Artsy alum says scholarship was a confidence booster

Sarah Anne Johnson, Front Porch, 2009

“I thought it was ridiculous: a Winnipeg gal going to a big fancy Ivy League school,” says Sarah Anne Johnson [BFA/2002] about her thoughts when she applied to Yale School of Art for grad school. But with encouragement from her professors here at the U of M, and from a scholarship set up in honour of the co-founder of Reader’s Digest, she went ahead and applied – and was accepted.

Johnson’s career took off from there. Her breakout exhibition Tree Planting now resides in the permanent collection of NYC’s Guggenheim museum, one of her projects has been sold in its entirety to the Art Gallery of Ontario, and she’s received rave reviews for a recent performance installation piece at Winnipeg’s aceart gallery.

She says the encouragement from the Lila Wallace – Reader’s Digest Endowed Scholarship, which provides support to U of M students who want to pursue their fine arts studies at a university in the U.S., helped her get to where she is today. “As a student, receiving that scholarship was huge. It helped me with my rent and paying for supplies,” says Johnson, who also won a full scholarship from Yale.  “But looking back, it was such a confidence booster. Mentally, emotionally, to win an award like that, to have your peers say you are good enough, that’s the most important thing. You feel like you’re meant for it and it gives you the courage to take the next step.”

Since 1988, 38 students have benefited from The Lila Wallace – Reader’s Digest Endowed Scholarship, with $133,935 given out in awards. And Johnson, who’s since taught at the School of Art and just finished a two-year term as artist-in-residence, says the students here deserve it.

“The students at the U of M are so inspiring; they’re talented and have an amazing work ethic,” says Johnson. “It’s great to see their work and be inspired to get back to the studio yourself.”