For Thea Foundation's partnership with the Arkansas Arts Center for its virtual 62nd Annual Delta Exhibition, we've decided to focus on selected artists who also work as educators. It’s often we find that working artists also support their livelihood by sharing their knowledge and talent pedagogically. With arts education at the core of Thea Foundation’s mission, we're proud to highlight artist Brian Bundren, who also works as an art professor at Freed-Hardeman University (FH

Beginning in 2014, Thea Foundation initiated partnerships with cultural institutions and arts organizations to amplify existing arts programming in schools. Currently, Arts Reconstruction is our focused effort to help teachers receive professional development. By providing training in new visual arts mediums, Thea Foundation helps enhance lesson planning and subsequently, gives students further exposure to ways in which they can create. In conjunction with the professional de

For Thea’s 2020 Performing Arts Scholarship Competition, we received 140 video submissions from students across the state for consideration. Our competition is usually held in-person one Saturday in March, and we were deeply saddened to not be able to connect with all of the student competitors and their families. Our team is also very grateful to the students who adapted to this year’s competition change to online-only. After careful deliberation by this year’s judges, Thea

This academic year has been a special one for Thea Foundation for many reasons as we continue to serve Arkansas teachers and students through our programs. One particular reason has been the inclusion of research support from a truly impressive team of students enrolled at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. Thea Foundation’s practicum team from the Little Rock-based graduate school has gone above and beyond to help research the impact of our Art Clos

Last month, we stopped by Christopher Swaty’s art classroom at Robinson High School in Little Rock. Christopher received his second fully-funded Art Closet project at the very start of the school year—he requested supplies to facilitate teaching different forms of printmaking. Through Thea’s Art Closet, public high school art teachers are able to submit a project request valued at $2,500 or less, and Thea Foundation immediately funds half of the project (up to $1,250) while o

In honor of Thea Kay Leopoulos’s birthday and to highlight the foundation’s accomplishments as well as current needs, Thea Foundation will hold its first-ever Thea’s Day of Giving on Friday, December 6. Help us support creative learning for the 478k K-12 public school students and the 33k teachers in Arkansas. Thea Foundation provides the needed art supplies and resources to help equip as many classrooms as our budget permits. We can do more. We need your assistance to inspir

Brianna Peterson, an art teacher at Bryant High School, is the next educator we're featuring in our special Q&A series for participating teachers who learned about cyanotype at UA Little Rock's Windgate Center of Art + Design during Thea's Arts Reconstruction professional development week held in June. With nearly a decade of teaching experience, Brianna shares her enthusiasm for adding a new medium to this year's curriculum and answers passionately about why art is vital for

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

As the Thea Foundation works to expand the reach of the Renaissance Club, Kristen Lippencott has been named the first Club President. We are excited to have such an enthusiastic leader in place to help us spread the word about Thea’s mission and the club’s opportunity for everyone to take part in the advancement of the arts for Arkansas’s youth. After moving to Little Rock in 2012, Kristen met our Executive Director Paul Leopoulos and quickly became an active volunteer for th

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

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,

Thea Foundation’s Blue Plate Special returns to the luxurious Capital Hotel Monday, October 15, 2018, with a fresh crop of Arkansas’s favorite chefs and mixologists, assisted by local artists, musicians and celebrities and accompanied by the music of Dr. Danny Fletcher and Co. The Blue Plate Special is presented by Malvern National Bank, a longtime supporter of the Thea Foundation and its mission of advocating and expanding the arts in Arkansas schools, and chaired by Rusty M

Springdale, Ark., is about as far from a tropical island as you can get, but if you listen closely near Monitor Elementary School, you might hear the mellifluous sound of ukuleles. Educator Julia Crane’s ukulele club is a class and community favorite, traveling to local art festivals and performing at school functions. “I wrote my first grant asking for ukuleles in the spring of 2014 because in my field, I work with a student body that is about 30% Marshallese on average,” M

Since first laying hands on the cello in 5th grade through music classes Thea Foundation made possible at his elementary school, North Little Rock High School student Carlos Campanur has become a dedicated, self-motivated student, accomplished musician and advocate for music education. Carlos is one of thousands of students Thea Foundation programs reach. On #GivingTuesday (Nov. 28), please consider giving to Thea to support programs like this one that changed Carlos's life.

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

As a teen, Caleb Tyson knew exactly what career he wanted. When he graduated from Jacksonville High School in 2009, he planned to go to college and study to be an architect. “Knowing that I wanted to be an architect and knowing the financial baggage that comes with that, I knew it was going to be difficult to pay for it all,” he says. “I knew that I was going to have to take it one year at a time, and that’s what I did… Since I was paying for most of my college out of pocket,

“Awesome feet!” Middle school art educator Jordan Wolf compliments a students on the little clay “feet” she’s added to the bottom of her pinch pot, a type of accessible hand-built pottery that’s a perfect jumping-off point for working with clay. “This is the first time most of these students have worked with clay, so we’re spending a lot of time learning how to use our hands. Students have spent several classes just practicing pinch pots and rolling coils,” Wolf says. “I try

Through the month of October, Thea Foundation will exhibit works by patients at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in our newly renovated gallery space located at 401 Main Street in North Little Rock, Arkansas. A reception will held from 5-8 p.m. Friday, October 20, during Argenta Art Walk. During the reception, Arkansas Children’s Hospital’s artists-in-residence will be present to share about the works and their program at the hospital. Arkansas Children's has two artists-in-resid