Art alumna creates scholarship for undergraduate art students
The gift from Lauren Merage ‘06 (B.A., art) and Tip Scarry is part of mission to reduce student debt
Lauren Merage, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker and artist, and an alumna of the UCLA Department of Art, and her husband, the actor and filmmaker Tip Scarry, have generously created a fund to benefit undergraduate art students entering their junior and senior years.
Merage and Scarry have pledged $20,000 annually for the next four years to be evenly distributed among four undergraduate students.
Merage said she hopes the Merage Scarry Art Award will help support students “who are committed to exploring their artistic vision, and who are willing to take chances, be bold, and to really push themselves.”
Merage and Scarry met while in graduate school at the University of California-Irvine, when he acted in a film that she directed. They actively collect art and donate to philanthropic causes.
“We feel so fortunate that we're in a position to practice what we love without a lot of financial stress,” Merage said, and she has wanted to help students financially ever since her time at UCLA, when she saw a friend go into debt while creating his senior art project. As an undergraduate lab tech in the photography dark room, she watched students hold back creatively because of financial difficulties.
“I remember some of the students being afraid to cut test strips because it meant that they were using a piece of paper. And I was like, ‘no, you don't understand, this will help you to not use more paper down the line,’” Merage said.
Merage, who includes world-renowned photographer and departmental chair Catherine Opie among her most valued mentors, previously made a gift to help the department replace outdated photographic equipment.
The department will begin accepting applications for the scholarship in early 2022. Interested students will be required to submit an artist statement and 3-5 examples of work. Opie and a faculty scholarship committee who will select scholarship recipients will evaluate applicants based on merit.
“It's very difficult for some people to think big about what they want to make, because their budget won't allow for it,” Opie said.
Opie says this gift is part of the department’s larger mission to reduce student debt and make a UCLA arts education more accessible. She also plans to introduce a financial literacy course for undergraduate and graduate fine art students, and establish an internship program that will connect students with paid opportunities at museums, not-for-profit spaces, artist studios, and galleries.
Opie’s larger ambitions for the department include creating more endowed chair positions, providing more stability and support for lecturers, and expanding exhibition opportunities and venues for students.
HEADER IMAGE: Opening reception for the UCLA Department of Art Undergraduate Scholarship Award Exhibition. Photo by Gavin Aleshire.
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