Southern Heartland Arts, Inc. presented five Newton County graduates who plan to major in visual arts with scholarships Thursday evening.

The scholarship recipients are Taylor Tipton, Brittany Worton, Ashley Larrimore, Kalin Jordan of Eastside High School and Emily Richardson of Newton County High School. The graduates plan to go into the fields of graphic design, advertising, engineering and architectural engineering.

"These five applicants all had such magnificent artistic ability, we couldn't turn any of them down," said Scholarship Chair Susan Adams.

The scholarships are provided from the James P. Hayes Cardinal Scholarship Fund. The fund is supported by Southern Heartland's annual membership dues, donations from community residents, the Monte Carlo for the Arts fundraiser and corporate sponsors.

The seed contribution and ongoing support for the fund was provided by Lisa B. Hayes who created the fund in memory of her late husband.

The Southern Heartland Arts guild is one of the oldest arts guilds east of Atlanta with a 22 year history of supporting the visual arts.