SUPPORT ART STUDENTS

Art and creative expression are essential in our lives. By infusing our education system with opportunities to engage with and make art at all levels, everyone can gain access to a deeply fulfilling life. Here are several ways you can join me in enhancing access to arts programming.

Be a Donor: Desert Bloom Art Scholarship at Nevada State University

In 2022, I founded the Desert Bloom Art Scholarship Fund on my 40th birthday to provide annual awards to art minors at Nevada State University who are the next generation of great makers and creative thinkers in our world. I am personally committed to contributing $500 on my birthday for at least five years, which covers roughly one art class or supplies for one student each year. To commemorate the launch of the scholarship, we created a chalk mural on the main campus courtyard shown below:

WHY THIS SCHOOL?

Since 2016, the Scorpion community at Nevada State University (NS) has given me so much support and room to grow both professionally and as an artist. I also advocate for this institution because I see their model as the future of higher education, and an example to all institutions. Not only are they making high-quality undergraduate and graduate programs accessible both financially and practically to a wide spectrum of students, but they simultaneously offer relevant, career-oriented degree programs that give graduates immediate value in the community and economy, with local and global impacts.

WHY THIS PROGRAM?

As a fine arts graduate who paid for my own degree at a state university, working as many as three jobs while taking 18 credits a semester to maximize a flat tuition fee available to me at the time, a reprieve as simple as $500 (which I received automatically as a merit scholarship one semester) made a significant difference in my ability to continue studying and creating art both inside and outside the classroom. When job seeking, having an art degree (and a geology minor!) on my resume was always a vibrant note that set me apart. The NS art minor program, designed to bloom into a full visual arts major in the future, will allow any student, traditional or non-traditional, to experience cross-disciplinary creative problem-solving that will serve them in their future careers and all areas of their life.

“Being able to study in a professional collegiate environment is a true gift. I realize how lucky I am to not only have grown as an artist but as a person. By helping me through this artistic trek you have directly contributed to the growth of art that will be shared throughout my life. All art matters and the experiences people partake in when art is shared helps create an open-minded population. Art generates emotion. Emotion shows us who we are and how we see our footprints. Humanity can only benefit from the positive energy creative media produces. I thank you so much for letting me pursue a happy life.”

—2022 Desert Bloom Scholarship Recipient

So far, we have funded five students out of 21 declared minors. My vision is to expand the scholarship fund to fully cover all art minors’ art education expenses. Can you help me reach this goal?

Be a Sponsor: I Madonnari Chalk Painting Festival

My participation as a volunteer invited artist in the annual I Madonnari Chalk Painting Festival has become an anchor point in my creative practice. I now also give back to this essential program that I benefited from as a Santa Barbara public school student by sponsoring my own square. The festival is always looking for new sponsors to continue this important work that reaches more than 90,000 students in our county schools and draws tens of thousands of visitors each year.