Pictured (l-r): Michael J. Beam, CAM curator of exhibitions; Ellen Owens, CAM director; Gary Israel, president of the Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation; Tailor Choquette, scholarship recipient; and Marian Granfield, faculty fellow, art history with museum studies.

Tailor Choquette, a junior in Niagara University’s art history with museum studies program, was this year’s recipient of the Dorothy Gillespie Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded annually to a female student in that program. She received her award on May 5, during a reception at the Castellani Art Museum celebrating the Dorothy Gillespie exhibition. Gary Gillespie Israel, who founded the fund in 2019, presented the scholarship. He is Dorothy’s son and president of the Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation.

American artist Dorothy Gillespie was a dynamic painter, innovative sculptor, and passionate educator known for her vibrant, colorful work. The major exhibition “Dorothy Gillespie: Works from the Radford University Collection,” is currently featured in the CAM's central gallery and features 21 works spanning Gillespie’s career from the 1940s through the 1990s, including an artwork from the CAM’s permanent collection.

NU’s art history with museum studies program is both an academic and professional program that provides students with a scholarly study of art, culture, and museums while focusing on professional museum work, including curatorship, education, collections management, museum administration, and development.