Help the Honors College win a Pepsi Refresh Grant

Vote on the Pepsi Refresh website or text 107334 to Pepsi (73774). Standard text messaging rates apply. Voting closes July 31.

FIU is in the running for a $25,000 Pepsi Refresh grant to bring art to students who are non-art majors.

Every year, Honors College students work with local artists to curate an exhibit at the Frost Art Museum. The Aesthetics & Values Fine Art Exhibition is the culmination of a year-long seminar taught by Honors College fellow John Bailly. The class examines the role visual art plays in the social and cultural dialogue surrounding controversial issues. A grant would help expand the reach of the exhibit nationally.

When Aesthetics & Values alumna Alexandra Montesino ’11 learned about the Pepsi grants last year, she jumped at the opportunity and applied for an award on behalf of Aesthetics & Values.

“A&V introduced me to the art world in Miami. It awakened a passion in me for the arts and because of this class I pursued a minor in art history. This has been the case for several A&V alumni who are now interning in different art galleries in the Wynwood District. People don’t just take this class and it ends there,” says Montesino, who graduated from FIU with a degree in business management. “I want to be able to share the exhibit with as many people as possible.”

The grant would be used to produce a nationally distributed catalog; present a lecture series for the university and South Florida community; create a website dedicated to the A&V exhibition; and write and design an A&V handbook for students enrolled in the seminar.

Bailly hopes more exposure and funding will help share his students’ work as well as inspire similar programs. The lecture series, he adds, will enrich both the university and local community. “It’s an opportunity for non-artists to develop a relationship with art. So it’s not just wall decoration. Art should be something that speaks to them. That enriches their lives.”

The A&V exhibition has already garnered national recognition. Since 2007, A&V students have presented the project at the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) Conference. After learning of A&V at NCHC, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock organized their own Aesthetics and Values Exhibition in the Spring 2011.

The Pepsi Refresh Project  awards grants to projects, both big and small, from individuals and organizations that do good for the community. PepsiCo has doled out more than $20 million to community-supportive ideas that receive the greatest number of votes through this landmark fundraising effort.

To vote for FIU’s project, go to the Pepsi Refresh website or text 107334 to Pepsi (73774). Standard text messaging rates apply.

Voting closes July 31.