On a mid-January day, a group of talented artists are coming together in room 217 of the Drama Building. They share talents in drama, visual art, dance, and music. And more than that, they share a designation as J. Sanford Miller Arts Scholars, a select group of undergraduates who are exploring their crafts and sharing the artistic guidance and insights of some of the leading creative forces on the University’s Grounds.

The program was launched into the spotlight by a gift from Evelyn McGee Colbert (College ‘85), and her husband, comedian Stephen Colbert. The next year, it got a generous and strategic $2 million investment from Silicon Valley venture capitalist J. Sanford Miller (College ‘71) that gave the program a name, and helped it impact the lives and artistic evolution of even more students.

“I am passionate about the arts at the University,” said Miller. “I feel like you are not a great university unless you have great arts programs. I thought we had great programs, but that those programs could benefit from further enhancement and more attention given around the Grounds, and that the Arts Scholars program would be a great way to motivate and attract outstanding artists to be at the University and to create more excitement about the arts there.”

Miller envisioned the program as a sort of arts-themed Jefferson Scholars. “It is not a full scholarship but it shows somebody who is applying or already at U.Va. that there is a real focus on the arts, and a special kind of recognition and some benefits that gifted artists can aspire to, and I think that is really a huge plus.”

Those benefits include increased interaction with, and support from, leading arts scholars and artists starting when U.Va. candidates apply for the program during the spring of their first year. They then begin their Miller Arts Scholars experience by attending a fall seminar that allows them to meet and interact with internationally-renowned members of the arts faculty who share insights into issues related to their art and the artist’s life, as well as to visit local arts facilities. 

Those sessions also help cultivate mentorship opportunities that greatly impact the students’ experiences in the program, said student filmmaker Alex Rafala (College ‘15). “I met Richard Warner from the Drama Department through one of these talks, and he proved to be a mentor to me. He was very excited to see us and gave us some great exercises. I asked if he would be willing to meet sometime and we have been meeting ever since.”

Last fall the pair met again at the Virginia Film Festival, where Rafala’s directorial effort Farewell Old Stringy premiered at the Festival. The film, which was produced by U.Va. student Lauren Lukow (College ‘14), featured Warner as its star.

Rafala’s film highlights another important aspect of the program. During their third and fourth academic years, Miller Arts Scholars can apply for two successive funding grants to support their work, including a rising third year award for somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,400, and a fourth year award of nearly double that amount. 

“The grants go through a vetting process with a faculty committee,” said Michael Rasbury, the director of the Miller Arts Scholars program since its inception. “It gives them an experience in formal grant writing. It is competitive in the sense that only the best proposals will be funded – being a Miller Arts Scholar does not guarantee you funding – but you are not competing with the whole school for the money.”

Fourth-year Olivia Bona (College ‘15), an oboe player who along with Rafala, is part of the first class to go through the program, has had two successful grant applications funded. “I approached several of the faculty for composition and my oboe professor and a piano faculty member about writing a piano/oboe sonata for my Distinguished Major performance,” she said. “They have gone above and beyond to help me facilitate this project.” The support included one-on-one mentoring and critiquing sessions, research suggestions and sharing ideas on composition styles.

“The phrase ‘It takes a village’ is totally emblematic of the Arts Scholars program,” Bona said, “because no one is doing anything alone. We have so many people who want to see us succeed and want to see us do well.”

Leading that village, Rasbury said, is a privilege. “This has been one of the most rewarding processes of my professional life. How often are you afforded the chance to design along with students and faculty a program like this one? When I became Director, there was an idea of Arts Scholars as devised by our previous Associate Dean Holsinger; however, he gave me full permission to create what it is now.”

Rasbury, a noted sound designer and playwright whose powerful musical Max Understood was given a workshop performance at U.Va. last year and is currently readying for a full run in San Francisco later this year, likened his experience with the program to his theatre life. “It’s like being on a design team for a play. Each person brings something to the table until you get the production you want. And then to have leaders like the Colberts and the Millers validate the work just gives us the freedom to know that it is OK to keep dreaming and to be organic with all of this as the program continues to evolve.”

During the second semester, the Arts Scholars’ weekly meetings shift from outside presentations to a collaborative seminar that allows the students to discuss their own work and their own challenges while designing an end-of-year showcase where they can share their respective talents. “There is a tremendous amount of collaboration,” Rafala said. “We have amazing conversations, and they can get pretty heated, about what is art.”

These cross-disciplinary artistic conversations are important, Rasbury adds. “I am part dramatist and part musician, with a music and a drama degree. Musicians and theatrical artisans have totally different ways of approaching a problem, and it is great to see these interconnections made. I think it is giving the people in the program an enriched experience that will make them better problem solvers when they leave.”

Miller recalls being at the 2012 Dedication Ceremony and experiencing the impact of his support firsthand. “The students were all wearing Miller Arts Scholars t-shirts and it was a really magical moment for me and my family.” 

He said he hopes his and his family’s support is not an end for the program, but a beginning. “The program has a lot of good attributes, but we also hope the program can benefit from more students and can provide even more department resources. So one of the things I am hoping is that while the overall program has been established and endowed by our family, that this is really just the start in terms of donor support.”