The Faculty of Fine Arts has once again awarded the “Study and Shine!” and Helju Rossmann-Schneider scholarships to outstanding master’s students. A total of seven students from three study programmes received scholarships.
The “Study and Shine!” scholarship aims to recognise and support master’s students at the Estonian Academy of Arts for their creative activity and dedication to their studies. Established in December 2023, the scholarship acknowledges students’ artistic development and active participation in their studies. The Helju Rossmann-Schneider scholarship is intended for graduating master’s students, supporting them during the completion of their master’s theses. The scholarship is administered through the Estonian American Fund. This year, both scholarships amounted to 1000 EUR each.
This year’s application period ran from 1 October to 1 November, with a total of 30 applications received: 13 for the “Study and Shine!” scholarship and 17 for the Helju Rossmann-Schneider scholarship.
A total of seven scholarships were awarded: three “Study and Shine!” scholarships and four Helju Rossmann-Schneider scholarships. The recipients are enrolled in three master’s programmes: Contemporary Art (MAKK), Contemporary Art (MACA), and Animation.
On 11 November, a ceremony was held at the Faculty of Fine Arts Dean’s Office to congratulate the scholarship recipients. The students were congratulated by the Dean of the Faculty, Taaniel Raudsepp, and scholarship committee members Merike Estna, Lilli-Krõõt Repnau, and Mart Vainre.
The “Study and Shine!” scholarships were awarded to:
Francisca Villela (Animation)
Francisca Villela was awarded the Study and Shine scholarship for her interesting project, The Shopping Diary. The project combines neoliberal ideas, sounds, and everyday life. Through the protagonist, we follow how economic forces shape personal choices and daily experiences. The scholarship will support her artistic development and further experimentation.
Adam Peevers (Contemporary Art)
Adam Peevers is awarded the Study and Shine scholarship for their ambitious sculptural practice and the clear, practical need behind the proposal. Peevers’s often site specific installations show a consistent material language that uses physical weight and the meeting of old and new materials to examine identity. The scholarship will support producing their large-scale installations.
Mia Mai Seppel (Contemporary Art)
Mia Mai Seppel is awarded the Study and Shine scholarship for her coherent and carefully considered artistic practice, which brings together text and visual art. Drawing on myths, religious texts and everyday literature, she uses oil painting and sgraffito to explore narratives of mysticism, corporeality, desire and character archetypes. The scholarship will make possible her first solo exhibition at Haapsalu City Gallery in autumn 2027, where it will allow her to present large-format works.
The Helju Rossmann-Schneider scholarships were awarded to:
Ana Ramales (Animation)
Ana Ramales was awarded the Helju Rossmann Schneider Scholarship for her compelling animation project, Ñu Yaa Ka’an Fresa (What Language Do Strawberries Speak?). The film explores Mixtec migration, agricultural labor, and the preservation of Indigenous language and cultural identity. It combines personal and family experiences with fantasy, humor, and a strong visual narrative. The use of Sa’an Savi (Mixtec) as the film’s language is an important artistic choice. The project brings underrepresented voices and stories into animation in an original and meaningful way.
Bob Bicknell-Knight (Contemporary Art)
Bob Bicknell-Knight is awarded the Helju Rossmann-Schneider scholarship for his dedicated and ambitious artistic practice, shown both in his constant work in the studio and in his active exhibition activity. His MA thesis project, Energy Vampire, draws on research made since he moved to Estonia, a country where oil shale extraction and digitisation exist side by side. Through a room-scale installation of large 3D-printed sculptures, a hybrid painting, a site-recorded soundscape and a custom scent, along with a self-published book, the project examines extractivism, complicity in the climate emergency and the relationship between digital and physical production. The scholarship will support bringing this project to completion.
Daria Morozova (Contemporary Art)
Daria Morozova is awarded the Helju Rossmann-Schneider scholarship for her socially significant and thoughtfully developed MA thesis, “From Ida-Virumaa in Contrasting Colours”. The work combines colour theory with interviews with Russian-speaking young people from Ida-Virumaa who have moved to Tallinn, exploring how colour can convey a person’s character and sense of identity. Through their personal stories, the project challenges stereotypes about the region and broadens dialogue between Estonia’s different linguistic and cultural communities. The scholarship will support the completion of a series of 18 painted portraits at its planned scale.
Lotta Räsänen (Contemporary Art)
Lotta Räsänen is awarded the Helju Rossmann-Schneider scholarship for her conceptually rich MA thesis project Pesitsemisi (Nestings), which brings metal and glass together to explore the relationship between mother and daughter. Grounded in feminist and new materialist thought, the project treats daughtering as an active, relational way of being that is often overshadowed by discussions of motherhood. It draws on forms such as the cradle, the lap, the egg and the egg carton, and on the tension between hardness and fragility in metal and glass. The scholarship will cover the materials needed for repeated experiments, so that the research can develop without being limited by access to materials.