Vassar W.K. Rose Fellowship in the Creative Arts

This Fellowship is made possible by a bequest from the estate of W.K. Rose, a distinguished scholar and teacher, who was a member of the Vassar English Department from 1953 until his untimely death in the fall of 1968.

Mr. Rose wrote:

My object in creating this fellowship is to provide a worthy young artist with a chance to be free after college to get on with his work as an artist. It is also my hope that this fellowship will attract to Vassar in greater number the kind of student that it proposes to aid.

The term creative arts shall include writing, the visual arts [including films or DVDs which represent individual creative achievement], and music composition.

All Vassar graduating seniors and Vassar graduates who demonstrated a creative talent in their years of undergraduate study, who are not currently employed by the college, who have not already attained substantial recognition in their field, and who are under the age of 36 at the time of the deadline will be considered eligible.

Those wishing to apply must submit the following, to be postmarked no later than January 13, 2012:

1. A completed application form which includes:

  • A statement discussing previous work, work in progress, and future plans.
  • Names and addresses of three professionally qualified persons who have agreed to comment on the applicant’s work if asked by the Committee.

2. Several samples of the applicant's work.  The Committee is particularly interested in seeing recent work. 

  1.  
    • Novelists should submit no more than 100 pages of one novel (and will be contacted for more if necessary); short-story writers no more than five short stories, limited to 100 pages in total; poets no more than twenty-five poems; playwrights no more than one long or two short plays, up to 100 pages in total.
    • Visual artists should submit up to twenty images, which may be in the form of slides or on CD/DVD. 
    • It is strongly suggested that views of sculpture and installation art be submitted on DVD. 
    • Film makers should submit up to fifteen minutes of their work on DVD. 
    • Composers should submit no more than five works, up to thirty minutes of music in total, both in score and on CD recordings. 
The Committee will return materials submitted only if requested by the applicant and cannot be held responsible for valuable properties.Materials will be destroyed after 3 years. The Rose Fellowship is not intended to support graduate study.  In 2012-13 one award will be available in the amount of at least $45,000.  The Committee hopes to announce the recipient of the W.K. Rose Fellowship by mid-May 2012. It reserves the right to withhold the award in any given year. All inquiries should be sent to Fellowships@Vassar.edu.
List of Recipients