A four-thousand dollar fellowship has been established by Linden Lab in order to give one lucky art student an opportunity to explore Second Life, the company's virtual world, as an artistic medium.

"[W]e hope that we will see Second Life used to even greater potential in the expressive arts to the benefit of both the Second Life culture and the broader world of art," said Linden Lab representative Robin Harper. According to an official press release, "The Linden Lab fellowship is open to an undergraduate or graduate student in the visual or performing arts who has demonstrated through his or her work a commitment to and talent for innovation through digital media. The project funded by the fellowship must be completed within a semester, make use of Second Life tool-set and capabilities and be available for view or exhibit within Second Life." Fellowship applications are due March 15, 2006, and will be reviewed by a panel of "distinguished" academics. The fellowship recipient will be announced in mid-April.

It's refreshing to see Linden Lab offer real-world funds to a budding artist. The company's usual incentive to its base of resident members is "Linden Dollars," a fictional, digital currency used chiefly for Second Life-specific transactions and exchange into U.S. dollars through various online services. With real dollars, the Fellowship recipient will be able to offset real expenses while dabbling in the virtual world.

I'll be interested to see what sorts of projects the Fellowship student will be permitted to create. Would it be possible, for example, for the student to create a commercial art project in order to make Linden Dollars during the Fellowship period? What options for interacting with the so-called "Main Grid" (the public part of Second Life) will the student have?