The College of Fine Arts educates future creative leaders, preparing students to be the world-changers of their generation. To recruit and retain the top students and faculty members, the college depends more and more on scholarships and faculty endowments to offer competitive financial resources. The College of Fine Arts also depends on new program endowments and foundation grants to offer a variety of college-to-career initiatives such as internships, research funding and career seminars to prepare students to transition into the workforce by experiential learning and hands-on creative research opportunities.
Each gift to the college has an impact, either individually or collectively, and helps the college in many ways. Here are two examples that have made a difference:
Texas Challenge Scholarships is a gift-matching program that creates undergraduate scholarships to lessen student debt and make a UT education affordable for Texas students from middle- and low-income families. The dollar-to-dollar match for gifts of $125,000 and up allows donors to double the impact of their investments. This program offered the college its first $1 million scholarship from Sara and Robert Hallam last year. It now offers annual scholarships to 25 Fine Arts majors. Currently, 16 Texas Challenge Scholarships worth $5.75 million collectively serve more than 200 low-income students in our college each year.
Arts Communities/Arts Economies Program: A new joint initiative from the college’s Center for Creative Economies and the Office for Community Engagement and Public Practice offers our students opportunities for experiential learning with Austin-based arts organizations through internships, curatorial partnerships and entrepreneurial training. Support from the Still Water Foundation and gifts from parents and alumni helped to launch this new program in May 2024. It is called the COFA Arts Administration Fellowship. Seven students from across the college were selected for the competitive program, which runs during the summers of 2024 and 2025. The fellowship offers stipends to offset living costs while they participate in unpaid internships.
For more information on how your philanthropy can make an impact on the College of Fine Arts, please contact Sondra Lomax, executive director and assistant dean of development, at lomax@austin.utexas.edu.