Thea’s Art Closet

It may shock you to know that most Arkansas art teachers are allotted less than one dollar per student for creative supplies annually. Thea Foundation saw this challenge and rose to meet it with vibrancy and efficiency, connecting with teachers in the classroom and Thea’s Art Closet was born.

Over the years, with support from Windgate Foundation, Clinton Family Foundation, Entergy Arkansas Foundation, Pulaski County Youth Services, Rebsamen Fund, U.S. Bank Foundation, and others, Thea has been able to provide over $2.1 million in creative supplies like paints, brushes, clay and kilns to public school classrooms across Arkansas. Thea’s Art Closet’s community-leveraged direct funding approach with DonorsChoose – an online fundraising platform where teachers seek funding from donors for classroom projects they cannot fund – adds concrete value to Arkansas’s limited arts education budgets, bringing new life to classrooms.