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AMFA Receives $450K Windgate Foundation Grant, Announces Windgate Art School Reduced Tuition Program

The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA) announces the receipt of a multi-year grant totaling $450,000 from the Windgate Foundation. This generous grant will significantly enhance the Museum's educational programs, specifically supporting Windgate Art School classes, and providing funding for programming, marketing, and technology support from 2024 to 2026.

AMFA's Executive Director, Dr. Victoria Ramirez, expressed gratitude for the Windgate Foundation's continued support, “We are incredibly grateful to the Windgate Foundation for this transformational grant. The Windgate Art School is AMFA’s cornerstone of learning and artmaking. Through the previous generosity of the Windgate Foundation, we have built an Art School with state-of-the-art studios and equipment. This additional multi-year funding will enable the Museum to broaden educational offerings and increase outreach, ultimately creating a space where everyone, at any level, can make art.”

Windgate's giving history with AMFA dates back to 1995, supporting both annual and long-term growth goals for the institution. AMFA’s Windgate Art School has also historically benefited from the foundation's funding. The Windgate Foundation was instrumental in AMFA's $176.6 million Capital Campaign, substantially contributing to the Museum's renovation and expansion. In recognition of their extraordinary support, Windgate is a 2023 Society member, AMFA's highest philanthropic level for annual donors, and a 21st Century Founder, the top-tier level for the Capital Campaign.

Reduced Tuition Program

AMFA and the Windgate Art School are proud to launch a new reduced tuition program, which will reduce pricing by an average of 17 percent for more than 100 classes for the upcoming fall and winter terms. This initiative is designed to help ease financial barriers and ensure everyone in our community can engage in the arts. The reduced tuition program is supported by Michael Laughter.

“We extend our gratitude to Michael for his generous support of the Museum and art education,” Ramirez expressed further. “When discussing this gift with Michael, he shared his experience taking classes as a child and the lasting impact they had on his life. Michael’s support allows the Museum to reduce tuition, stemming from his desire for more youth and adults to participate in the Art School and experience the transformative power of the arts. We are deeply thankful for his commitment to the Museum and the community.”

Fall 2024 Class Highlights

Alongside this announcement, AMFA is pleased to release the comprehensive lineup of classes for the fall term at the Windgate Art School. These classes are designed to cater to a wide range of interests and skill levels, ensuring there is something for everyone. Highlights of the fall term include:

Adult Classes

  • Beginner Wheel Throwing: Learn the fundamental techniques of making pottery: wedging, opening, centering, and pulling. This class focuses on the processes of wheel throwing to encourage skill building and exploration of making pottery on the wheel.

  • Beginner Digital Drawing: Learn to make art on an iPad digital tablet with one of the most popular and affordable digital apps, Procreate. Gain an understanding of the digital brushes, tools, and techniques used when sketching on a screen. Students will visit the AMFA galleries and create inspired digital artwork. An iPad with Procreate will be provided to students during scheduled class time. Students may also bring their own digital tablet with Procreate installed.

  • Beginner and Intermediate Jewelry and Color: View select work in AMFA's Studio Time + Studio Practice exhibition and discover how materials are transformed through making your own art. Add rich, layered color to metal with liquid and powdered enamels. Learn to use the jeweler's saw and cut your own custom jewelry shapes. All skill levels are welcome, and all materials are provided.

  • Beginner and Intermediate Painting Botanicals: Use watercolors and acrylics to create botanical studies and expressive works based on botanical forms. Learn how to mix and build the right colors to match the subject and how to go from a technical representation to something more expressive.

  • Intermediate Fused Glass: Build on learned skills from beginner fused glass and create unique glass objects. Intermediate fused glass students work with Bullseye sheet glass, frit, rods, stringers, and powders to explore the artistic process of glass making. Learn advanced methods for kiln fusing glass by layering, shaping, and carving.

  • Advanced Independent Study – Handbuilding: Independent Study is for the experienced ceramics student to focus on self-directed hand-built projects. Ceramics Faculty will be available during this scheduled class time to advise and assist students with their projects. No formal instruction is provided.

Youth Classes

  • Making Together – Halloween Mask (Ages 4 and up): Work side by side to create a handmade mask using paint, felt, yarn, and other crafting materials that will set both of your costumes apart from the crowd. Each ticket accommodates one child and one grown-up, and all materials are included. Designed for children 4 years of age and older.

  • Art and Nature (K – 2nd): Explore the wonders of nature through art while learning a variety of art-making techniques, including painting, sculpture, and drawing. Visit The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art exhibition in the AMFA galleries for inspiration.

  • Middle School and High School Clay Intensive (6th – 12th): Designed for new and advanced pottery students. This class explores handbuilding, wheel throwing, and glazing.

  • Figurative Painting and Design (9th – 12th): Create a figurative painting inspired by the graphic prints in the AMFA exhibition The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art.

For more information about AMFA and the Windgate Art School, please visit arkmfa.org.

About the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts

Founded in 1937, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts is the largest cultural institution of its kind in the state, offering a unique blend of visual and performing arts experiences. AMFA is committed to featuring diverse media and artistic perspectives within its permanent collection as well as through rotating temporary exhibitions. AMFA’s international collection spans eight centuries, with strengths in works on paper and contemporary craft, and includes notable holdings by artists from Arkansas, the South, and across the United States and Europe.

With a vibrant mix of ideas, cultures, people, and places, AMFA extends this commitment to diversity through the innovative Windgate Art School, a dynamic children’s theatre and performing arts program, and community-focused educational programs for all ages. Located in Little Rock’s oldest urban green space, MacArthur Park, AMFA’s landmark building and grounds are designed by Studio Gang and SCAPE, in collaboration with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects.

About the Windgate Foundation

Windgate Foundation, based in Little Rock Arkansas, is a private foundation established in 1993 whose purpose is to advance contemporary craft and strengthen visual arts education in the United States. Education, health, and community initiatives are an additional area of focus in Arkansas.