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A scholarship created in honor of the late designer Virgil Abloh will expand this year to have more recipients and a greater reach beyond art and design schools.
According References, a scholarship fund created in honor of the late pioneering black designer Virgil Abloh will be expanded. Virgil Abloh's Postmodern Scholarship Fund, which benefited 30 recipients, will now go to 60 recipients, in addition to offering financial grants to those who aspire to be part of the fashion industry. Shannon Abloh and Fashion Scholarship Fund Director Peter Arnold announced the plan at a gala held in New York on Monday (April 8). The expansion is a welcome move by the group, which admitted that prospective students had turned down scholarship offers in the past due to financial difficulties. Virgil Abloh, known for his work with Off White and Louis Vuitton, succumbed to cancer in 2021.
“Somebody has to work,” Ms. Abloh said. “They can't quit their jobs and go to school. There was a student whose laptop broke and she couldn't afford to replace it, so she was going to drop out of school. This is not OK,” Abloh said in an interview with the New York Times. The Scholarship Fund was launched in 2020 with $1 million in funding from Virgil Abloh to promote the next generation of black designers and creators in fashion. The expansion plan will now also be available to community college and other non-art and design students. There will also be opportunities for students to connect with the vast network of friends and collaborators with whom Virgil Abloh has worked, including Tremaine Emory and Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, the renowned stylist who was an early recipient of the FSF. “Virgil was impatient,” Shannon Abloh said. “He liked to move fast, so he would be ready for that to happen. It was always like, how can we impact the most students in the biggest way possible?''
There are also plans to expand the operations of the Virgil Abloh Foundation and arrive within the year. “The goal will be to provide access and opportunity to young children, as VAPM does, but in a slightly different way,” he continued. “In 20 years I want the young kid interested in the creative arts to find Virgil. The foundation will give them a way to see his work and access what he created.”
