One of 2024 Helju Rossmann Schneider scholarship holders, Kristel Zimmer
The recipients of the Helju Rossmann Schneider scholarship 2024 have been announced.
The Helju Rossmann Schneider Scholarship is awarded by the Estonian American Fund to EKA Fine Arts master’s students. The Faculty of Fine Arts of the Estonian Academy of Arts received a scholarship program thanks to Dr. Bernard Schneider. The scholarship program is named after her husband, Helju Rossmann Schneider, and it awards a scholarship of $4,000 per year. The first scholarships were awarded in December 2020. Each scholarship is worth $1,000.
Dr. In 2024, the Schneider scholarship committee included Kirke Kangro, Dean of Fine Arts at EKA, Anu Vahtra and Maris Karjatse, heads of the master’s program in Contemporary Art, Lilli-Krõõt Repnau, head of the Animation department, and Mark Raidpere, acting head of the Scenography department.
The recipients of the Helju Rossmann Schneider scholarship were chosen:
Kristel Zimmer – Scenography MA
Already at the end of her bachelor’s studies, Kristel Zimmer entered professional theater work as a scenographer. During her MA studies, Kristel Zimmer has established herself as a dedicated, purposeful, in-depth and material-sensitive author, whose biography is currently showing permanent creative partnerships with renowned directors and performance artists. His work as a video artist also deserves special mention, which through a unique perspective on physicality surprises and expands established understandings of being a human being.
Santiago Ordóñez – MA in Animation
Santiago Ordóñez is a master’s student whose dedication and determination in animation is admirable, and his ongoing master’s thesis project “It is (Not) yours” has already received recognition and attention at international animation events. For example, an honorable mention in the CEE Anima forum in the Czech Republic. Ordóñez has said that animation is a time-consuming activity that requires more than just an idea to complete. It requires a clear plan of action, hours of concentration and an understanding of movement to ultimately reach the desired result. His final film is a sensitive black-and-white story in cartoon technique, which tells a story about a sense of belonging and the protagonist’s complex relationship with the environment around him.
Anna-Liisa Kree – MA in Contemporary Art (MAKK)
Anna-Liisa Kree deals with a deeply personal but socially extremely important topic in her creative practice and soon-to-be completed master’s thesis – the journey of a parent of a child with special needs in different cultural and social contexts – with the aim of highlighting and criticizing keywords such as taboo, normativity, shame, the relationship between child and mother. Anna-Liisa mainly works with the medium of analog photography in a poetic and narrative way, which in turn interprets the ideas discussed in her artistic practice, such as time and slowness, physical contact, working in a dark room.
Rose Magee – MA Contemporary Art (MACA)
In her master’s thesis, Rose Magee is partly based on the idea of a hybrid identity, and her material-based conceptual approach combines nuanced points of contact between glass and metal. Rose is hardworking and dedicated to material research and experimentation, and in her creations, she looks for ways to analyze the universal concept of being both and neither at the same time, staying in balance or in constant transformation, based on personal experience.
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The Estonian American Foundation also awards a scholarship named after Jaan Holt. The Department of Architecture of the Estonian Academy of Arts received a scholarship program for the long-time director of the Virginia Tech Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center, professor emeritus Jaan Holt. In cooperation with the Estonian American Foundation, Holt has enabled many architects with an art academy background to study at the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center since 1992. Ann Kristiin Entson, architecture student of EKA, was awarded the first Jaan Holt scholarship. The scholarship committee included professor Andres Ojari, dean of the Faculty of Architecture of EKA, senior researcher Renee Puusepp and architect Maarja Kask from the Salto architecture office.