending on funding.

There is also an on-going exhibition of Foundations student work in the Foundations Gallery on the 3rd floor of the Jenkins Fine Arts Center. This is changed on a weekly basis and work from each foundations class has an opportunity to be shown.

On a less regular basis, the Greenville Museum of Art has generously donated exhibition space as well as a reception for Foundations students. The public response has been particularly positive and we foresee further exhibitions there in the future.

Foundations students also have the opportunity to exhibit work at the Mendenhall Student Center Gallery in the annual Juried Illumina Exhibition.

Foundations students probably have more opportunities to exhibit their work than any other area within the School of Art.

Lecture Series

One of the added advantages of attending the School of Art at ECU is the on-going lecture series. Every semester, artists in different fields from across the USA and sometimes abroad give lectures and slide presentations about a variety of subjects. These individuals offer an excellent opportunity for students at every level to meet practicing artists and to ask questions about being a professional in the art world. It is hoped that students' interest in art will spur them to attend these lectures.

Study Abroad

Each year during the summer, course work is offered abroad. Past locations have included Cardiff, Wales; Tallinn, Estonia; Gubbio, Italy; and Cologne, Germany. Consult the summer schedule of courses for offerings.

Resources

The School of Art at ECU has several unique resources for Art majors, including:

School of Art Media Center
open Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Houses periodicals, books, videotapes and a major slide collection for faculty and students

School of Art Computer Center
Open Lab schedule
Houses a classroom, multimedia lab. and an open access lab. equipped with Macintosh computers and a range of multimedia & graphics applications.

Wellington B Gray Gallery
Mon. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thurs. 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Hosts ten to twelve exhibitions a year. A teaching facility, the gallery holds faculty, student, national and international exhibitions.

Burroughs Wellcome Senior Gallery
Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 4.30 p.m.
Hosts single and group senior exhibitions.

Foundations Gallery
Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Hosts weekly exhibitions of current Foundations student work.

Joyner Library
Mon. - Th. 8 a.m. - 1 a.m., Fri. 8 a.m. - 8 p.m., Weekends 1 p.m. - 1 a.m.
The primary collection of Library resources for the University. Houses books, periodicals, videotapes, films

Student Organizations

VAF
As freshman-level art students are not yet accepted into an area of study, they are encouraged to attend the Visual Arts Forum (VAF) meetings. This is an umbrella organization within the School of Art, which oversees the individual guilds from each area. The VAF is run entirely by students and meets approximately once a month. It is the VAF to whom the Student Government Association supplies funding (several thousand dollars per annum), which is then re-distributed to the appropriate guilds.

VAC
The Visual Arts Committee (VAC) is another student run organization which receives funding from the Student Government Association. This group however is open to all ECU students. The committee usually has between six and twelve voting members and welcomes any interested students to apply for membership. This committee uses it's funding in a variety of ways including sponsorship of the Annual Illumina Exhibition which is open to all students creating visual works of Art and which has over $1000 of guaranteed prize money each year. The committee also invites guest artists to lecture and exhibit work at the Mendenhall Student Center Gallery, as well as helping to support other areas within the University bring in Artists who may relate to pertinent topics of study.

The Guilds
Art Education Guild
Art History Guild
Ceramics Guild
Craftsmen East (Textiles and Wood)
Design Associates (Communication Arts)
Metals Guild
Painting Guild
Printmaking Guild
Sculpture Guild