Series of Student Expressions
The UT student art competition in the Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture is an annual School of Art spring highlight. The competition is the longest continuously running student art competition in the United States. Initiated in 1947 by our first department head, C. Kermit “Buck” Ewing, this year marks the competition’s 71st straight year. This is an amazing record of longevity and strength. Juried by nationally recognized artists, critics, and designers, thousands of selected students have exhibited their creative work in this venue. The art competition exhibition is widely popular with students and the public. Any UT student is invited to compete. In conjunction with the competition, awards and other prizes are presented to winning entries in Fine Art, Art History, and Graphic Design categories and students are encouraged to sell their work. In the 2017 spring competition, students were awarded a total of $7,050.
Also each spring, the Ewing Gallery hosts a series of MFA thesis exhibitions that represent the culmination of the graduating MFA student experience. These exhibits are consistently stunning examples of the vitality and breadth of our nationally ranked program. These artists now join a growing community of MFA graduates from the UT School of Art. They will continue to be active agents in the cultural conversation that will shape the future of creative expression. We thank them for joining us and look forward to sharing the fruits of their imagination. In an effort to sustain and celebrate the exhibitions, we have committed to create an MFA thesis catalog for each graduating class. These beautiful catalogs are distributed to hundreds donors, peer institutions, and prospective applicants. The current issue is available as a PDF on our website, art.utk.edu.
Individual support allows the School of Art to do so many things that would otherwise be beyond our capability. Individual support builds on our strengths and helps us plan for the future. Student scholarships and awards, visiting artists and scholars, support for our galleries, and support for faculty research are the elements that make our school distinctive and rich. If you have not yet donated, please consider making a donation using our Give to the School of Art webpage.
Thank you to all who help support the mission and ideals of the School of Art at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
David Wilson
Director
School of Art