TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama’s nationally recognized book arts program has received a $4 million grant from the Windgate Foundation, quadrupling the Arkansas-based philanthropy’s original investment and dramatically expanding scholarship support for graduate students.
UA officials said the new endowment will expand fellowships and graduate assistantships, provide additional targeted scholarships and help pay for equipment and studio upgrades for students pursuing the Master of Fine Arts in book arts. The funding builds on the Windgate Charitable Foundation Endowed Book Arts Support Fund, created in 2005 with a $1 million gift that has helped recruit and retain MFA students for more than two decades.
The book arts program, housed in the School of Library and Information Studies in UA’s College of Communication and Information Sciences, was established in 1985 and is widely described as the first and longest-running book arts MFA program in the United States. The three-year, 60-credit-hour curriculum focuses on the fine art and traditional craft of making books by hand, combining training in letterpress printing, typography, bookbinding and papermaking with coursework on the history of the book and contemporary artistic practice.
UA notes that only a handful of graduate programs nationwide are dedicated specifically to bookmaking and artists’ books, positioning Tuscaloosa as a longstanding hub for the field. The program’s mission emphasizes both advanced technical skills and an understanding of the historical and professional contexts in which book artists, printers and conservators work.
The new Windgate funding comes amid a period of investment in book arts at UA. In recent years, the program has moved into renovated facilities in McLure Library, and donors Tom and Carol Patterson committed $500,000 to establish the Stephen K. Miller Endowed Professorship in Book Arts earlier this year, underscoring the university’s push to stabilize and elevate the discipline.
Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Windgate Foundation is a private grant-making organization established in 1993 to support contemporary craft and strengthen visual arts education in the United States. The foundation has become a major patron of arts and design programs across the country, directing hundreds of millions of dollars to higher education and K-12 institutions to fund facilities, scholarships and instructional programs in the visual arts.
UA leaders say the expanded endowment will allow the book arts program to recruit a more diverse and competitive cohort of graduate students by reducing financial barriers to attendance. With the new grant, the combined Windgate fund is expected to provide long-term, renewable support for students and infrastructure in a niche but influential area of arts education at Alabama’s flagship university.