SARASOTA (WSNN) – Some Suncoast students get a taste of what it’s like to show their artwork on a grand scale. It’s a collaboration unlike any other for these artists.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is one of the largest art museums in the world, and 10 talented artists from the Ringling College of Art & Design were selected to feature their artwork in it.
“The college is very interested in giving students real-world experience, real-world clients,” Ringling College of Art & Design President Larry Thompson said.
It’s a Ringling College of Art and Design project where 10 student-women illustrated the lives of 10 under-celebrated women artists through a first-time collaboration with the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
“We are all about shattering the myth of the starving artist,” Thompson said. “And it is an art, not a myth.”
Ringling graduate, Emily Fromhage is one of the winners who got their work displayed in this digital collection. Each student got assigned an artist to represent.
“It was just very exciting to translate somebody else’s work into my own style, but to keep her voice in it at the same time,” Fromhage said.
Fromhage’s represented Anni Albers, a German-Jewish artist with a focus on weaving.
“It was really exciting to learn more about my own country’s art history because I did not know about her,” Fromhage said.
The students created short comics, about three pages long, celebrating women artists who didn’t receive the recognition they deserved.
“This was also just great for young girls to see that there were female artists also 100 years ago or less or more,” Fromhage said. “It’s just, they’re not talked about as much as their male counterparts.”
Thompson says an opportunity like this gives college students a real step up in their careers.
“I mean it solves the recent college-graduate problem,” Thompson said. “I can’t get a job because I don’t have experience, I can’t get experience because I don’t have a job. And here they’re are getting experience, getting references.”
“It was a big confidence booster,” Fromhage said. “I don’t take it for granted. I’m very appreciative of having had this project under my belt now and being able to say that I created something people will see and have access to.”
Each of the 10 winners took home a 1,000-dollar prize. If you want to check out the Ten Tales of Inspiring Woman Artists, you can find it online, here.