News Archives: Homegrown Fundraiser Results in Cash Awards for GPRC Fine Arts Students
Thursday, April 25th, 2019
Award recipients from the Button Fundraiser. L - R: Dominique Berger, Alexi Dostal, Nicole Jones, Kolby Atkinson and Paula Fiorini
A homegrown fundraiser fuelled by student art has resulted in five scholarships for visual arts students.
Paula Fiorini, Dominique Berger, Nicole Jones, Alexi Dostal and Kolby Atkinson all received financial awards funded entirely by the Visual Arts department’s “Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button?” fundraiser, wherein students created original designs for wearable buttons and sold them to the public for $10 each. The button sale lasted one evening only, meaning the buttons were truly limited edition.
Organized and led by GPRC visual arts instructor Tina Martel, the fundraiser was an enormous success. Forty-nine students and faculty created 207 original designs and over 500 individual buttons, raising over $5,000 in a single evening.
"We could not have done this without the students’ hard work and talent,” said Martel. “An event like this helps to foster both community and independence, as well as the understanding that it is not necessary to wait to be given something; they can do it for themselves.”
Students weren’t given any guidelines about what types of designs to include on their buttons so each student’s creativity could really shine.
“In some ways it was hard to think of ideas because it was so broad,” said Nicole Jones, one of the five award recipients. “But it was also really cool. Whatever fits on a little circle, you can do!”
Paula Fiorini, who will be graduating with her diploma in visual arts this year, was the recipient of the Best in Show Award for her rodeo-themed button designs (see our to check out Paula’s winning design!).
“The talent in my class is huge,” she said, “so it was such an honour to receive the Best in Show Award.”
Dominique Berger, another award winner, said the uniqueness of the fundraiser made receiving the award even more special. “It feels more important because it came from all my classmates’ and instructors’ hard work,” she said. “And to be personally part of it all is amazing.”
Berger, Fiorini, and Jones will all be putting their award funds toward furthering their education with books, art supplies and tuition fees in the coming year. Although Berger and Fiorini will be wrapping up their Fine Arts diploma this spring, both intend to continue to hone their skills in Independent Study at GPRC next year.
The Button, Button funds were awarded at the GPRC Fine Arts Year End Celebration. See all the photos from the event