Accomplished artist, educator endows scholarship
By Ava Steffens
Thomas Brewer, Ph.D., an accomplished artist and educator, is a strong advocate for visual art education in public schools and universities.
To honor that passion, he established the Dr. Thomas M. Brewer Art Education Scholarship. The scholarship supports students pursuing teaching careers in the visual arts, reflecting his purpose of making the field accessible to young, creative minds.
“For a student to receive a few thousand dollars to use to attend a nearby conference during their undergraduate years is major. Who knows where the opportunity will lead them from there,” said Brewer, a 1973 graduate of Southern Illinois University’s College of Arts and Media.
Brewer attended Southern between 1969 and 1973, graduating with a bachelor’s in art education and ceramics. He and other students had an art studio near former SIU architecture professor Buckminster Fuller’s Dome-style home in Carbondale.
After graduation, he worked as a full-time artist and obtained a master’s in art from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. in art education from Florida State University. Now a professor emeritus of art education at the University of Central Florida, Brewer taught for 35 years and served as the coordinator of art education at UCF for 20 of those years. He currently works and lives in Urbana, and his artwork continues to be featured worldwide.
Brewer established the scholarship in his name, allowing art and design students to kick-start their careers just as SIU helped him. The aim is to provide recipients with the necessary resources to foster an experience beyond the classroom while inspiring real-world professional development.
“Because of how it helped me, I could at least contribute back to SIU for a few students, especially for whom a scholarship might be helpful,” he said.
Throughout his educational journey, Brewer credits teachers for opening the doors to success, inspiring him to do the same for others.
“There’s an inherent accomplishment when art is taught in a way that is consecutive, sequential, and that has continuity,” he said. “Beyond exercising creativity, problem-solving, and motor skills, art, in any form, can be a driving force for academic growth. My teaching and advocacy for the visual arts in education is more far-reaching than my own artwork.”
Brewer hopes his continued commitment to SIU will motivate students, inspire others to donate, and strengthen the university’s dedication to art and ceramic education.
To learn more about making a gift, visit siuf.org.