Kyra Kabler Awarded Bill Collins Memorial Arts Scholarship

The Framingham Cultural Council awarded the Bill Collins Memorial Arts Scholarship for 2015 to Kyra Kabler, a Framingham High School student.

The artwork that was included with her application was a landscape oil on canvas painting titled “Morning Star” of a river winding through a mountain pass with a woman looking up at the sky. It is attached to this report.

Kabler’s essay was about conservation and sustainability of nature.

She will be furthering her education at Hampshire College in Amherst and will be studying animation and environmental studies. Her goal is to be able to create films that encourage viewers to become advocates for the planet and to promote diversity and goodwill towards all types of people.

Kabler is currently employed at one of the local art galleries and plans to illustrate two children’s books over the summer.

The Bill Collins Memorial Scholarship is given in memory of artist Bill Collins whose talents as a graphic artist were used by numerous organizations in Framingham. He designed a variety of logos, posters, and other materials for individuals, and for government, cultural and civic groups. He designed the logo used by the FCC on its letterhead and other publications. He belonged to the Framingham Artists Guild and was a painter and fine artist. His work was shown regularly at Guild exhibitions, at the Danforth Museum of Art, the Framingham Library and local galleries. He was a dedicated volunteer to Hemenway Elementary School art teachers. He loved all forms of the arts.

The Framingham Cultural Council is part of a network of 329 Local Cultural Councils serving all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. The LCC Program is the largest grassroots cultural funding network in the nation, supporting thousands of community-based projects in the arts, sciences and humanities every year. The state legislature provides an annual appropriation to the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, which then allocates funds to each community.

Additional funding came from the MutualOne Charitable Foundation, the Middlesex Savings Bank Charitable Foundation, and Bose Corporation.