This year’s Western Art Academy on the Schreiner University campus will conclude with a graduation ceremony on Friday and immediately afterwards with an auction of the artwork produced by students this year.
The academy is a rigorous four-week program of advanced art education designed specifically for talented high school students. Students are chosen to participate through a selection process and funds are provided by the Houston Stock Show and Rodeo Association.
A total of 48 students were chosen this year from hundreds of art students who submitted works. A jury reviews the art and selects fellows each year, according to Liliana Loviso, art history professor at Schreiner who coordinates the academy locally.
“At the end of the academy, all the paintings will be auctioned and the funds will go directly to the students,” Loviso said. “The public is invited to campus to view the auction.”
The auction will begin around 11:20 a.m. on Friday morning July 9 at the Logan Library on campus.
Students work in studios on the Schreiner campus. They also have the opportunity to interact with working cowboys, chuck wagon cooks, mountain people, Native Americans, and Western writers and poets during the workshop.
Many of these interactions turn into paintings of exceptional western art.
All art supplies are provided as well as housing, meals, tuition, field trips and other expenses. Students receive college credit for the academy.
Sophia Fu, from Pearland, will be a senior at Dawson High School in Pearland in the fall. She submitted a colored pencil painting to the Houston show and was selected to come to the academy.
“I’d like to continue my art when I go to college,” she said, “but I’ll probably use it as a minor, rather than a major.”
Participants in the master’s level workshop are between the ages of 15 and 18 and are all from the Houston area. This is the workshop’s 38th year, according to Loviso.
The academy offers participants a rare opportunity to receive one-on-one instruction in painting and sculpture from professional artists. Students are divided into two groups of 24 each. Class time is divided equally between sculpture and painting. The program includes classic principles of art and design through which students are encouraged to display their individual creativity.
The scholarship program, which began in 1984 with just eight students, was the result of chance encounters between the late Griff Carnes, who later became executive director of the Cowboy Artists of America Museum, and officials from the school art committee. of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Carnes moved to Kerrville from Houston and the academy followed.
Schreiner University has partnered with the Houston Fair to host the academy on campus for the past 14 years.
