Village Art in the Park awards $27,500 in scholarships to local students

LEAVENWORTH – Village Art in the Park, a nonprofit for supporting local artists, awarded $27,500 in scholarships to four local students to pursue art in higher education.

“I really feel like all four of these students are really deserving,” said Village Art in the Park Executive Director Callie Baker.

This year, Village Art in the Park awarded students from Cascade High School and Cashmere High School, as well as a University of British Columbia graduate student from Leavenworth.

Recipients will each receive $2500 per year, with the opportunity to renew it annually up to a possible total of $10,000, so long as they continue to meet the scholarship requirements. 

The scholarship funds are sent directly to the students, with no restrictions on how they are used. This gives students the flexibility to put them towards tuition, art supplies, or even average life expenses, such as rent or lunch with friends.

“I remember going to college…There's so many things you [don’t] think about that you have to pay for,” said Baker.

Cascade High School graduating seniors Alex Warman and Eleanor Holm are two of the four recipients and will have the chance to renew their scholarship award for up to four years. 

For Warman, the scholarship will help him with housing costs as he attends DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, WA, for game design. 

“They seem like a school that very much prides themselves in their education, so I think my art will spike up in professionalism and quality. I'm quite excited,” said Warman.

Warman has been creating art for the last five to six years, but he discovered he could make his own maps and level designs for video games. He spent his high school career building his 3D modeling and Photoshop skills and learning valuable lessons.

“Art doesn't come easy, it takes a lot of time and patience, it takes experimentation and motivation. Without those elements you can't have art, you need to stay determined throughout the process,” said Warman.

Holm will be studying art history at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy.

“I first really started to get into art history when my family visited Rome back in 2023. I really fell in love with Renaissance art. I love Renaissance art and architecture, and then Baroque art and architecture. Those are my favorites right now,” said Holm.

Holm loves to paint and draw and even sold some of her artwork at the student booth in Village Art in the Park. However, she’s interested in pursuing a career in either curation or restoration.

“If I’m dreaming really big, I would love to be like a curator of the European art exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art…that's something that would be the ultimate dream,” said Holm. “I just would like to be around art for the rest of my life, I'd love to have access to the art world.”

Village Art in the Park also awarded scholarships to Cashmere graduating senior Mykla Smith and graduate student Claire Seaman. More information about Village Art in the Park and its initiatives can be found at villageartinthepark.org.

“Our mission is to elevate artists in our community, and we do it wherever we can find a need,” said Baker.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media