The Italo Scanga Memorial Scholarship

In the summer of 2001, the Italo Scanga Memorial Scholarship Fund was created in memory of accomplished artist and UCSD art professor Italo Scanga. The scholarship is intended to support juniors and seniors, with financial need, majoring in visual arts.

Scanga, a native of Calabria, Italy, was celebrated throughout the art world for his ebullient constructions and his fluency across the spectrum of art media. His creations in sculpture, painting, printmaking, glass and ceramics are part of numerous permanent museum collections, including Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His major solo exhibitions have appeared in museums and galleries around the world, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Museo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico City.

A member of the UCSD Visual Arts Department since 1978, Scanga sustained an extraordinary level of achievement as an artist who exhibited widely, as a teacher and mentor, and as a community visionary. His former students include such artists as Bruce Nauman, Dan Flavin, and Liza Lou.

At age 14, Scanga immigrated with his family to the United States, where they settled in Detroit. From 1951 to 1953, he studied at Detroit's Society of Arts and Crafts before serving two years with the U.S. Army in Austria. Following his discharge, he enrolled at Michigan State University where he received his BA and MFA in sculpture (1961). He taught at the University of Wisconsin, Rhode Island School of Design, Penn State, and the Tyler School of Art before a stint as a visiting professor at UCSD in 1976-77 led to permanent faculty post.

After settling in San Diego, Scanga became a beloved local figure who lectured at area schools and displayed his work in public libraries and other community settings. Major public commissions include works in, San Jose, CA, Minneapolis, San Diego, and Mammola, Italy. He twice won National Endowment for the Arts grants (1973 and 1980) and was honored by Michigan State University with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 1989.

Scanga passed away in 2001 and was survived by his companion of 10 years, Su-Mei Yu; his five children, Anthony Scanga of Glenside, PA; Katherine Scanga of Barrington, RI; Sarah Swanlund of Louisa, VA; Joseph Scanga of San Francisco; and William Scanga of New York City; and four grandchildren.

With the funds awarded by the Italo Scanga Memorial Scholarship, gifted art students are given a chance to reach a potential as great as the talent of Italo Scanga.