By Matt Kelly

Nine University of Virginia students have received eight grants from the Undergraduate Award for Arts Projects program, which supports projects of creative expression, such as filmmaking, writing and dance.

Modeled on the University's successful Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards program, the arts awards give the students up to $3,000 for projects that expand students' expression and showcase artistic accomplishments.

The University Arts Awards are funded this year by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, the Office of the Vice President and Chief Information Officer, the College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Nursing.

The grants are available to all undergraduates, regardless of school or major.

"In the past three years of this program, students have used this award to support a range of extremely creative projects, from films and sculpture to electronic music and choreography," said Lucy Russell, director of U.Va.'s Center for Undergraduate Excellence. "There is a high level of student interest, as well as wonderful support from offices throughout the University. The award recipients are undertaking significant creative projects, and I am confident that each of them will learn from the experience."

Student projects this year include photography, filmmaking, music, dance and poetry.

"I was particularly inspired by the range of exploration represented in the proposals this year," said Elizabeth Hutton Turner, U.Va.'s vice provost for the arts. "These experiences translated into art are meant to be shared and thereby enhance the quality of life for all of us."

The recipients will work with faculty members to pursue their art in depth and experience a new level of quality and engagement, Turner said.

The winners of the University Undergraduate Awards for Art are:

  • Anna Hogg, 21, of Hampton, a third-year student in the College of Arts & Sciences, whose interdisciplinary major combines studio art, drama and creative writing into a study of the art of filmmaking. Her award will go toward a film project.
  • George Gleixner, 21, of Roanoke, a third-year music major with a media studies minor in the College, and Jonathan Thompson, 19, of Chester, a second-year computer science major in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Their project involves electronic music composition.
  • Alexa Vasiliadis, 21, of Great Falls, a third-year English and studio art (with a concentration in painting) double major, in the College, who has a painting project at Mountain Lake Biology Station.
  • Monika Criman, 21, of Fairfax, a third-year student in the School of Nursing, whose project involves putting together of a book of reflections of the 2013 nursing class.
  • Ali Stoner, 20, of Charlottesville, a third-year drama and arts administration double major in the College, whose project explores dance history.
  • Victoria Kornick, 20, of Alexandria, a third-year poetry writing and modern studies major in the College, who is pursuing a project on the poet James Wright.
  • Keith Douglas Wilson, 19, of Louisville, Ky., a double major in leadership and public policy in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and music in the College who plans to research the arts environment on Grounds and how the student body interacts with it.
  • Mitchell Oliver, 20, of Winchester, a third-year studio art (with a concentration in photography) and economics (with a concentration in public policy) double major in the College, who is pursuing a photography project.

Source: University of Virginia