By Jodicee Harris
Flinn Foundation
The Flinn Foundation and Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance have partnered on the exhibition, Art of Achievement: Celebrating 40 years of Flinn Scholars, to display their journeys, evolution, and achievements.
About 200 people attended the Feb. 1 reception to premiere the art gallery on display at the Flinn Foundation through 2025.
Twenty-one Flinn Scholars were profiled by the artists—nine of which were also Flinn Scholars—who created visual, literary, or musical pieces interpreted by their conversations.
Anne Lassen, Flinn Foundation vice president, scholarship and education initiatives, said the goal was to spotlight several dynamic and diverse stories. The storyboard allows the Scholars, with their different majors and career paths, to share their unique journeys.
“It’s a powerful reminder that achievement is about much more than academic success,” Lassen said. “It’s about the full expression of human potential.”
Class of 2009 Flinn Scholar Ravi Ram and Nigeria-born, Arizona-based artist Anjola Ayodele collaborated on the piece, “Guiding Path.” Ayodele used light to show a symbol of guidance, self-discovery, and connection. Solar rays and abstracts are blended in the painting to echo life’s diverse journeys united by shared moments.
Ram has passions for education, leadership, and personal development. His undergraduate study abroad trips were in Brazil, Peru, Singapore, and Spain. He felt honored and surprised to be selected in the gallery.
“It was nostalgic in a lot of ways to go back and think about the journey,” Ram said. “I loved getting to know (Ayodele) as an artist and how she likes to explore what she hears with the people that she is working with.”
Class of 2020 Flinn Scholar Claire Gibson and sound healing practitioner, Jeff Schlueter, collaborated on the original song, “Clarity.” Schlueter used Gibson’s memory of songbirds near the Pinyon Plain uranium mine to write a song about the importance of maintaining the earth.
Gibson is a Flagstaff native who connected her love of the environment with education. She spent a semester at the Grand Canyon to learn about the region’s science, politics, and culture.
“Exploring the land beneath my feet taught me to look beyond the stars to find wonder in the Earth,” said Gibson.
Class of 1987 Flinn Scholar Sara Zervos and Class of 2005 Flinn Scholar Dr. Nicole Person-Rennell, who is also a contemporary dancer and choreographer, collaborated on the dance composition of “Sara’s Story.” During the reception, Person-Rennell danced to “The Story” by Brandi Carlile.
Zervos grew up in Minnesota and relocated to Mesa, where she found her love for learning. She graduated from Arizona State University and later co-founded a travel-focused startup with her daughter. Her career allowed her to work in over 58 countries.
“Travel teaches us to see the world with fresh eyes and open hearts,” Zervos said.
SAACA Program Manager Amanda Staples, who spearheaded the collaboration with the Flinn Foundation, shared the process of selecting the stories displayed in the gallery.
“With the pairings we tried to find groupings that we thought would exemplify and embrace a lot of the Scholars journeys with the artists tellings,” Staples said.
The Flinn Foundation has previously hosted exhibitions in partnership with SAACA, including From Micro to Macro and Uncommon Knowledge.
The Flinn Foundation is a privately endowed, philanthropic grantmaking organization in Phoenix. It has financially supported Arizona arts organizations for about four decades. Today, the foundation supports the state’s largest arts organizations and smaller, rural arts groups.
In addition to arts and culture, the foundation awards grants and operates programs to support the biosciences, including administering Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap, the Flinn Scholarship, and the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership and its Flinn-Brown Fellowship.
SAACA is a Tucson-based nonprofit organization dedicated to the creation, preservation, and advancement of the arts, strengthening the bonds between people, place and purpose through collaborative, arts-driven experiences.
The gallery is open to the public for the remainder of the year. To schedule a visit, email [email protected].