Texas Cultural Trust Kicks Off 2018 Texas Young Masters CauseVox Campaign

Texas Young Masters is a joint initiative between the Texas Cultural Trust and Texas Commission on the Arts that recognizes excellence in Texas’ brightest 8th through 11th graders who excel in music, theatre, dance, visual arts, folk arts, media arts, and literary arts. Every biennium, Texas Young Masters provides the state’s brightest young artists with grants of $10,000 over two years to help enhance and build their professional artistic study. To help raise awareness about the Young Masters program and grant funds, the Trust launched an online fundraising campaign with the goal of raising $50,000 of the $150,000 needed to fund 15 grants. 

“Through this campaign, we hope to increase awareness about the importance of the Arts and Arts education in Texas, not only to a younger demographic, but to the Texas community as a whole,” said Heidi Marquez Smith, executive director of Texas Cultural Trust. “With your generous support, we can reinforce the message that arts are for everybody to enjoy, to participate in, and we can help these young artists realize their full potential.”

Since its inception in 2002, the Trust has awarded grants to 139 Young Masters, totaling $857,500. These funds provide the boost that allows the rising stars in Texas to become the legends of tomorrow. The 2018 class of Young Masters will be announced in early March 2018. To celebrate the new class, Texas Cultural Trust will host an awards show to highlight each recipient’s drive, talent and creativity on Monday, April 16, 2018 at ZACH Theatre. Ashley Covert, Gerardo Interiano, Maya Smart and Natasa Valocchi are this year’s program chairs.

“The Young Masters grant program was created as a way to recognize and support young people pursuing the dream of becoming prominent Texan artists of the next generation,” said TCA Executive Director Gary Gibbs. “We look forward to supporting the artistic development of fifteen more students who are already demonstrating outstanding artistic ability, talent and dedication to developing their knowledge in their chosen discipline.”

To contribute to the 2018 Texas Young Masters CauseVox campaign, visit txyoungmasters.causevox.com. For more information on Texas Cultural Trust and the Texas Young Masters program, visit www.txculturaltrust.org. For more information about The Texas Commission on the Arts, visit www.arts.texas.gov.