McCraith Scholarship in Fine Art

To be eligible for this scholarship you must:

• be an Australian or New Zealand citizen, Australian permanent resident or a permanent humanitarian visa holder
• be enrolled full-time in the standard semester 1 and 2 in the Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) (BP201) at RMIT in 2021 with a preference for work object based practice
• have at least one year of full-time study left to complete
• be able to demonstrate financial disadvantage such as:
  • receiving a Government tested low income benefit or having a Centrelink Health Care Card
• be able to demonstrate educational disadvantage such as:
  • having a long term medical condition or disability which impacts your study
  • have previously/are currently living in foster/kinship care or are a ward of the state
  • experiencing difficult family/social circumstances
  • have/will be relocating from interstate or rural/regional Victoria to study at RMIT
  • were born overseas, are from a non-English speaking background and recently migrated to Australia
  • are a current or former refugee
  • completed secondary school at a School Network Access Program school
• be able to demonstrate excellent academic results
  • first year students must have completed year 12 in 2020 with a minimum ATAR of 80, or
  • second and third year students must have a minimum Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0 by the end of semester 2 2020
• not have completed the same level of program or higher, e.g. if you plan to study a Bachelor of Architectural Design, you should not have previously completed another Bachelor degree.

Preference will be given to students who are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders.

The online application form will be made available here when applications open. In order to be considered for this scholarship, you must submit a complete online application. Partial applications will not be assessed.

Supporting documentation

Depending on your circumstances, you will need to provide different types of evidence and material to support your scholarship application. Applications without supporting documents will not be considered.

Please visit Supporting Your Application for more information.

You will also need:

• A selection of five examples of your own original artistic work uploaded as part of your application (.jpeg, .mkv or mp3/mp4)

OR

• A selection of five examples of your own original artistic sound works uploaded to Soundcloud. You will need to provide the web link(s) so that the selection panel can assess your work

OR

• A selection of five examples of your own original artistic video/animation works uploaded to Vimeo or YouTube. You will need to provide the web link(s) so that the selection panel can assess your work.

Application questions

It is expected that the online application will take approximately thirty minutes to complete. The main application questions are listed below to allow you time to prepare your answers in advance prior to starting the online application.

• Discuss your passion for studying in your chosen field, including the steps you have taken to achieve your educational goals.
• What are your future plans and career aspirations?
• Describe the artistic merit evident in your work.

Find out more about applying for scholarships.

This scholarship is made possible by the gift of the Dixon-Ward family in honour of Nell (Ellen) and Gerald McCraith.

Nell and Gerald were married in 1930 and shortly after opened Mac’s Lending Library in Napier Street Essendon. Although they both finished their schooling at the age of 14 they believed strongly in the benefits of education and lifelong learning.

Both Nell and Gerald embraced new technology and encouraged innovation and design. In 1954 Gerald and Nell commissioned a young architecture firm, Chancellor and Patrick, to design a holiday house in Dromana. In 2013 the house was donated to RMIT and is now studied by architecture and design students and enjoyed by writers and academics as a part of RMIT’s writers in residence program as well as for other academic uses.

Nell and Gerald believed in contributing back through service and later as their fortunes improved, through giving. Gerald studied accounting at RMIT as a part time student after he completed his WW2 service. The family connection continues to this day.