Beginning in 2000, Del Ray Artisans has awarded the Ted Eichers Memorial Art Scholarship to a T.C. Williams High School graduate who is attending college to continue his or her art education. The scholarship began as a $600 award and was upgraded in 2009 to $1000.
This campaign will help fund the scholarship for a deserving student.
Scholarship recipients are selected by a committee appointed by The Scholarship Fund of Alexandria and based on the criteria set by Del Ray Artisans. The student must have a B average, show extraordinary potential in art and be planning to major in an art-related field.
The scholarship is named for Ted Eichers, a Del Ray Artisans member who passed away in 1997, whose art and volunteerism exemplified the spirit of Del Ray Artisans. Ted studied art at Northern Virginia Community College after he retired. He created intricate scenes with wood veneers that he shared, along with his companionship, with nursing home residents, jail inmates, and at-risk youth in Alexandria.
Ted’s wife, Alice, says, “The choice to study any graphic art form is a huge leap of faith in your talent. I think far more than the small monetary stipend, being selected for the scholarship is an affirmation of that choice.”
Each year the scholarship recipient is presented with the scholarship by The Scholarship Fund of Alexandria at their awards night, added to a memorial plaque which hangs at Del Ray Artisans gallery, and given a one-year Del Ray Artisans membership. Keriann Cassidy, who studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, said:
“Supplies can be very expensive so having the scholarship helped me with buying my textbooks, as well as numerous supplies that I constantly use. I believe that fashion design is a way for me to express myself artistically and the Ted Eichers Scholarship has helped me make my dreams for my future come true.”
The past awardees are Daniel Krahn (2000), Brian McCarthy (2001), Kimberley Burke (2002), Caroline Gullickson (2003), Michaela Murphy (2004), Claire Schoen (2005), Keriann Cassidy (2006), Thomas Carroll (2007), Olivia T. Morrow (2008), Isabel Pollack (2009), Sloane Siegel (2010), Lauren Jennings (2011), Haley Harrington (2012), Amanda Ryan (2013), Khalil Celestine (2014), Jahed Nazari (2015), Isaiah Wilkerson (2016), Samuel Schneider (2017), and Emma Goeas (2018).
All rights reserved.