Molly Cliff Hilts (Feb. 20, 1958 - Jan. 21, 2021)
We invite you to make a gift to the Molly Cliff Hilts Memorial Fund to collectively honor Molly's life, and to support art students at UC Santa Cruz. Molly was the great-granddaughter of Mary Porter Sesnon and great-great-granddaughter to Benjamin F. Porter for whom College Five was renamed. She was an Art alumna, graduating from College Five/Porter in 1981. Molly and her husband, Dave Hilts, were known to host salons at their home in Portland, Oregon since 2000, welcoming musicians, poets, and writers. Unknowingly, these salons continued an earlier tradition of Molly’s great-grandparents, Mary Porter Sesnon and William T. Sesnon, which began in 1911. Molly's discovery that her great-grandmother hosted very similar cultural salons one hundred years ago in Aptos, California, at the Sesnon House, made her smile. Link to obiturary
Molly had a successful career as an extraordinary painter and printmaker and continued her family's legacy of arts advocacy throughout her life. In 2018, an exhibition of Molly's encaustic, charcoal, and photographic work, State of Wonder, opened at Porter College Faculty Gallery.
You can give to the fund directly by clicking this link: GIVE HERE
The Molly Cliff Hilts Memorial Fund provides enrichment for students in the Arts Division and will be used to benefit undergraduates pursuing a degree in Art at UC Santa Cruz. The fund is administered by the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery.
Link to obiturary
Your gift will help support:
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The Molly Cliff Hilts Scholarship
To be awarded to undergraduate students in the Art Department to pursue independent art research and studio projects. -
Support the Molly Cliff Hilts Internship at the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery at UC Santa Cruz.
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The Molly Cliff Hilts Workshop
One or more workshops that offer students practical art making, curatorial or exhibition experience.
Thank you for your generous donation.