About Our Grant
SME won a Mississippi Arts Commission grant to host an eight-week art workshop for our Explorers Club children (ages three to eighteen). The workshop will study Impressionist Art and the children will create their own artwork in the Impressionist-style. Explorers will study Mary Cassatt, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, and George Seurat.
The Workshop began in October 2024 and finished in May 2025.
This Workshop was made possible...
in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC), a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), a federal agency.
SME would like to thank to our US Senators Cindy Hyde-Smith & Roger Wicker and US House Representative Mike Ezell for their support of the NEA without which this Workshop would not be possible.
We would also like to thank our MS legislators for their support of MAC: Senators DeLano, England, & Wiggins; and Representatives Read, Zuber, Guice, Grady, & Felsher. Support for the arts makes all the difference for a brighter MS future!
Thank you to all the MAC Commissioners, especially our local Gulf Coast Commissioners: Mr. Frank Bordeaux, Mr. Scott Naugle, and Mrs. Marie Sanderson!
A big thank you also goes to St. Michael Catholic Church for supporting the children of Stella Maris Explorers every week by donating the use of the Family Life Center: Msgr. Dominick Fullam, Mrs. Susan Pizzetta, and Mrs. Jessica Gollott. Your support is invaluable to our mission. Additional thanks go to the Diocese of Biloxi and Bishop Kihneman for allowing catholic homeschooling to flourish in Biloxi.
And lastly, thank you to the 100% volunteer SME team. Notably the granting writing team: Mrs. Mallory Carey, Ms. Mary Easterling, Mrs. Ashley Rodriguez, and Mrs. Lorelei Worland; and the lead art instructor: Mrs. Nicole Webb. Without their hard work this grant would never materialized.
Learn more about SME
Stella Maris Explorers is a catholic 501(c)3 public charity formed to encourage art, faith, and science education on the Mississippi Gulf Coast through in-person programs and to help families raise well rounded and faith-filled children.
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