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Click here to read our publication, Celebrating 10 Years of Scholarship Giving at the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts.

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Apply for a Scholarship

We are pleased to offer scholarships to students from low-income households. Priority is given to children attending a BPS school, with preference for those attending one of our partnership schools. We offer a very limited number of scholarships to adult students.

Spaces are limited – first come, first served.

Each student receiving a scholarship must pay a $25 Registration Fee per each class registration.

Una cuota de inscripción de $25 por estudiante es requerida. Espacio limitado.

All Eliot School enrollment policies apply regarding withdrawal, refunds, cancellations, etc. Please see our Policies for details.

How to Apply

To apply for a scholarship, please complete our application form here. Scroll all the way to the bottom, preview your submission, then click "submit." We will get back to you shortly.

For more information, contact our Program Support Team

Contáctenos para más información.

 


Help Make Scholarships Available to All

Give Now

Our scholarships are made possible by the many people who donate to our Scholarship Fund.
Nuestras becas son posibles gracias a toda la gente que dona a nuestro fondo de becas.

Join these many generous donors, and make a Scholarship Fund gift here
Considere hacer una donación a nuestro Fondo de Becas.

DONATE NOW 

 

Named Scholarship Funds

We are proud to host special scholarship funds in honor/memory of those whose lives, interests and values have intersected with the Eliot School. Their legacy allows students to attend classes tuition-free. 

To establish a named scholarship in honor of a loved one, please contact us for more information.

To donate to an existing scholarship fund, click here and mention the name of the fund in the Notes.

Stanewick Family Scholarship Fund

Joseph Stanewick is an exceptional and well-loved woodworking teacher who has been (and still is) teaching at the Eliot School for more than 20 years.

The Stanewick Family Scholarship Fund honors Joseph Stanewick, an exceptional and well-loved woodworking teacher who has been (and still is) teaching at the Eliot School for more than 20 years.

Joe made the innovative decision to design the Eliot School's Basic Woodworking: Box class, which has initiated hundreds of students into the Eliot School wood shop. His friends and family describe him as generous and loving. “He's just interested in caring for and loving other people. That’s his hallmark,” says Joe’s partner, Jill Herold. Click here to read the full Stanewick Family bio.

Although Joe has always enjoyed woodworking, he had an unconventional path ito teaching the craft. He earned a BS in Accounting from Boston College and an MBA from Babson College. For almost 40 years he worked for New England Telephone. At the age of 38, he took a cabinetmaking course at Wentworth Institute for Technology, then looked for places to practice and learn more. That September, he visited the Eliot School, where he met Director Charlie Sandler, and, says Joe, "The rest is history."

Joe was born to Joseph and Ethel Stanewick and raised in Roslindale, Massachusetts. He met his wife, Sandra, while she was earning a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in English at Simmons College. A lover of children’s literature, Sandy taught for many years at the Hennigan Elementary School in Jamaica Plain. Joe and Sandy traveled to Peru to adopt their daughter Marisa on her first birthday. As Joe describes, “Marisa completely changed our lives, as children do. She was a great kid with an innate sense of humor and, of course, we spoiled her rotten.” Joe and Sandy impressed upon Marisa the value of education. She attended private school and then Boston Latin School. She followed in her mother’s footsteps and now teaches pre-school at a synagogue in Needham. Marisa and her partner Daryl Veale have a son named Daryl, who attended Boston Latin School and Providence College.

When Joe retired, Charlie Sandler invited him to teach at the Eliot School. Alongside Frank Pettorossi, Charlie Tardanico, Jac Van Loon, and others, he helped develop curriculum and taught woodworking to hundreds of students. For several years, he scaled back his work when his wife Sandy was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. After a courageous battle with the disease, she passed away in 2019. While Joe was caring for his wife at Rogerson House, he met his now current partner, Jill Herold, who was also caring for her spouse. Joe and Jill supported each other through difficult times, and their friendship blossomed into a romantic partnership after their spouses passed away.

After Wentworth, Joe studied the Fundamentals of Machine Woodworking at North Bennet Street School. At the Eliot School, he took furniture refinishing with Michael Gleason and gilding with Nancy Dick Atkinson. He worked for Trefler Restoration, in Newton, for three years. Through these experiences, he found himself traveling in a small network of New England woodworkers that included signmaker/furniture-maker Neal Widett, gilder JJ Lomartre, cabinetmaker Tom Johnson, and others.

Joe's best advice about studying woodworking is: "Have patience. It’s slow, time consuming, precise, and that takes planning." He tells students, “Don't look at the whole object. Look at one piece at a time. See how they fit. Make sure it's all going to fit together. Draw it out, and you'll be fine.”

Sonja Schubert Calabi Scholarship for Textile Arts and 
Lorenzo Calabi Scholarship for Woodworking

Intellectuals and carriers of European culture, Lorenzo Calabi and Sonja Schubert Calabi each practiced handcrafts throughout their long and productive lives.

Dr. Calabi was born in northern Italy. The first of his several emigrations was to Switzerland during the Second World War, where he met Swiss-born Sonja Schubert at university. He attained his bachelor’s degree in German and his PhD in French; their early married life was in France. The Calabis came to this country on a Fulbright travel grant, when Lorenzo joined the wave of European professors who bolstered the US educational system in the 1950s. After teaching at Boston College, he became a pioneer in the computer industry. Mrs. Calabi, a self-taught art historian, applied her fluency in several languages and ability to engage in international circles to help grow a prominent Newbury Street gallery and to work as curator of a private collection of prints and books. She also volunteered as a docent in Boston College’s McMullen Museum of Art.

Throughout their lives, the Calabis’ handwork covered a range from do-it-yourself fixing to pure creativity. When they bought a house that even in 1955 still had almost no wiring, Lorenzo consulted a library book on home electricity to wire the house himself; Sonja wallpapered, stenciled and painted. Lorenzo designed and made furniture and other objects from wood and metal. Sonja made clothes, embroidery and quilts of her own design. Their house was full of books and art – books in the bookcases that he built and art that they framed themselves. They taught their children about fonts and calligraphy by hand-cutting printing blocks, and made gift-wrap with potato prints. They engaged with the history and culture of their new country through traditional American artisanry, Lorenzo making metalwork lanterns and Sonja decorating wooden milk-pails.

Lorenzo and Sonja Schubert Calabi lived in Newton for more than 60 years, where they raised four children.

Their daughter recalls, “My parents thought that making things was a basic activity, part of the natural order of things. They believed in self-sufficiency and problem-solving. They also believed that functional objects should be beautiful. Pleasure and necessity, creativity and practicality, the satisfaction of making something and the satisfaction of using it, frugality and a love of fine things – all came together in hours spent making their home comfortable, efficient and beautiful by the work of their hands.”

 

Kevin Cradock Builders Youth Scholarship

This Boston-based builder has funded the Kevin Cradock Builders Youth Scholarship to help foster the next generation of craftspeople.

The Kevin Cradock Builders Scholarship provides interested youth with the opportunity to attend Eliot School classes tuition-free. In addition, Kevin Cradock Builders has underwritten several woodworking classes for young people and sponsored the Eliot Schoolyard Concert Series.

The scholarship aligns with Cradock’s approach to creating and craftsmanship. The Eliot School encourages curiosity about how materials are thought about, crafted and built into something excellent.

Kevin Cradock says, “The Eliot School is able to put tools and materials in the hands of students, help them forge a small connection with their surroundings, and possibly spark the beginning of a lifetime’s work with their hands. It something we are proud to be a part of and do for our community.”

 

Charlie Fox Scholarship

A local architect, Charlie Fox served on the Eliot School board for nearly two decades and continues to help shape its physical space.

Over his time on the Eliot School board, Charlie has helped steward improvements to the Eliot schoolhouse, uncover our history, build the sustainability of our programs and guide a path toward expanding our facilities.

Charlie has lived in Jamaica Plain for more than forty years, and he served on the Eliot School board for almost 20. He says, “For my first twenty years in the neighborhood, I had no idea what went on inside of the 19th century yellow schoolhouse on Eliot Street.”

Charlie had passed and noticed the iconic building many times, but back in 2000 it was guarded by a chain link fence, pining for a fresh coat of paint, and looking mostly closed. Kevin Moloney, then Board Chair, invited Charlie to sit on the Board of Trustees. Charlie quickly fell for the school’s unique history and potential.

Since then, he has played a role in replacing the chain link fence with wrought iron, designing the storage shed and the wooden sign in the schoolyard, stabilizing facilities maintenance and influencing program growth and sophistication. He is proud that, under his watch, “the school has woven a colorful community of people who come together to teach, learn and celebrate manual arts and handicraft.”

Charlie recognizes the disparity in the school system between those who do and those who don’t have access to hands-on art-making and creative outlets. He feels hopeful for the students the Eliot School reaches through its partnerships. Through his Scholarship Fund, he hopes to reach more students and to promote the idea of intelligence involving hands, eyes and heart. He says, “Working with one’s hands can provide gratification and a sense of ownership and accomplishment, something all young people need to experience as they grow.”

 

Maggie Hill Scholarship

 A cherished member of the community with a passion for turning used and old furniture into beautiful treasures. 

Long-time student Maggie Hill was a constant and cherished face at the Eliot School for over four decades. She took her first class at the age of 26, when she had just started her lifetime career as a teacher in the Boston Public Schools, and continued with very few breaks until the age of 73. Throughout, she was active in her church and neighborhood, participating in missionary travels to Haiti and establishing a community garden.

Maggie’s story is about the impact of making and creating. It’s also about community. She began with upholstery and furniture repair classes, and refurbished almost everything in her living room (at least once).

After being diagnosed with cancer, no longer as agile as she once was, she found it difficult to transport big armchairs and dressers, so turned toward to sewing. Ventures to the Eliot Schoolhouse continued, now to make slipcovers, curtains and other embellishments for her house. 

Maggie passed away in January 2020, surrounded by family and friends, loved by many.

The Maggie Hill Scholarship commemorates Maggie’s love for craft and spirit of generosity. It allows students to attend classes tuition free and share Maggie’s love for making and creating by hand. We are excited to honor one of the Eliot School’s most treasured and long-standing students.

“Oh, the fun and laughs that we’ve have had! The Eliot School is like my therapy. I look forward to class each week. It’s a peaceful experience to create something with your hands but I also enjoy the conversations. It’s a good group and you can always count on people to look out for you.” – Maggie Hill

 

Tim Ingles Scholarship 

For seven years, Tim brought joy by playing bass at the Eliot School's annual friend-raising parties.

Tim Ingles was a musician who throughout his professional life taught young people and believed in the power of art to create joy.

Tim's musical career spanned over four decades. Named a Living Legend: African Americans Making History in 2006, he performed with Tony Award winning vocalists Melba Moore and Linda Hopkins and Rock 'n 'Roll Hall of Fame's Laverne Baker. He performed with jazz, funk and R&B legends Donald Byrd, Fred Wesley, Pharoah Saunders, Yusef Lateef, Herbie Mann, Brute Force, Leon Thomas, Artimus Pyle and Webster Lewis. He toured the US and Europe with Grammy nominee Mighty Sam McClain, and collaborated as co-arranger with composer George Russell. He was a core member of the John Coltrane Memorial Ensemble, and of WeJazzUp, playing at Slade's Bar & Grill and across the United States. Highlights over the years include Montreux and Lucerne Festivals, Montreal and Toronto Jazz Festivals, Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, and much, much more.

Tim taught at Tufts and Northeastern Universities and at the New England Conservatory of Music. He was artist in residence, lecturer and performer with music education programs including Boston Wang Center's Young at Arts, House of Blues' Blues Schoolhouse and Young Audiences. He was Musical Director for the Wang Citi Center's Eats & Beats performances in Boston's public schools.

Husband, brother, uncle, beloved family member, colleague, band member and friend, Tim endeared people to him with his twinkling eyes, ready smile and darkly sweet smattering of freckles, his generosity of spirit, his creativity and humor. He loved cooking, cars and the people in his life.

For seven years, Tim played bass at the Eliot School's annual friend-raising parties. His wife, Carolyn, sat for many years on the Eliot School's board. The Tim Ingles Scholarship Fund carries on Tim's legacy, affirming happiness through the arts.

 

Marilyn Mase Scholarship

Marilyn Mase is a local artist and educator who served on the Eliot School’s board for nearly two decades and helped shape the school’s programs.

Marilyn loves the continuity of age at the Eliot School, as children move successfully from one age group to the next, setting higher goals and facing new challenges together.

She is especially excited about Teen Bridge. She sees a dearth of local art programming as children pass through this crucial developmental stage. She says, “I’ve watched timid individuals blossom into proud, fearless artists, willing to learn and fail along the way. It's good to have teens find things that take them out of their immediate world. That's what I think is the importance of having the scholarships available to them.”

Marilyn teaches drawing and composition at Wentworth Institute of Technology. She makes prints and paintings at her studio at Boston Center for the Arts and is an active member of Full Tilt, a cooperative printmaking studio.

 

Nicole Murray Scholarship

Nicole Murray, in her time on the Eliot School staff, built our School & Community Partnerships from a small program to a citywide force.

Nicole joined the Eliot School staff when her three children were young and enjoying classes here. She witness the sense of excitement and accomplishment her children felt when building woodworking projects or making paintings—and she set out to bring these opportunities to children across Boston, in public schools, libraries and community centers.

She remembers asking herself, “What would it be like for kids who have never used oil pastels, or messy paint, or cool fabric, to make dolls or sculptures? What would it be like for them to do that on a regular basis with a teacher who’s excited and motivated, and to experience that spark of joy?”

For Nicole, the motivating factor behind growing the Partnership program was about equity and access to materials, experience and teachers. Through her Scholarship Fund, she wants to continue to offer this access to children and families throughout Greater Boston.

Before working at the Eliot School, Nicole practiced law in the area of affordable housing. She currently works in immigration law and continues her involvement on the Eliot School's Advisory Council.

 

Dick Piper Scholarship

It’s never too late to pursue your passion, as Richard Piper did during his years in retirement.

Dick first realized his inclination for wood turning in high school but shifted his path to pursue a career in architecture. He received his Bachelor of Architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and spent years working and consulting, with a specialty in waterproofing buildings.

After six years of consultation work for Thompson & Lichtner, Inc, Dick started his own company, Richard Piper Architect, LLC. After more than 40 years in architecture, Dick retired to his home in Brookline with his wife, Ann Coles, and cat, Reese. There, he returned to his first love, wood turning. Dick eagerly worked on his lathe to create masterful plates, bowls and boxes. 

At age 75, Dick Piper died after a courageous eight-year battle with cancer. His wife Ann graciously donated his OneWay lathe and carving and sharpening tools to the Eliot School wood shop. We hope that our students will learn to create as masterfully and passionately as Dick during his lifetime. The Eliot School is grateful for Ann Coles’ generous gift. We honor Dick Piper with a named scholarship for the next generation of woodworkers.

Kendric Price Scholarship

The son of long-time Eliot School sewing teacher, Carol Price, Kendric Price lent his charm, idealism and warmth to school events. He was a skilled athlete, a visionary, and a caring and creative youth worker.

Kendric played basketball on a Big Ten scholarship at the University of Michigan and later with the NBA's D-League and the Harlem Wizards. He worked as a financial analyst and as a basketball coach. He was assistant coach at University of Massachusetts Boston and Roxbury Community College, and coach at Brooke Charter High School and several local youth teams.

He founded Big Business Network to teach inner city boys the basics of business and finance, using basketball as a tool to build connections with eah other. In a 2012 Boston Globe article about Big Business Network, Kendric said, “I'm not saying I can change the world, but I’m planning to make a difference one child at a time.”

Kendric’s life was taken in the spring of 2019. Hundreds of Eliot School students and teachers contributed to create this scholarship in his name.

 

Charles Sandler Scholarship

Charlie Sandler was a former Eliot School Superintendent, Director, beloved teacher, mentor, and friend.

A man with a “heart of gold,” Sandler stewarded the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts as a center for woodworking, sewing, and other crafts through more than half a century, all while supporting Vocational Education in Boston’s public schools.

The Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts was an early leader in the spread of “Shop and Home Economics,” staples of 20th century American public education. Charlie Sandler was one of a series of educators who directed the nonprofit, remaining tied to the school for 55 years. Stopping by in early mornings to stoke the boiler, returning after dinner to teach woodworking to adults, and on Saturdays to teach kids, Sandler gathered his young children to mail out course catalogs from their kitchen table, and recruited teachers from amongst his old union colleagues and old-style artisans in Boston’s neighborhoods.

Charlie Sandler came to the trades through shipbuilding and carpentry after World War II, then turned his passion for "making" to a commitment to vocational training. He taught carpentry and supervised teachers at Roxbury High School, Dorchester High School, Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, and the Hubert H. Humphrey Occupational Resource Center; and at Fitchburg State College and UMass Boston.

In 1966, he joined the Eliot School as a woodworking instructor, bringing his craft to children outside of school hours and adults outside of work. Warm-hearted and generous, he was known for his open embrace of all who wished to learn. He taught hundreds of Boston Public School and college students as well as hundreds more through the Eliot School. Sandler retired from the Eliot School in 2012, on his 80th birthday, but continued to provide advice and support. In the weeks before his death, he helped advise on installation of an air-cleaning system for the Eliot’s 19th century Jamaica Plain schoolhouse, a measure designed to ease reopening after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Neighbor, educator, and historian Mary Smoyer recalls, “Charlie did everything at the Eliot School: sweeping the floor, shoveling the snow, bringing in teachers, opening for the classes, and closing up after the classes––all in addition to his full-time job in the BPS.” Sandler will be missed. Charlie infused the Eliot School with warmth and charm. He truly had a heart of gold.

Neal Widett Scholarship 

Neal Widett was a woodworker and sign maker who left his mark on Beacon Hill. 

Neal M. Widett, Aug 30, 1946 – May 27, 2019 (Age 72)

An artist and master craftsman, Neal M. Widett was passionate about making things that were both beautiful and brilliantly constructed. His friends liked to call him "The Monstah." A solid muscle of a man with a twinkle in his eye, Neal was an indefatigable workaholic, whose idea of a good time was slicing up some lumber, carving 24-inch letters on a sign from morning til night, then crafting his so-called trademark "Widett Cleat" to attach it to a building.

For nearly half a century, he designed and built furniture, signs, and other things of beauty. Neal was probably best known for his work as a sign maker in and around Boston. Hand-carved and painted, they stand out as striking works of art throughout the city. He took immense pride in his work as he changed the streetscape of Boston. His beautifully crafted gilt-lettered signs can be seen on dozens of shopfronts on Charles Street and in other neighborhoods throughout the city. Click here to watch this 2018 Chronicle episode from WCVB-TV. 

Born in Chelsea, Massachusetts on August 30, 1946, Neal grew up in Newton, where he developed a close group of friends—his "bar mitzvah boys"—with whom he palled around through high school at Newton North, and who remained close to him throughout his life. At the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Neal was embraced by another gang—his Pi Lambda Phi brothers, who were equally devoted to him for the next fifty years. In his early twenties, Neal dutifully attended and graduated from Boston University School of Law, following his family's plans for him. After joining his father's legal practice, it took Neal about a year to break the news to his folks that he just couldn't stand being a lawyer. To their dismay, he quit law in order to make things with his hands, and embarked on a lifelong career as an artist.

In 1976, Neal was working as a furniture maker and living above Charles Street Supply in Boston when Herman Greenfield, owner of Gary Drug, first asked him to make a sign for them. That marked the start of his sign business. Word spread quickly, and soon Neal had more work than he could keep up with. By 1987, he needed a gilder to leaf his lettering, so he brought on Janet Lomartire ("JJ"), a gifted student painter, who not only remained his gilder throughout Neal’s career, but also became the love of his life. The two worked side by side as colleagues, pausing only long enough to get married in 1992.

Over the years, Neal masterminded and renovated a number of buildings suffering from benign neglect. In 1983, he and four friends bought a five-story dilapidated brownstone in the South End that he redesigned as beautiful residential units with whimsical details. In 2001, he and three partners overhauled an empty, derelict, 26,000-square-foot structure in Dorchester, creating 32 artists' studios. In 2009, he and JJ bought an old house in Ayer, Massachusetts and rebuilt it into the home they lived in for the next ten years. During his life, Neal acquired a raft of dear friends: lawyers, fraternity brothers, as well as a  close cadre of fellow woodworkers and artists who all remember his warmth, wit, and big heart.

 


Scholarship Application Form

 
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