TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Windgate Foundation has awarded a $4 million grant to expand scholarships for graduate students in the book arts program at The University of Alabama — quadrupling the Arkansas-based foundation’s original $1 million investment in the program, which it established in 2005.
The new endowment, combined with the existing fund, will supplement Windgate fellowships, create new opportunities for graduate assistantships, provide targeted scholarship support and fund studio equipment upgrades.
Since its establishment, the Windgate Charitable Foundation Endowed Book Arts Support Fund has provided financial support to students pursuing an MFA in book arts, a significant recruiting tool for the three-year, studio-based program.
For students like Erasmia Schirmer Devitt, a second-year MFA student studying book arts, the program offers something increasingly rare.
“From my perspective, in a world moving toward AI, I find more value in things made by your hands. The humanness of it feels alive to me,” Schirmer Devitt said. “It also shows students they can create something worth making.”
Book arts combines creativity and craftsmanship, blending traditional practice with contemporary fine art. UA’s program has expanded in recent years to include an undergraduate minor and an in-person and online graduate certificate. This new gift will significantly strengthen the financial support available to these current and future students.
“The financial support from Windgate has always been impactful, and the magnitude of this gift is going to make it even more so, reinvigorating those fellowships while being able to provide smaller support for other students in need,” said Anna Embree, the former director of the book arts program who is retiring this year after 23 years teaching in UA’s book arts program.
Sarah Bryant, director of the book arts program, said the expanded scholarship support arrives at a pivotal moment for the program.
“We have a very strong reputation nationwide and are the longest-running book arts MFA program in the country,” Bryant said. “We have alumni in incredibly important positions across the United States, many of whom were Windgate Fellows.
“Being able to reliably fund these artists and scholars who want to study at Alabama is huge for us.”
Windgate’s additional funding to the School of Library Sciences’ book arts program follows increased support from UA’s administration and other donors. A year ago, the program moved from Gorgas Library to larger, newly renovated spaces in McLure Library, centralizing its materials, printing presses and papermaking facilities into one area. And, earlier this year, a cabinet member for the Rising Tide 2.0 capital campaign, Tom Patterson and his wife, Carol, made a $500,000 gift commitment to establish the Stephen K. Miller Endowed Professorship in Book Arts.
About the book arts program
The book arts MFA is a 60-credit-hour program in fine arts and traditional practices of making books by hand. Students travel from all over the country, some internationally, to study letterpress printing, bookbinding and papermaking, developing skill sets that lead to diverse careers as artists, craftspeople, designers, educators, curators and conservators.
Students also advocate for literacy and book history through collaborative outreach projects with BookStock, formerly the West Alabama Literacy Festival, the Kentuck Arts Center, papermaking workshops in Tuscaloosa and literacy projects with juvenile detention facilities, among others.
About the Windgate Foundation
The Windgate Foundation, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, is a private foundation established in 1993 to advance contemporary craft and strengthen visual arts education in the United States.
The University of Alabama is the future-ready flagship. UA develops leaders and a workforce for a changing world, advances research and innovation that solve real problems and strengthens communities across Alabama and beyond. Part of The University of Alabama System, UA holds a global reputation for excellence and offers more than 200 degree programs. Through more than 30 research centers, the University leads creative inquiry and discovery that fuels economic growth and opportunity.