Art Scholarships available in Bath County

So I am here with Linda Cauley at the WCHG studio here in Hot Springs and we are here to talk about the Bath County Arts Association, scholarships available and how to apply.

“Thank you very much for letting me come in this morning.”

No problem- we’re happy to have you here. So what scholarships are available and who can apply?

“Well, we have scholarships, I’ll tell you, there are two categories, and I’ll talk about the high school one. First, we have scholarships available for graduating high school seniors who are planning to pursue some program at an accredited institution, you know, post graduation, so that could be a community college, a four year college or university, it could be an art institute, it could be a trade school just has to be an accredited institution. These scholarships are available through the Bath County high school guidance for students who are there. But we also make these scholarships available to the wider community by having an online application process for students who are homeschooled or privately schooled and wish to apply. The scholarships are for $1,500. For the first year, renewable for a second year, if certain criteria are met, in order to apply, students need to have demonstrated participation in the arts while they’re in their high school program. And that can be dance music, visual arts, you know, go out on a limb and try something new. If it’s artistic, we’re willing to take a look at it. And then to get the scholarship renewed for the second year, they also have to have continued participation in the arts at college or they’re in their program and maintain a B average.”

I like that it’s available to homeschooled and privately schooled kids in the area.

“That’s a fairly new thing for us. We had it available last year. But obviously we didn’t get the word out. So this year, we’re trying to, you know, play that up a little bit, we put some ads in the newspaper. I’m here talking to you, Willie Smith, bless his heart, put it up on Facebook, because everybody knows Willie and looks at his materials!”

 The deadline to apply is March 15th, you said? 

That’s correct, and that is whether or not you go through the high school or you go through our online application, that’s the basics for the high school graduating seniors. But we offer two and we would love to have the problem of having more than two applications. And maybe we could fund more than two applications. You know, it depends on the board’s desires at that point. So what happens is you apply through the high school, for the application to me, I’m actually the only person who sees the applications if people are worried about anything that might be confidential. But I do meet with a committee and basically will describe the student’s attributes to the committee. And then the committee will decide on, you know, rank our applicants. And then I’ll present the names to the board. And that happens at our May meeting. And so recipients would know, if they’re at the high school, they get to find out at the assembly at the end of the year for the seniors and if they’re privately or homeschooled, then I would let them know.”

And you also have grants and scholarships available for adults

“We do the second part of our scholarship program, we’ve never come up with a really great name for it, but we’ll call it adult tuition assistance. But if you are- and this is available for high school seniors who are trying to prepare a portfolio or an audition of any kind- if they are going to an art institute or an art program, rising seniors or seniors, they can ask us for help in taking special classes, hiring a private tutor to help them prepare for this process. And then more widely available are for people who have graduated high school who have been studying in the arts. They don’t have to be professionals. It’s really for so many wonderful people in our community who like to, I’ll call it dabble. I don’t mean to insult them, but dabble in the arts. And we can offer up to $1,000 to help them go to a class or workshop, go to private lessons and attend a conference in the arts. And that’s renewable once during a calendar year. So they could actually get up to $2,000 in support. And you apply by doing that online too- that’s online. So our website is bathcountyarts.org and when you go to that website, there are various headings and they include grants and scholarships, etc. Programs and both scholarships are under the scholarship tab. There’s also an email scholarship@bathcountyarts.org if people just have questions and need an answer before they apply. We have wonderful members who donate very generously to the association and it’s just nice to have a pot of money to be able to give back to this community and support the arts here. Other things that we do is we help with the Bluegrass Jamboree. So through our big grants program, I call it where people can ask for several $1,000, so we support that and support Allegheny Mountain String Projects and other things going on in our communities. Like I said, please don’t hesitate reach out to me at scholarships@bathcountyarts.org

For AMR News, I’m Abby Dufour