​Ojai Studio Artists Honor

2022 Scholarship Winners

The Ojai Studio Artists will award $10,000 in scholarships to six talented high school and college students living in the Ojai Valley at an awards ceremony at the Ojai Valley Museum on Saturday, May 28, 2022  from 2 – 4 pm. 

The winners are Malia Barreras-Float, 19, a sophomore at Ventura Community, who will receive the Marta Nelson Award.  Maddie Brannan, 18, a Nordhoff High School senior will be awarded the Gayel Childress Award. Violet Ruby, 17, a senior at Parson’s the New School, is receiving the Beatrice Wood Award. Grace Wynn, 17, an Oak Grove School senior, will be awarded The Horace Bristol Award. Krystal Lau, 17, a Villanova Preparatory School senior, and Esmeralda Velasquez, a 20 year-old sophomore at Ventura Community College, will also be awarded scholarships at the museum ceremony.  

OSA invites the entire community to the awards ceremony to honor these talented young artists who will all speak briefly about how this honor impacts their lives. Their work will be on display at the museum from May 28 through June 26, Fridays through Sundays, 10 am to 4 pm, with work on sale to benefit the student artists.

Scholarship winners are chosen based on their artist statements, letters of support from teachers and photographs of each student’s work.  Besides the dollar amount received by the winners to help pay for tuition and art supplies, the Scholarship Committee sees the process as vital preparation for the students’ fledgling careers and a meaningful show of encouragement and support. OSA’s mission has always been to create an environment where artists thrive ― professional and student alike. With the scholarship program suspended since 2020 because of Covid, the artists on the scholarship Committee noticed the lockdown’s effect on the student’s subsequent artwork, with many more deeply introspective submissions.

To date, OSA has funded over $274,000 in educational support with funds from private donors and other fund-raising events. For further information about OSA’s annual tour and how to donate to the scholarship fund, please go to www.ojaistudioartists.org.

Maddie Brannan: Hello Ojai. 28 x 22  canvas and collage, 2022.

Esmeralda  Velaquez: The River. 16 x 20 oil on canvas, 2022.

2020 Scholarship Awards

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2019 Scholarship Awards

“I wanted to take a moment to again thank you for your constant support. It is so amazing that Ojai Studio Artists are able to raise money from the Ojai community and give that money back to artists working in the community. More than just an affirmation of the artistic work being produced, it also helps to secure much needed supplies – always helpful for the working artist!”

Brett Childs, photographer, three year award recipient, Art Center College of Design.

“My name is Arley Sakai, and I am a senior at Nordhoff High School. In the spring of my junior year, my art teacher, Kate Thomas, suggested I apply for the OSA Scholarship. As an upper-classman, with a keen interest in expensive schools, I seized the opportunity. Being the first scholarship I had ever applied to, I didn’t know what to expect. But alas, not long I received notice that I had gotten the Beatrice Wood Award for Special Achievement in the Visual Arts. I was shocked, and so grateful, and forever will be.

It is important that other students have the opportunity to be recognized for the creative endeavors, especially those at a public school like Nordhoff where one teacher is can be responsible for 40 students, leaving them unavailable for consistent feedback and support. Further, receiving the award showed me something about art as a young adult—there is merit in it. Showing students there is value and validity to their creations will only encourage them to continue a life in the visual arts; I know it did for me. So, with your contributions, artists of the future will be supported, and I thank you for that generosity.” 

Arley Sakai, winner of the Beatrice Wood Award for Special Achievement in the Visual Arts.