The Millie Coghill Fine Arts Scholarship now has an extended deadline.

"The Millie Coghill application is originally due April 30th of every year, but because we haven't had any applications we've extended that deadline to June 15th for this year," shared Natasha Hill, Chair of the Weyburn Arts Council. 

She said the scholarship is available to students or adults that are pursuing post secondary education.

"But not just post-secondary education," Hill noted. "It also applies to workshops and classes. The only qualifier on the workshops and classes is that they can't be single-time, so it has to be a fairly immersive experience. We're not giving just one-offs and that's really the only qualifier. It's available also in the surrounding area, so it's not just for the city of Weyburn."

She noted the Weyburn Arts Council works with all of the surrounding communities when they are invited. 

Regan Lanning. Curator for the Weyburn Art Gallery, and the City Rep on the Weyburn Arts Council, said the scholarship in the past has covered fine art school, and people studying music in university. 

"But it could also go towards like guitar lessons or voice lessons or pottery lessons," she explained.

"It would fit like a quilting retreat where you're going for a whole weekend. It could help cover some of the artist-in-residency costs if you were going to go be an artist-in-residence somewhere, but it could also go towards something like our six-week adult pottery class or even private voice lessons from a local instructor."

Lanning said the application itself is pretty straightforward. 

"If this is for going into post-secondary, we do ask for like your acceptance letter and maybe like your transcripts or something like that. But if it's not that, if it's somebody who has finished education, all we would want to see is that you're enrolled." 

Hill added that for those wanting to pursue post-secondary studies, this scholarship can also apply to architecture, and carpentry, "anything that basically involves you using your artistic mind would qualify for the Millie Coghill." 

Lanning said this is not for children but for those 16 and older.

"There's a lot of funding out there for children to take part in arts and crafts. There is 'Creative Kids', and there are other avenues as well. This is particularly for adults because there is kind of a funding void for adults, there's not a creative adults fund."

"Especially if you are a single parent and you don't have the extra funds at the end of the day because you are a single income household. This could help to afford something like that," she stated.

"Millie Coghill was a local artist that was very active in the Weyburn area for well over a generation. She was a painter. She was a quilter, she did a little bit of everything," Lanning shared. "She was actually also one of the creators of the Weyburn Wheel at the Weyburn Public Library. She was involved in that project. And then when she passed, her family started this fund." 

She added that the scholarship is funded by the family of Millie Coghill and administered by the Weyburn Arts Council.