TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Windgate Foundation has awarded a $4 million grant to the University of Alabama to expand scholarship opportunities for graduate students in its book arts program.
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UA says the gift quadruples the Arkansas-based foundation's original $1 million investment, which established the Windgate Charitable Foundation Endowed Book Arts Support Fund in 2005.
The new funding will expand Windgate fellowships, create graduate assistantships, provide additional scholarship support and help upgrade studio equipment.
UA also said the endowed fund has supported Master of Fine Arts students in book arts for more than two decades, serving as a key recruiting tool for the program.
Book arts blends traditional craftsmanship with contemporary fine art through disciplines such as printing, papermaking and bookbinding. In recent years, UA has expanded the program to include an undergraduate minor and both in-person and online graduate certificate options.
Second-year MFA student Erasmia Schirmer Devitt said creating work by hand has become increasingly meaningful.
"From my perspective, in a world moving toward AI, I find more value in things made by your hands," Schirmer Devitt said. "The humanness of it feels alive to me. It also shows students they can create something worth making."
Anna Embree, the program's former director who is retiring this year after 23 years of teaching at UA, said the expanded funding will provide greater flexibility to assist students.
"The financial support from Windgate has always been impactful, and the magnitude of this gift is going to make it even more so," Embree said.
Sarah Bryant, director of the book arts program, also said the gift comes at a pivotal time.
"We have a very strong reputation nationwide and are the longest-running book arts MFA program in the country," Bryant said. "Being able to reliably fund these artists and scholars who want to study at Alabama is huge for us."
The new grant follows several recent investments in the program. Last year, the program relocated from Gorgas Library to renovated space in McLure Library, bringing its materials, printing presses and papermaking facilities under one roof.
Earlier this year, Tom and Carol Patterson also committed $500,000 to establish the Stephen K. Miller Endowed Professorship in Book Arts as part of UA's Rising Tide 2.0 capital campaign.
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