New Gift Offers Art Students the Opportunity to Study Abroad

The School of Art + Design has a new scholarship for students thanks to a generous gift by Catherine Kumlin and Robert Gamblin, founder of Portland-based Gamblin Artist Colors, a renowned manufacturer of finely crafted artist oil colors.

Announcing the Catherine Kumlin & Robert Gamblin Endowed Art Practice Study Abroad Scholarship

The Catherine Kumlin & Robert Gamblin Endowed Art Practice Scholarship will benefit an undergraduate or graduate Art Practice student who wants to participate in a PSU School of Art + Design study abroad program that includes art practice credit. The scholarship will be given on a competitive basis with preference given for a student focusing on painting.

Traveling to cities like Berlin, Germany or Guanajuato, Mexico through one of our study abroad programs gives our students a rich and immersive experience. Our programs offer the chance for students to interact with working artists, making studio visits and excursions to see art installations and exhibitions, and to make work themselves in top­notch facilities. For many students, traveling outside the US with these programs is a first­ time experience. Students who participated in painting faculty Tia Factor’s study abroad course, “Berlin: The Fall and Rise of an Art City”, a 4­-credit Art Practice elective, say it best:

“I didn't know how much traveling to new places could change the way you think of your own practice until I did it. Seeing a new city in a country I had never been to, being with new people, seeing working artists, getting forced from your comfort zone. It's an invaluable experience that wouldn’t be obtainable any other way.“
~ Jake Owen (Summer 2018)

“The trip got me to think about how my practice fits in with the larger world and with the massive communities of other artists out there. Studying abroad overall gave me the chance to observe and re­learn how the art world (and art around the world) really operates through previously unseen perspectives.”
~ Zach Whitworth (Summer 2018)

About the Philanthropists
As artists who were raised and educated on the west coast of America, Catherine Kumlin and Robert Gamblin fully appreciate the importance of travel in order to come face to face, rather than eyes to book or screen, with the history of art. It is only when one shares the room with works of art that their presence can be fully appreciated, and one can feel what it is that makes great artworks.

When Robert and Catherine came together as a couple, their love of painting and travel merged. Every day of their travels they draw or paint and it is at those moments that they are most fully in those places. Catherine’s first trip outside of the states was to London and Paris with an art class from Portland State, and Robert first traveled through Europe in his 20’s, visiting museums and historical sites as a form of graduate school. Now they travel to another continent once or twice a year, going to art capitals or places where they want to start a new series of work. The journey of discovery informs both of their painting practices.

The value of travel unfolds every time they are in a foreign country. Viewing original works of art is always a peak moment, an exclamation, “oh that is what it really looks like,” or “that’s the color?!” Travel to see great works tunes the eye, an artist will come back to their home studio with a fresh awareness from being lifted out of everyday existence. By providing this travel scholarship, the donors hope that students who receive it will have similar experiences of their own.

To make a gift or discuss options for supporting PSU art students and programs, contact:

Jaymee Jacoby
SeniorDirector of Development, College of the Arts
503­725­3396
jacobyj@psuf.org

Or, make a gift online at giving.psuf.org/art