Scholarships

2026 VAMA SCHOLARSHIP

2026 VAMA SCHOLARSHIP

Welcome to the online home for the 2026 VAMA Scholarship. The application submission window is currently open until 4/24/26 11:59 p.m. Use this page to submit scholarship application to any number of scholarship categories.

About the scholarship

The 2026 VAMA Scholarship recognizes student excellence in art, photography, illustration, design, game design, animation, and art history. The scholarship is open to all students in good standing with active course attendance who explore creative practices and produce work as part of their studies at Los Angeles City College, via any course offered by the Visual And Media Arts Department.

Work submitted by scholarship applicants are judged on artistic, creative, and scholarly merit. Work is judged by the faculty of the Visual and Media Arts Department. Students who are awarded the VAMA Scholarship have their work exhibited in a VAMA Scholarship Show at VAMA Gallery.

The scholarship and exhibition is hosted by the faculty of the Visual And Media Arts Department at Los Angeles City College, with support from the Los Angeles City College Foundation.

For more information or questions about the scholarship program, email Amarpal Khanna, chair of the Visual and Media Arts Department, at khannaa@lacitycollege.edu

Upcoming Dates:

  • 4/24/26: Applications due by 11:59 p.m.
  • 5/14/26: Award ceremony 12 p.m. - 1 p.m.
  • 5/14/26: Exhibition reception 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Online application

ARTIST NAME

Please enter your name. Use the spelling, spacing, and capitalizations as you prefer. If you win a scholarship or are included in the exhibit, the name displayed with your work will be based on what you enter here.

PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS

Please indicate the best personal email address to communicate with you.

SCHOOL EMAIL ADDRESS

Please indicate your LACC email address to communicate with you.

MAILING ADDRESS

Please indicate your complete mailing address. The scholarship committee uses the submitted address to mail scholarship checks in the event the submission wins a scholarship. Make sure the address, city, state, and ZIP code are included.

PHONE NUMBER

Please indicate the best phone number to communicate with you.

STUDENT ID

Please indicate your LACC student ID

SCHOLARSHIP CATEGORY

Please select a category for this scholarship application. (If you want to submit to several scholarship categories, you can, just complete this one and return to this page to submit another.)

The courses listed within each category serve as advisories for those categories. To complete in a category, you should have taken at least one of the courses listed in that category.

First Year Photo

Applicants to this category cannot be enrolled in advanced photography courses.

Applications to this category are submitting work made in any of these courses: Photo 07, Photo 10, Photo 20, Photo 501

Portfolio requirements: Presentation of 5-8 works.

Category contact: Prof. Belle, BELLENT@LACITYCOLLEGE.EDU

First Year Studio Art

Applicants to this category cannot be enrolled in advanced studio art courses.

Applications to this category are submitting work made in any of these courses: Art 250, 501, 201, 502, 700, 282, 708

Portfolio requirements: Presentation of 5-8 works.

Category contact: Prof. Wiesenfeld, wiesena@laccd.edu

Second Year Studio Art - 2D

Applications to this category are submitting work made in any of these courses: 202, 204, 205, 300-309, 400, 401, 282, 209, 620.

Portfolio requirements: Presentation of 8-12 works.

Category contact: Prof. Wiesenfeld, wiesena@laccd.edu

Second Year Studio Art - 3D

This category recognizes 3D studio art work created in VAMA art classes 700, 701, 702, 709, 710, and 282.

Portfolio requirements: Presentation of 8-12 works.

Category contact: Prof. Janacua, JANACUAC@LACITYCOLLEGE.EDU

Second Year Photo

This category recognizes photography work created in photography program courses Photo 15, 16, 49, 107.

Portfolio requirements: Presentation of 8-12 works.

Category contact: Prof. Belle, BELLENT@LACITYCOLLEGE.EDU

Graphic Design

This category recognizes graphic design and web design work created in VAMA art courses 604, 605, 606, 645.

Portfolio requirements: Presentation of 8-12 works.

Category contact: Prof. Khanna, khannaa@lacitycollege.edu

Animation

This category recognizes animation work created in VAMA art courses 218, 225, 226.

Portfolio requirements: Presentation of 3-5 videos.

Category contact: Prof. Flores, floresja4@lacitycollege.edu

Game Design

This category recognizes game design work created in courses GAD 101, 102, 103, 104, 106, 203, 210

Portfolio requirements:

  • GAD 101: submit photos or videos of board games
  • GAD 102: 3-5 images of concept work
  • GAD 103, 106, 203, 104: videos of projects
  • GAD 210: images and concept clearly stating student collaborations

Category contact: Prof. Kline, KLINEME@LACITYCOLLEGE.EDU

Illustration/Storyboard

This category recognizes illustration work made in VAMA art courses 204, 205, 209, 620, 621, 649.

Portfolio requirements: Presentation of 8-12 works.

Category contact: Prof. Khanna, khannaa@lacitycollege.edu

Art History

This award is presented to a student who, among other distinctions, has demonstrated particular commitment to art history work. This category recognizes scholarly work and artistic expression made as part of Art History courses 110, 120, 130.

Minimum quals:

  • 4 - 7 pages
  • Paper analyzes the formal, iconographic, and contextual characteristics of the art object
  • Paper includes a cover page with images of art object, artist, title, date, medium, and object location
  • Paper is formatted and cited in Chicago Style or MLA with a bibliography
  • If the paper was completed in conjunction with a presentation, please submit the presentation

Portfolio requirements: Papers or presentations reflecting art history work.

Category contact: Prof. Lessing, LESSINAC@LACITYCOLLEGE.EDU

Henry Walton Award

This scholarship is designed to provide assistance for a disadvantaged student who has overcome significant obstacles to attend college and is pursuing a degree in photography or majoring in journalism, or whose work has been published in the Collegian or Collegian Times Magazine, or who is currently enrolled in Cinema 501 or Photo 501 with Professor Marlos.

Portfolio requirements: Presentation of 5 works. Essay submission required; see below.

Category contact: Prof. Belle, BELLENT@LACITYCOLLEGE.EDU

ART COURSEWORK HISTORY AT LACC

Please list all the Visual and Media Art courses you've taken at Los Angeles City College.

Include the course number, course name, instructor name, semester, and year.

ART COURSEWORK HISTORY OUTSIDE LACC

Please list any art classes you've taken at another college.

Include the college name, course number, course name, instructor name, semester, and year.

PORTFOLIO

Please submit your portfolio materials, either by uploading a portfolio PDF, or submitting a link to your online portfolio. Only work produced as part of LACC coursework is allowed for this scholarship.

Upload Portfolio PDF (maximum filesize allowed is 30MB)

When preparing a portfolio PDF, make sure you design and lay out work do be descriptive and informative. Please make sure each piece is accompanied with the following text information: Title, Medium, Year, Size (Height x Width [x Depth if applicable]), class made. Particularly important is noting which course a work was made for, please make sure to include this information.

Examples: [1] Falling Leaves, Archival Inkjet Print, 2021, 8.5 inches x 11 inches, Photo 7; [2] Balloons, Acrylic Paint, 2020, 24 inches x 24 inches, Art 305.

Links to tutorials on how to make a PDF art portfolio: From Adobe, CLIP guide, YouTube. Good luck!

Remember the maximum filesize allowed for upload is 30MB. If your portfolio PDF has to be larger, consider hosting your portfolio on cloud storage and submitting portfolio link, see next option.

Submit Portfolio Link

You may provide link to your online portfolio. Remember it can be a link to your portfolio on Google Drive, One Drive, or a web site. Make sure the website portfolio is adequately formatted for a formal portfolio review. Make sure a could storage link is set to allow anyone with link to view. Any problems with your link will mean your work is inaccessible to judges and the application is likely to not score very well in judging. Particularly important in your portfolio materials is noting which course a work was made for, for every work, please make sure to include this information.

Add Portfolio Description

You may use the description textbox if you would like to also list additional information about the works included in your portfolio. Particularly important is noting which course a work was made for, please make sure to include this information.

HENRY WALTON AWARD STATEMENT

If you are submitting this application for the Henry Walton Award, please include an essay statement (250 words max) on how to you have overcome tremendous obstacles to pursue a photography or journalism degree at Los Angeles City College. We recommend you write your essay in another program and then cut-and-paste text into this submission textbox.

EXHIBITION PREFERENCES

Please review these exhibition preferences, which confirm your intent to submit your work to share with others via the scholarship's exhibition and related programming, communications, and marketing.

If I win, I want my winning work to be a part of the physical exhibit at VAMA Gallery and will be prepared to bring to exhibit organizers the physical work as described in my submission materials by the artwork delivery deadlines issued by the exhibition curators.

I agree to have my submitted work exhibited online on the VAMA Gallery website and on VAMA social media.