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Sharing a Vision

Art contest winner moved by Rotunda

As a student, Jennifer Tsai was so moved by the beauty and symbolism of the Rotunda that she knew it would be hard to leave when she graduated.

So when her drawing class professor, Richard Crozier, assigned a project to re-create scenery on Grounds to display an object’s relevance in time and space, she didn’t have far to go for inspiration.

“It is such a beautiful, historical piece of architecture,” says Tsai (Col ’09). “It is the only one of its kind, and it embodies the meaning of UVA, as well as the beliefs of Thomas Jefferson.

“I wanted to take a piece of UVA with me before I graduated.”

Now others will have a piece of UVA as well. Tsai’s watercolor, which she calls “Rotunda on the Lawn,” won the annual art contest sponsored by the UVA Alumni Association in collaboration with the studio art program.

“By taking such an important centerpiece on the Lawn and re-creating it into my own style,” she says, “it made me feel honored to have been a graduating student from the University of Virginia.”