Woodbury Adjunct Professor Jaime Scholnick Named California Community Foundation Award Winner

Artist and Woodbury University adjunct professor Jaime Scholnick is one of 14 Los Angeles-area visual artists selected to receive a share of $350,000 in unrestricted grants from the California Community Foundation (CCF), the university has announced.

Launched in 1987 with a generous contribution from the J. Paul Getty Trust and other donor support, CCF has awarded more than $3 million to nearly 300 visual artists. Fellows are selected by a committee of distinguished artists and arts professionals, including fellowship alumni, following a rigorous application process. This year, 551 artists applied for the grants – the most applications received in the nearly three decades since the program was launched.

“I am so honored and so thrilled,” said Scholnick, who teaches in Woodbury’s Design Foundation Program, where students learn core drawing, design, color and composition skills that prepare them for their major studies. “To receive this level of recognition from such a respected organization as the California Community Foundation is a dream come true. Whether it is teaching a Color Theory and Interaction course to students at Woodbury or creating a new public installation, I truly have a passion for everything about art.”

The CCF grant will come in handy as Scholnick continues her artistic practice. She recently completed a series of collaged photographs depicting contemporary life from the 110 Freeway and down Martin Luther King Boulevard to Leimert Park. The pieces are being fabricated onto steel with porcelain enamel glazes and will be installed at the Crenshaw-Expo Station on the METRO LAX-Crenshaw Line when it opens in 2018.  That project follows a significant installation at LAX through the L.A. Department of Cultural Affairs titled “Artifacts Series: Black/White/Flo Red Installation,” which used polystyrene packaging to craft a series of totem-like shapes. Scholnick has also completed works addressing political topics, including a series of paintings titled “Gaza: Mowing the Lawn” and her most recent series, “The Ottoman Empire.” [For a look at Scholnick’s award-winning work, visit her website.]

Scholnick, who lives and works in a studio in Los Angeles, is a graduate of California State University, Sacramento, and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from The Claremont Graduate University.  After a five-year expatriation to Japan to study papermaking (where she was artist in residence at Imadate Art Field), Scholnick returned to Los Angeles in 1999, where she displayed a mixed media series on “Hello, Kitty” and completed a film titled “Hello Kitty Gets a Mouth.” Since then, her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums nationally and internationally – at PS1 Long Island City, PØST, Angles Gallery, CB1 Gallery, UCLA Hammer, the Torrance Museum of Art and the Barnsdall Municipal Art Gallery, to name a few. She joined Woodbury University as an adjunct professor in 2008.

“We’re lucky to have Jaime, who brings an entrepreneurial professional practice and creative passion to her classes at Woodbury. She is a working artist who models what we are teaching,” said Doug Post, chair of the Design Foundation program within the university’s School of Media Culture & Design. “Her students are studying animation, fashion design, filmmaking, game art and design, graphic design and interior architecture. Having someone with a broad range of skills, who is connecting her creative point of view with the world around her, is a real asset to our students and connects with our goals as an institution. And she loves teaching!”

About The California Community Foundation

The California Community Foundation has served as a public, charitable organization since 1915, empowering donors to pursue their own personal passions and to collaborate with us in addressing the root causes of challenges in Los Angeles County. CCF stewards $1.5 billion in assets and manages 1,600 charitable foundations, funds and legacies. For more information, please visit calfund.org.

About Woodbury University

Founded in 1884, Woodbury University is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Southern California. The university ranks 15th among the nation’s “25 Colleges That Add the Most Value,” according to Money Magazine, was voted “Best Graduate School” in the Los Angeles Daily News 2018 Readers Choice Awards, and is a 2018-19 College of Distinction. Woodbury was a finalist for the General Community Service Award, a part of the 2015 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll recognition program. With campuses in Burbank/Los Angeles and San Diego, the university offers bachelor\\’s degrees from the School of Architecture, School of Business, School of Media, Culture & Design, and College of Liberal Arts, along with a Master of Business Administration, Master of Architecture, Master of Interior Architecture and Master of Science in Architecture. The San Diego campus offers Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture, Master of Interior Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture degrees, as well as a Master of Science in Architecture, Real Estate Development. Visit woodbury.edu for more information.