The innovative works of the Art Student Award winners are featured in the Robert Else and Raymond Witt galleries of Kadeema Hall from Feb.12 throughMar. 7.

The art students were honored on Monday, Feb. 12, as Dr. Potter, Director of the School of Arts presented $5,900 worth of scholarship awards to four graduatestudents and four undergraduates.

Jan Cheney, who won the $1,000 Increase Robinson Memorial Fellowship said, “I was really honored to receive the scholarship. I felt the graduate show wasexcellent. It feels very exciting to be in the company of other such great artists.”

Cheney, who plans to use the money for art supplies, is in her second semester as a grad student, with ultimate plans of teaching art to junior high and high school students.

Families of locally renowned artists and artists themselves offer the scholarships awarded each spring.

The Increase Robinson Memorial Fellowship was established by the family of Increase Robinson, a painter very involved in the Sacramento Art Community, at thetime of her death. Since 1984 seventeen CSUS studio art graduate students have received this award. Along with Cheney, Moira Murdock and Hong Zhangreceived the scholarship this spring.

JoAnne Marquardt was a student in the CSUS Art Department in the 1970s. She is a prolific potter who owns JAM Studios, Inc., the namesake of the JAM StudioInc. Studio Art Award. To show her appreciation for the art faculty at Sac State, in 1997 Marquardt decided to donate one $1000 award to graduate students everyyear for ten years. The student to receive the honor this spring is Hong Zhang.

The Raymond and Joyce Witt Scholarship is named after former CSUS Art Department Chair Raymond Witt and his wife, also a teacher. Raymond Witt was apainter exhibited widely in the Sacramento area.

While saving for a life of retirement on the coast, Raymond developed multiple sclerosis. Realizing that their future home would not be able to be enjoyed, thecouple decided to donate the money to establish a fund for undergraduate art majors at Sacramento State.

Rebekah Hester received first prize of $750, Kristen Young the second $500 prize, and the third prize of $250 was won by Bev Milkey.

Frederick M. Peyser was an avid art collector with a passion for collecting the works of younger, lesser-known artists to help advance their careers. Peyser?sgenerosity was memorialized in 1992, when Sac State first presented The Peyser Prize in Painting to an undergraduate art major. The winner this spring isRichard Myers.

The Robert Else Gallery features the winning works of the graduate students. Undergraduate work is on display in the Raymond Witt Gallery.