Student Funding Opportunities

Each year, students take advantage of opportunities to work with artists and scholars, study abroad, work in artist studios, and travel to professional conferences. The Department of Art and Art History is able to provide limited funding to help support these experiences thanks to the generosity of several benefactors who established endowed funds to support our students. For more details, contact the Head of the Department of Art and Art History.

Art and Art History Department Mini-Grants for Students

The Department of Art and Art History awards mini-grants to support the professional development of studio art and art history projects to be completed in a defined term. Grants of up to $300 will be awarded, with at least two grants available each term. No funds will be released directly to award recipients; all necessary supplies will be purchased by the Art and Art History department. Awarded travel costs up to $300 will be reimbursed after receipts are submitted.

Funds can be used to:

  • buy materials and supplies for a proposed project (a supply list and budget should accompany your application).
  • supplement travel costs to attend a conference, exhibition, museum, archive, library, artist's studio, cultural heritage site, monument, etc.
  • supplement framing costs or other costs associated with presenting your work professionally.
  • experiment with a new technique or material. Funds can be used to experiment with a material or technique, even if you don't have a finished product in mind.
  • facilitate curatorial projects. Funds can be used to mount an exhibition in the department (check with the department assistant to schedule the tiny gallery or the tinier gallery) or beyond.

Recipients will be chosen by a panel of Art and Art History faculty and staff. Projects will be evaluated on the following criteria:

  • Feasibility: You must be able to complete the project by the end of the term in which it is awarded. If you are requesting travel funds, you should demonstrate that you are able to support the remainder of the travel costs not covered by the mini-grant. Your proposal should clearly define what you will accomplish in a limited time-frame and how it relates to longer term goals.
  • Relationship to career, academic goals, or personal pursuits: Your project should be related to your academic coursework, your future career goals, or your personal interests. Projects can be an innovative extension of coursework, support your thesis development and research, or allow you to explore a creative project that you've been unable to develop previously.
  • Outreach and reflection: Your proposal should include your plan to share your project with the W&L community. Opportunities to share will depend on the nature of the project. For smaller, more exploratory projects, students could write a social media post about their experiences or demo a material/technique for a peer. Larger projects could culminate in an exhibition in the tiny gallery or tinier gallery, a panel discussion, or a presentation.
  • Project completion. Outreach and presentation must be completed within the semester of the award or the semester following the award.

Eligibility: All Studio Art, Art History, and Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies undergraduate students (majors and minors) are eligible to apply.

Proposal Requirements

  • Submit a 400-word (maximum) clear description of your project.
  • Include your name, contact information, major/minor, and your graduation year.
  • Explain your completion plan in your proposal narrative. The project must be completed within the term in which funding is granted.
  • Provide details about your plan to share your project with the community. Award recipients must share their experience and discuss their project and process with the W&L community.
  • In addition, submit an itemized budget that includes links to the materials that you would like to purchase (if relevant) or approximate travel costs.

Questions? Contact Prof. Andrea Lepage, Head of the Department of Art and Art History, at lepagea@wlu.edu.

Recent mini-grant recipients:

  • Wongyoung (Teresa) Yoon, "Microbiology, Chloroplast, and Tufting" (Fall 2023)
  • Augusta Weaver, "Thin Sections: Painting and Geology" (Winter 2024)
  • Issac James, "Suicide Prints: Western Culture and the American Landscape" (Winter 2024)
  • Jed Heald, "Senior Thesis Support: Human Interaction with the World" (Winter 2024)
  • Langley Steuart, "Senior Thesis Support: Representation of Beauty" (Winter 2024)
  • Molly Pennisi, "Senior Thesis Support: Tension on the Water " (Winter 2024)

The I-Hsiung Ju and Chow-Soon Chuang Ju Endowment for Traditional Chinese Art Studies

To honor the life and memory of her husband, I-Hsiung Ju (1923-2012)-a much loved professor of art and artist-in-residence emeritus at Washington and Lee-Chow-Soon Chuang Ju established the I-Hsiung Ju and Chow-Soon Chuang Ju Endowment for Traditional Chinese Art Studies. The endowment is a permanently endowed fund at Washington and Lee University providing support for a student to travel to China or Taiwan to study traditional Chinese art (e.g. brush painting or calligraphy) in either a university approved program or as an apprentice to an artist. The endowment may also fund students traveling to China or Taiwan to enhance his or her study of language and literature. In keeping with Mrs. Ju's wishes, preference will be given to candidates who want to pursue traditional Chinese art.

Each year, a student will be granted an award of roughly $2,000-$5,000. Applications are due to the department chair by the first Monday after February break. Decisions about awardees will be made by March of that year.

Applications should include a résumé, list of relevant course work in Studio, Art History, and/or East Asian Languages and Literature, preliminary budget, and a cover letter. In your letter, please include the following: why you want to go to China; what you would like to do while there; how this relates to your larger program of study; and your previous international travel experiences.John W. Poynor M.D. Endowment for the Study of Art

The Poynor Research Scholar (PRS) Program

The John W. Poynor, M.D. Fund, established in 1976 by John W. Poynor, '62, of Birmingham, Alabama, is a permanently endowed fund at Washington and Lee University providing support to the art department for the periodic purchase of artwork and for special art programs such as artist in residence. The fund also provides support for a student to conduct research or participate in an internship.

The Poynor Research Scholar (PRS) program supports students participating in:

  • independent summer research,
  • collaborative research supervised by W&L faculty,
  • or summer internships in museums or galleries.

The supported work is carried out during the summer months and is open to students of all disciplines, but the proposed project must focus on the study of art. Following the wishes of the donor, preference is given to projects that focus on the study of 20th-century American painting and the color abstraction movement of the 1960s in particular.

The program aims to encourage the development of professional skills and research techniques within the discipline of art history, to promote the active acquisition of knowledge, and to stimulate student interest in inquiry. The application process is competitive, and funds may not be adequate to grant all proposals.

Students interested in applying for Poynor Research Scholar funding should discuss their interest with the Art and Art History Department Head as early as possible, preferably in the fall semester. The maximum grant amount that will be awarded is $4,500.


Students Seeking Poynor Research Scholar Funding:
The Poynor Research Scholar (PRS) provides a stipend up to $4,500 ($450.00 per week for up to ten weeks). Work on the project might be performed on campus or by travel to the appropriate places(s) to do first-hand research, consult libraries or archives, or to participate in an internship in an arts setting.PRS Application Process:
All Poynor Research Scholar applications are due no later than January 20, 2024.

An application should be no more than a two-page description of the project and the work to be accomplished during the weeks of the grant and must include a budget plan.

Careful attention to the guidelines is crucial in writing the proposal. Proposals should be concise, clear, and comprehensible to non-specialists. They should explain the proposed project or internship, its background, significance, and benefit to the student involved. Decisions will be made according to the following criteria:

  1. educational value to the student researcher
  2. significance of the work proposed
  3. clarity and organization of proposal
  4. feasibility of the project
  5. seriousness of motivation of the participant
  6. academic qualifications of participant

The student should approach a faculty member for advice on the project and ask if he or she would serve as the mentor for the summer months of the project. During the summer, the student and mentor are expected to stay in regular contact, at least by email, sharing ideas and work-in-progress, and the product of the summer work will be submitted to the mentor for review at the end of the grant period.

Applications are submitted to the Head of the Department of Art and Art History; decisions are made by the Department Head in consultation with the Art and Art History faculty.

The Pamela H. Simpson Endowment for Art

The Pamela H. Simpson Endowment for Art, established in 2011, is a permanently endowed fund to support the hosting of distinguished academic and professional visitors to campus for brief periods of time to work directly with students and faculty in Washington and Lee's Department of Art and Art History. In addition to bringing scholars and artists to campus, when appropriate, funds are available for art students to visit the studios of living artists in the form of internships and/or apprenticeships.

Annual Pamela H. Simpson Speaker:

The Eileen A. Small Endowment for Printmaking

The Eileen A. Small '15 Endowment for Printmaking was established in 2016, to provide support to Washington and Lee undergraduate students studying studio art in the area of printmaking who wish to further their study of current relevant artists, their work, and pre-professional experiences during the academic year or over the summer.