University of Richmond art professor receives fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

March 5, 2009

Tanja Softic, associate professor of art at the University of Richmond, has received an $8,000 professional artist fellowship in drawing from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

A native of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Softic has exhibited her prints and drawings worldwide and across the United States in more than 80 group and solo exhibitions. Her most recent solo exhibition, "Lightly Here," was held at Page Bond Gallery in Richmond in November.

In 2008, Softic was awarded the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellowship and spent six weeks at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts working on "Migrant Universe," a series of drawings. In 2007 she was named a Reynolds Foundation Fellow by the same organization.

Prior to joining the Richmond faculty in 2000, Softic was chair of the art department at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla.

Softic was one of 33 Virginia art students and artists who received a total of $196,000 in fellowships this year from VMFA. Adjunct art professor Heide Trepanier also received an $8,000 professional artist fellowship.