The Art & Design Program in the School of the Arts at NKU is pleased to offer scholarships for students majoring in art and design. Students may apply each year for annual scholarship support. Applicants will be judged on the merits of their artwork/design, as well as their transcript, participation/performance in art & design courses, and overall artistic development. All scholarships in the Art & Design Program are awarded on a competitive basis.
• Students must maintain a 3.0 GPA (overall) at the university to receive and retain the scholarship.
• Previous scholarship winners are encouraged to re-apply for scholarship support each year.
• To receive funds, students must be enrolled full-time (12 credits or more) at the time of receiving the award; however, students can be part-time at the time of application.
• Artwork must have been completed within the past year. Applicants will be disqualified if resubmitting work from their previous applications.
• Late (and/or incomplete) applications will not be considered.
A portfolio of an assortment of individual artworks and/or design samples and a short essay must be submitted for scholarship consideration. This portfolio should include between 10-15 images of the art/design work. Work may be in a single discipline or a combination of work from 2D, 3D, and 4D areas. Each image must be labeled according to the “Image List” instructions below (title, medium, year, etc.).
Applications submitted through Canvas must include: 10-15 portfolio samples, a minimum of one full view of each individual artwork/design, a maximum of 5 of the total images can be used as detail images of the main work samples in the portfolio, where details count as one image.
For time-based work (i.e., videos/animations), please provide a web link to the video (YouTube or Vimeo) with a maximum segment of three minutes. This video can be one clip from a single video, or it can be a compilation of clips from multiple time-based pieces. Each separate video included in the compilation counts as one work of art. In the case of compilation videos, please note the number of separate artworks that are represented.
• Image List: An image list (Word or PDF file) with thumbnail images of the works submitted (and optional detail images) and corresponding label information for each artwork/design must be included in this document:
— Title
— Medium
— Dimensions (W x H x D in inches) / duration (in minutes for videos/motion pieces), and
— Year
Please name your Image List file like this: LastnameFirstName _scholarshipApp_ImageList.pdf. For reference, here is a mockup of an Image List to guide you:
• Application Essay: Prepare an answer (up to 200 words) to one of the following prompts to paste into the digital application:
— Option 1: How would scholarship support enable your success as an Art & Design student, short- and/or long-term?
— Option 2: Please provide examples of how you demonstrate leadership as a student within the Art & Design program.
To access the Art & Design Scholarship application, you must accept the invitation from "Art & Design" to the scholarship Canvas page.
The application process involves creating a OneDrive folder that will contain all of your portfolio images and the Image List PDF, then sharing a link to that folder within the digital application, which is accessible via NKU’s Canvas > “ArtDesign Scholarship Application Portal.” The digital application will also prompt you to answer informational questions (contact information, etc.) and your response to the essay.
Application Instructions
We recommend writing your essay in a separate document to paste into the application field when prompted. Have the portfolio images and Image List PDF gathered into in a single OneDrive folder* (name this folder: Lastname_FirstName_Scholarship_currentyear; for example, Smith_Morgan_Scholarship_2023). You will paste a link to this OneDrive folder into the application when prompted. *Technical note: The OneDrive folder CANNOT BE A SUBFOLDER of any other folder. First-time users of OneDrive: Information on how to use OneDrive
Access the digital application portal: Visit https://nku.instructure.com/ to access Canvas > “ArtDesign Scholarship Application Portal,” which contains the application where you will answer informational questions, paste the essay, and share your portfolio OneDrive link with materials.
Access Application Portal Here
Scholarship Review Process
Once the deadline passes, the Art & Design faculty, representing all areas of our program, will review each qualifying application. After the faculty determine the scholarship recipients and award amounts, along with alternates, the Art & Design Program Head will send a letter of notification to all qualifying applicants. Those awarded scholarships will then need to sign and return their letter of acceptance (by the stated deadline on the letter) to the Art & Design Program Head and accept the award via myNKU account under the Billing/Financial Aid tab.
For questions regarding the scholarship application process, contact:
Brad McCombs
Art & Design Program Head
(859) 572-5562
