Two MFA-VA Candidates Awarded Scholarships for Fine Arts Work Center Summer Workshop

Anna Schenker (MFA23) and Lynne Smith (MFA24) were awarded scholarships by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ MFA in Visual Art program to attend workshops at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The Work Center is an artist-led organization dedicated to nurturing artists and shaping culture. In addition to its world-renowned fellowship program, the Work Center offers a series of more than 60 week-long workshops in visual arts and creative writing.

Schenker makes paintings, rubbings, and sculptures that record direct interactions with trees, plants, and weather within her immediate surroundings. “I hope my work creates a space of reflection,” writes Schenker, “for our own role within natural spaces and what we can gain from being kind and attentive to them.”

Smith is an interdisciplinary artist with a keen interest in foraged and found materials. “I imagined interacting with the Provincetown dunes…” writes Smith. “The workshop will help me build on recent performance pieces, expose me to new methods and contexts, and fortify my confidence for developing new work.”

Smith shares that her “contributions to the community are a vital part of [her] practice,” and looks forward to sharing her workshop experience, new skills, and work generated with her Sam Fox School peers when she returns to St. Louis.