Sam Staves and Amornthep Jaidee, both of whom are in a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Art) degree program, are the 2008/2009 Roloff Beny Foundation Photographic Award recipients.
The Roloff Beny Foundation Photographic Award in Fine Arts is a prestigious, juried, $5,000 award that supports student travel related to research/creative work in photo-arts. Any new or continuing students enrolled full-time in any BFA degree program with a focused interest in photo-arts is eligible to apply for this competitive award.
Staves is in her fourth year of study in the BFA art studio program and plans to travel to New Orleans, Belize City and Kingston, Jamaica to study
Creole culture.
Jaidee is in his third year of study in the BFA art studio program and has proposed to return to his native Thailand (Chaiprakarn, Chiang Mai) to pursue a documentary project that focuses on the simple activity of a small rural village.
The 2007/2008 Roloff Beny award went to Corinne Thiessen Hepher, who is studying for a BFA in New Media. Hepher used the award to travel to Vancouver and Montreal to produce photo/performance works. In Vancouver, she produced Woman with Monkey On Back: Vancouver and in Montreal she produced Rue St. Remi.
Originally from Medicine Hat, Roloff Beny earned degrees from the University of Toronto and the State University of Iowa before developing an international reputation for his photographic work. He is considered a distinguished artist in Canadian history and travelled widely throughout Europe and Asia for subjects that subsequently appeared in his own work.
In recognition of his contributions to the fine arts, Roloff Beny was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree in 1972 by the University of Lethbridge. Upon his death in 1984, the
U of L received a significant bequest of Mr. Beny's visual art collection.
In 2004, the Roloff Beny Foundation endowed the U of L Faculty of Fine Arts Art Dept. with the Roloff Beny Foundation Photographic Award in Fine Arts, an award that recognizes and supports excellence in the fine arts.