Fine Art faculty member, Tom Knechtel

When Fine Art faculty member Tom Knechtel and director of real estate and campus planning Rollin Homer were asked to sign a faculty and staff appeal for Art Center’s Annual Fund this past spring, they came up with a better idea: create a scholarship fund for Art Center students that would last forever.

Their idea become the Art Center Students First Scholarship, the College’s first-ever scholarship endowment supported entirely by College faculty and staff. The goal is to bring the fund up to the endowment level of $50,000 so that it can continue provide support for students every year—for as long as Art Center is around.

Our brief chat with Tom sheds some light on the impact that scholarships like Art Center Students First can have on young artists and designers and on the College.

Art Center: As a faculty member, you have unique insight into the difference scholarships can make in students’ lives.

Tom Knechtel: I can’t overemphasize how important this fund is—not just in financial terms, but also in emotional terms. In their hard work to become professionals, our students need to see that the support of everyone at Art Center runs deep.

AC:  Art Center Students First is on its way to becoming a fully endowed scholarship fund, which means it will be able to provide scholarship support indefinitely. How does Art Center benefit?

TK: We want our students to truly be the best—the brightest, the most imaginative, the most willing to take risks. Not all of those students have the funds to pay Art Center’s tuition, so we lose many terrific students to other schools that have deeper scholarship funds available, as well as dormitories and free board. We don’t want our school to become a school only for those who can pay the bills. We want a broad base representing the greatest young artists and designers of the next generation.

AC: How has the campus community responded to the new fund?

TK: I’m thrilled that there was been such a positive and generous response. There’s still a ways to go to get the fund all the way to the endowment level, of course, but we’re getting there. We recently had an anonymous donor agree to contribute $10,000 to the fund if we raise $20,000 toward the goal by the end of 2014. That’s a powerful incentive to contribute. Giving even a few dollars has an impact.

AC: How have you seen students impacted by not having access to scholarship funds?

TK: I have many stories about students coming to faculty in a panic about their resources running out.  We had one student who would work full time in an office for two terms, then come back for a term of school. Then back to work for two terms, and so on. That’s a hard way to earn a degree. Another student came to me in tears because her parents had divorced and all agreements about her education were now off. She found herself fighting hard to stay afloat financially. In that case, we were able to find her some funds—not a lot, but enough that she could continue for a while. Her presence at Art Center isn’t a guaranteed thing.

AC: I imagine that kind of stress can really impact the quality of one’s work.

TK: Think about it—how can students do their best work when, like this young woman, they’re in constant anxiety about paying tuition? Perhaps the situation that tears me up the most is when young students from communities that have typically been underrepresented at Art Center, such as the African-American and Latino communities, arrive excited and enthusiastic and determined to find their creative voice. And then, after two or three terms, they run out of funds and vanish.  Sometimes these students are the first in their families to go to college. We have to build support for them so that Art Center truly represents our society, the larger world and the best creative practices.

AC: You and your colleagues recently moved into the new Illustration and Fine Art building on South Campus.  How do you see Art Center Students First complementing the physical growth of Art Center?

TK: All of us in Fine Art and Illustration are beside ourselves about our department’s new home and the possibilities it is already unleashing for our students. But this scholarship fund is a bedrock on which we must also build.  If we don’t have scholarships to compete with the schools that are going after the same students we’re going after—all the beautiful buildings in the world won’t keep Art Center great.

If you would like to contribute to Art Center Students First, you may do so through payroll deduction or by giving online at artcenter.edu.giving.  You can also contact Becca Keating, Associate Director of Annual Giving, at becca.keating@artcenter.edu or 626.396.2496 for more information.