Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Announces 2012 Graduate Arts Award Recipients

News Release

 
October 4, 2012
Media Contact: Dana O’Neill
Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
44325 Woodridge Parkway
Lansdowne, VA 20176
(703) 723-8000 ext. 219 

 

Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Announces 2012

Graduate Arts Award Recipients

 
 
LANSDOWNE, VA – The term “starving artist” is not just an old adage. All too often it’s also an apt description of the fate that awaits talented young writers, photographers, artists, and musicians as they struggle to start their careers.
 
Thanks to the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, a nonfiction writer, a documentary photographer, a New Genre artist, and a violinist, among others, have been given their big break. They have been selected to receive the Foundation’s Graduate Arts Award.
 
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation's Graduate Arts Award, worth up to $50,000 annually, enables students or recent alumni with exceptional artistic or creative promise and significant financial need to pursue up to three years of study at an accredited graduate institution in the US or abroad. This year, 15 worthy recipients selected from among 157 applicants will attend institutions ranging from the California Institute of the Arts to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.
 
“It’s important to look beyond the current focus on math and science education,” said Lawrence Kutner, Ph.D., executive director of the Foundation. “We believe, in these difficult financial times, that it’s also critical to support advanced study in the arts for those students who could not otherwise afford it.”
 
The Graduate Arts Awards are not the only kinds of financial support the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation offers to needy but promising young artists and scholars. Over the past 11 years, the Foundation has awarded almost $150 million in scholarships to improve the futures of more than 1,300 young men and women in all fields of study. It has also supported institutions and organizations with $81 million in grants.
 
2012 Graduate Arts Award Recipients
 
Undergraduate College or University: University of Southern California
Graduate Institution: Institution to be determined
Academic/Career Pursuits: New Genre Art
 
Undergraduate College or University: New England Conservatory of Music
Graduate Institution: New York University
Academic/Career Pursuits: Music Composition
 
Undergraduate College or University: School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Graduate Institution: Institution to be determined
Academic/Career Pursuits: Cinematography and Producing
 
Undergraduate College or University: California Institute of the Arts
Graduate Institution: University of Southern California
Academic/Career Pursuits: Music Composition
 
Undergraduate College or University: Memphis College of Art
Graduate Institution: Columbia College Chicago
Academic/Career Pursuits: Documentary Photography
 
Undergraduate College or University: Pomona College
Graduate Institution: Institution to be determined
Academic/Career Pursuits: Dance
 
Undergraduate College or University: Brigham Young University
Graduate Institution: New York University
Academic/Career Pursuits: Dance
 
Undergraduate College or University: University of Florida
Graduate Institution: Royal Academy of Music, London
Academic/Career Pursuits: Music Composition
 
Undergraduate College or University: Oberlin College
Graduate Institution: Northwestern University
Academic/Career Pursuits: Violin Performance
 
Undergraduate College or University:  Rhode Island School of Design
Graduate Institution: University of Pennsylvania
Academic/Career Pursuits: Sculpture
 
Undergraduate College or University:  New York University
Graduate Institution: Institution to be determined
Academic/Career Pursuits: Creative Writing
 
Undergraduate College or University: Maryland Institute College of Art
Graduate Institution: University of Florida
Academic/Career Pursuits: Ceramics/Crafts Studies
 
Undergraduate College or University:  Wellesley College
Graduate Institution: Carnegie Mellon University
Academic/Career Pursuits: Video and New Media
 
Undergraduate College or University:  Howard University
Graduate Institution: California Institute of the Arts
Academic/Career Pursuits: Producing Program
 
Undergraduate College or University:  Stanford University
Graduate Institution: London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts
Academic/Career Pursuits: Drama/Acting 
 
 

About Us

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is a private, independent foundation established in 2000 by the estate of Jack Kent Cooke to advance the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need. The Foundation believes that all exceptionally talented students who have financial need will excel academically when given the resources to develop their talents. We support these students from elementary school to graduate school through scholarships, grants, and direct services. Our programs include the largest private scholarships in the US for students transferring from community colleges to four-year institutions, as well as generous scholarships for students in high school, college and graduate school, and grants to organizations that serve high achieving students who have financial need.