Thea’s Art Closet, a Thea Foundation program which awards funding for art supplies and other creative materials to Arkansas classrooms, kicked off the first week of the 2019-20 school year with disbursing over $10,000 for 14 projects across the state that were matched with other donors, including The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This school year, Thea Foundation has $100,000 in available funding for Art Closet projects, which is double the grant money that was offered las

Being an educator is no small feat, which is why Thea Foundation seeks to provide aid (in a variety of ways) for art teachers, who are often the victims of budget cuts in public schools. During the third week of June, Thea Foundation partnered with UA Little Rock to host a professional development week for several Arkansas art teachers at the Windgate Center of Art + Design. This week-long program provided teachers with a thorough instruction on cyanotype, which is a photogra

Thea Foundation’s three implemented programs reached new levels of success during the 2018-19 school year. Since 2002, Thea Foundation has awarded 399 scholarships, totaling almost $2.3 million in scholarships. Beyond awarding 36 scholarships this year, up from 30 scholarships given in 2018 through Thea’s annual scholarship program, Thea’s Art Closet, an online funding effort in partnership with DonorsChoose for Arkansas teachers to submit art supplies requests to, awarded $5

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

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,

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

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.”