UAA student artists create endowment

For some students, the door to UAA's ceramics studio is a gateway-to a shift in career paths, to a new means of artistic expression, to a lifelong obsession. Now, the student artists of Clay Body, a UAA student club, have done something remarkable. They've set the wheels in motion (pun groan) to enrich ceramics education for students who haven't yet walked through that gateway. The president of Clay Body, Bill Jamison, just signed on the dotted line to establish a University of Alaska Foundation's first endowment funded exclusively by students. When the endowment is fully funded-in about five years-there will be $1,000 available for student awards each year. Clay Body members agreed to earmark a portion of their seasonal pottery sales to build the endowment.

Word on the street for would-be pottery sale attendees: get there early. The students of Clay Body sell hundreds of coveted pieces in their winter and spring pottery sales.

"Each semester there's a line of people waiting outside the door for us to open, even in the winter. Aside from being our primary source of funding, these events provide students a chance to get paid for their work, which is very gratifying," Jamison said.

This year, students set aside $1,600 of their spring sale proceeds for the new endowment. When added to savings from previous sales, the students' initial investment in the endowment topped $6,500.

The minimum needed to fully fund an endowment is $25,000, and the students and their advisor, Associate Professor Steve Godfrey, expect to reach that goal in the next four or five years.

"When Steve [Godfrey] suggested using some of our additional funds to create an endowment, all our members agreed this would be a great way to pay forward the opportunities we've been given," said Jamison.

Godfrey pointed out that few, if any, of the students whose dollars are being funneled into the endowment will benefit directly.

"It's pretty selfless," he said. "They're really thinking about the future and how much they enjoyed the program here."

One student's story

Long before Jamison was Clay Body president, he was an engineering student at UAA.

"I've been taking classes at UAA off and on since 2002. Around the end of my first degree (a B.S. in civil engineering), a buddy snuck me into the wheel studio and I had a blast," he said. "I ended up taking a few classes from Steve and spending as much time doing art as I did studying for my senior engineering classes."

After graduating in 2004, Jamison worked as an engineer for seven years before deciding to return for a B.F.A. in ceramics.

With help from Clay Body, his experience as an art student has gone beyond UAA's campus boundaries, whether it's been in a visiting artist workshop or attending a national conference. He graduated in May with his second degree from UAA.

Paying it forward

Once the Clay Body students reach their $25,000 goal, the endowment will be able to award $1,000 per year, forever. The UA Foundation "inflation proofs" funds so their impact can be felt in perpetuity.

"The Clay Body Award can be used to help fund any student in any research that helps them grow as an artist," Jamison said. "This could mean paying for tuition, buying materials for an independent project, funding travel to an out-of-state workshop...anything really. Since ceramics is a very tight knit art community, helping one student develop their work invariably ends up inspiring everyone around them as well."

Written by Jamie Gonzales, UAA Office of University Advancement.