#arteducation

Band Builds Confidence, Community and Creativity at Little Rock School

Photography by Alex Kent

Nov 20, 2018
4 min

Band Builds Confidence, Community and Creativity at Little Rock School

It’s game night, and inside the band room at Hall High School in Little Rock, student are buzzing with excitement. Basketball season is starting, and Hall’s brass band is fine-tuning the music they’ll perform to pep up the audience and the players tonight. Band instructor Rojay Moore leads the musicians, stopping them every now and then to pinpoint where they could make changes. “Being in the band helps students develop the discipline needed for success in and out of other cl

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How a School Dance Program Changes Lives with Help from the Community

Photography by Katie Childs

Nov 13, 2018
4 min

How a School Dance Program Changes Lives with Help from the Community

“Students who dance have a reason to come to school,” North Little Rock dance instructor Christen Pitts says. “They can express themselves, get out emotions through movement, their grades are better, and they learn time management skills.” When the morning bell rings, Mrs. Pitts’s students are dressed and ready to warm up. They listen attentively and answer as roll is called, then they get in formation in front of the mirrors that fully surround them, eager for their instruct

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Help Thea Restock the Closet This #GivingTuesday

Thea Foundation

Nov 5, 2018
1 min

Help Thea Restock the Closet This #GivingTuesday

This #GivingTuesday, Thea Foundation and Arkansas teachers have a great need. Just two months ago, we made the big announcement that we were DOUBLING our budget for Arkansas teachers in need of supplies this school year, giving $50,000 in art supplies and creative materials to underfunded classrooms across the state. Well, it’s just November and we’re down to $7,000 left in our Art Closet funds. By mid-November, we’re expecting to be completely out of funds, with six more mon

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Thea Foundation Adds 6 Arts Scholarships for 2019 Graduates

Photo by Mark Fonville

Aug 14, 2018
2 min

Thea Foundation Adds 6 Arts Scholarships for 2019 Graduates

Thea’s annual scholarship competitions are open now to high school and homeschooled seniors across Arkansas, and this school year we’ll be adding six new scholarships, bringing the total number of scholarships to be awarded in 2019 to 36 and $97,500. This is up from 30 scholarships and $79,500 in 2018 and previous years. The new scholarships will be expansions added to our Poetry Slam and Creative Writing scholarship competitions, which have seen increased participation over

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Thea Foundation

Aug 13, 2018
2 min

Thea Foundation to Match up to $50,000 in Grants for Arkansas Teachers

Thea’s Art Closet, a program of Thea Foundation which awards funding for art supplies and other creative materials to Arkansas classrooms, is now open and accepting submissions for the 2018-19 school year, and with $50,000 to award — that’s double the grant money that was offered last school year. Thea Foundation is inviting public school teachers of grades K-12 across the state of Arkansas to submit requests for art supplies and other creative materials to DonorsChoose.org,

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Self-Constructive: Working with Power Tools Builds Confidence in Parkview Students

Words by Stacey Bowers / Photography by Alex Kent

Nov 20, 2017
4 min

Self-Constructive: Working with Power Tools Builds Confidence in Parkview Students

The stage at Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School is abuzz two weeks before the opening of the school’s fall play, Arsenic and Old Lace. Stage left, on a French-inspired settee, a student uses a needle and thread to touch up seams in a costume. Stage right, another student brushes gold paint onto a false wall to create the illusion of patterned wallpaper. Near the middle of the stage, a group of young men takes down a large rectangle of wood painted to resemble a wind

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Stacey Bowers

Jul 7, 2017
2 min

Firing Up Fine Arts in Arkansas Schools

Do you know about Thea's Arts Reconstruction program? Through Arts Reconstruction, Thea Foundation implements new and augments existing arts programs in schools by providing advanced training and tools for visual arts teachers and string instruments and instruction. Summer visual arts training sessions just ended, and teachers from schools across central Arkansas learned to create and fire hand-built pottery and many techniques in metalworking, and they left with the tools to

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Not Just Child's Play: Creative Collaboration in the Classroom

Words by Stacey Bowers / Photography by Mark

Mar 23, 2017
2 min

Not Just Child's Play: Creative Collaboration in the Classroom

A group of third graders huddles around a table at Seventh Street Elementary School, their arms weaving over each other and brows furrowed as they thoughtfully stack Legos. “Who knows how to build a house?” one asks. “I do!” another shouts. They’re collaborating to build a set with the plastic bricks, which they’ll use to film a stop motion animation starring Lego characters in a story the students wrote. Each student wrote his own film, their teacher, Melinda Bissett, says,

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Shaping Young Minds: How a Little Rock Teacher Funds Sculpture in the Classroom

Stacey Bowers / Photography by Mark Fonville

Mar 16, 2017
2 min

Shaping Young Minds: How a Little Rock Teacher Funds Sculpture in the Classroom

Elena Petroukhina, an art teacher at Mann Arts Magnet Middle School in Little Rock, is a Thea’s Art Closet veteran. Over the years, she’s been able to supply her classroom with creative materials that typically fall outside of her annual budget. “We get a budget for each school year. Usually that covers the basics like pencils, markers, paper, some paint. To give students a variety of experiences with art media, I have to raise extra funds,” Petroukhina said. “Because Mann is

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Words by Stacey Bowers / Photography by Mark

Feb 22, 2017
2 min

Making School a Magical Place to Be

Take a stroll through White Hall High School, and you’ll see it couldn’t be more aptly named. The walls are stark and bare, unless it’s almost the Chinese New Year and you’re in Mr. Bowman’s wing. Near his art room, the walls come alive with colorful paper dragons, all part of a project funded by Thea’s Art Closet. “I believe it is important to celebrate with other cultures, and it gives my students an opportunity to try a different form of art, “ Bowman said about the appeal

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Stacey Bowers

Dec 12, 2016
3 min

Building Bright Futures on a Budget

In the fall of 2016, Brad Wreyford, a teacher at Arkansas School for Math, Sciences and the Arts (ASMSA) in Hot Springs, took his students to visit Thea Foundation, where he learned about Thea’s Art Closet. Always looking to expand his lesson plans, Wreyford quickly got to work on his first Thea’s Art Closet project. “Our art budget is adequate for what we do now, but it is spread thin when we attempt to grow,” Wreyford said. “Having funds to expand what we offer usually come

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Teaching Philanthropy with Puppies and Paint

Stacey Bowers

Apr 4, 2016
3 min

Teaching Philanthropy with Puppies and Paint

When Stephanie Darnell, an art teacher at Maumelle Middle School, comes up with a new project she knows will really excite and engage her students but that her budget won’t cover, she doesn’t quit the project. Stephanie submits her project proposal on DonorsChoose.org, knowing that a project that totals $600 or less and incorporates the arts will automatically qualify for half-funding through Thea’s Art Closet, a program of Thea Foundation. Through social media, she can share

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For Conway Students, Science is Music to Their Ears

Stacey Bowers

Mar 30, 2016
4 min

For Conway Students, Science is Music to Their Ears

Patty Oeste, a seventh grade teacher at Ruth Doyle Middle School, located in Conway, Ark., didn’t know what to expect when she launched her first project on DonorsChoose.org, but she knew that her students needed supplies and she had to try something new to make up for what her school’s budget severely lacked. “Over the years I have raised funds by selling candy, pencils and waiting tables with student helpers,” she explained. “The money comes together very slowly that way.”

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401 Main Street, Suite 100

North Little Rock, AR 72114

tel: 501-379-9512

fax: 501-379-9513