Teri Fridley Young Artist Annual Scholarship

Teri Fridley never considered art as a career. Instead, she used her creative abilities as an elementary school teacher. After she returned to Gaston County to assist with her family’s business she enrolled in art classes at Gaston College. Here, with the assistance of wonderful instructors, she was able to express her artistic vision and finally felt empowered to claim the title “Artist.” By establishing The Teri Fridley Young Artist Scholarship, she hopes to provide a guiding hand to area students so that they may also feel empowered to claim that title and pursue careers in the visual arts. Scholarships distributed from this Fund may only be awarded to high school graduates from who have earned their high school diplomas within two years of the beginning of the next Gaston College academic year. Recipients must have achieved a minimum high school GPA of 3.0 and must maintain a 3.0 college GPA to remain eligible for continued funding. Financial need is not a requirement to receive this scholarship but is considered. Applicants must submit a portfolio of their work, the specifics of which are outlined in an Addendum. Recipients must be enrolled in no less than 15 credit hours each Fall and Spring semester. If a student does not exhaust available full-time funding during the Fall or Spring semesters, the balance available may be applied toward Summer classes. Each recipient may not receive more than a total of $6,000 to complete their degree, distributed over no more than eight consecutive semesters.

All scholarship candidates must submit a well-organized essay, addressing the following:
1. How you became interested in art?
2. Why do you want to pursue a degree in the arts?
3. What would this scholarship mean to you?

All scholarship candidates must submit a Portfolio of 10 artworks representative of their art, in PDF format.

Portfolio should be of the visual arts and may include drawing, painting, photography, 3-dimensional sculpture, ceramics, digital media, mixed media, and/or printmaking. The portfolio should exhibit the student’s artistic potential, creativity and talent. Each image should be high quality (min. 1500 pixels long edge) and accurately represent the original artwork. Each image must be labeled with artist’s name, title of the piece, media, dimensions, and year completed. A description of the concept behind the piece and any other relevant context for each item may be included.

Tips on photographing your work can be found here

Work will be judged based on the following:
• Range of skills and/or art making processes
• Understanding and application of design elements and principles
• Creative problem solving and conceptual ability
• Ability to articulate your ideas in writing