Visual Arts student Lukeson Michael Igwe and alum Andie Carver ‘24 were selected as 2024 recipients of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant. The Foundation was created in 1955 by Charles Glass Greenshields in memory of his mother, Elizabeth.
Mr. Greenshields, an amateur artist himself, was a firm believer in supporting the arts and that training and education in the arts were necessary in the growth and development of artists. He started the foundation with the hope of providing young artists with necessary training. The foundation specializes in giving students the resources to learn traditional techniques and develop their workmanship in painting and sculpture. Mr. Greenshields remained as the creative director of the foundation until his death in 1974.
“A big thank you to the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation for this grant," said Igwe. "More than anything else, it is the way the grant allows ease for reflection and to see through a period that will be very instrumental to the expansion of my ideas and work. And as I navigate graduate school, It makes a real difference for me, considering the lack of support and resources available to Nigerian international students in the arts.”
The foundation has remarkably been able to support the dreams of over 2000 students from over 80 countries, now including Igwe and Carver.
Igwe is known for his work as an experimental artist, working primarily with painting. He utilizes art as a critical exploration of the personal, and informs images with a complex narrative that engage the influence of inner life and the flexible nature of human experience and memory.
Carver creates paintings of natural worlds to memorialize her immersion within them. Her paintings are viewed as her perception of the world as she delves into the mystery of the animal world.
