A $1,000 Award for Excellence in Art Studies for 2014 will be awarded to an art major from Ventura College. Each year Studio Channel Islands Art Center selects a local college to submit three student candidate portfolios for consideration. The Award for Excellence honors both the quality of the art teaching as well as the work of the students. The three finalists are offered an exhibition in Studio Channel Islands Art Center’s Blackboard Gallery in April when the Award will be presented.

The Award was established in recognition of Studio Channel Islands Art Center founding member Pat Richards Dodds. Award recipients are selected based on the quality of the art rather than financial need. The Art Center’s Scholarship committee includes artists Gerd Koch and Patti Post, Pepperdine University Professor Emeritus Bob Privitt, Founder and Executive Director of Focus on the Masters Donna Granata, and John Nichols of John Nichols Gallery at the Santa Paula Art Museum. Last year’s award recipient was Donna Espinoza from Oxnard College who impressed the panel with her accomplished style and creativity.

Interested Ventura College art majors should contact the Ventura College art department about the submission procedures and deadlines, and may review the general prospectus at http://www.studiochannelislands.org/education/award-for-excellence-in-ar....

The Studio Channel Islands Art Center offices and Blackboard Gallery are at 2222 Ventura Boulevard in Old Town Camarillo. They are open Tuesday 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Wednesday through Friday 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. As many as 40 resident artist studios at the Center’s campus across from the gallery are open to the public every First Saturday of the month from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For more information, go to www.studiochannelislands.org or call 805-383-1368.