The Visual Arts Department sponsors a number of honors and awards for its majors at its Annual Student Awards and Recognition Gathering. This event provides the Visual Arts Department with the opportunity and privilege of recognizing those students who have provided service and leadership to the University, the Department, and the community at large each academic year. This occasion also provides us with the opportunity to congratulate those students who have made significant achievements in art and to acknowledge other academic awards they have received.

• Art Concentration Awards – These awards are given in recognition for outstanding academic and artistic achievement in Art History, Digital Art and Design, Painting, Drawing, Printmaking and Sculpture.
• Arnold Prince Award for Sculpture – In honor of Arnold Prince, an artist, educator, and sculptor, this award is given for outstanding achievement in sculpture.
• Excellence in Community Service Awards – These awards are given to students in recognition of significant service to or participation in the community or for outstanding charitable service work.
• Excellence in Leadership Awards – This award is given to students who have demonstrated leadership amongst their peers within the University and the Visual Arts Department.
• Excellence in Service Awards – These awards are given to recognize students’ excellence in service to the Visual Arts Department.
• Professional Artistic Activity Awards – These awards are given to students who have shown outstanding artistic participation in activities outside of the typical classroom setting.
• Robert Blackburn Award for Printmaking – In honor of Robert Blackburn, an artist, educator, and master printmaker, this award is given for outstanding achievement in and commitment to printmaking.

*Students are selected for department awards by the faculty in their concentration.

• Celia W. Brown Memorial Grant – This award is given in conjunction with the Henry Barnard Foundation; this grant is awarded every four years to an Eastern student who will be studying visual arts abroad or out of the state. Established by M. Wallace in honor of Celia W. Brown, the grant is given in hopes that others, through travel, may increase their appreciation and proficiency in the arts.
• Hans Weiss Visual Arts Award – Hans Weiss, friend of Eastern, Artist, and Proprietor of the Fine Arts Studio and Gallery in Manchester, and the members of the Eastern Foundation Board of Directors established this award in 1998. This award is given annually to an Eastern student in good academic standing who is majoring in the visual arts and who will be registered full-time for the next academic year.