UAPB gets $2M for scholarships, art
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff received more than $2 million from a Windgate Foundation gift that will go toward scholarships and art education in the Delta, the university’s chancellor said Tuesday.
Chancellor Laurence Alexander said an initial lump sum of $80,274 from the foundation will go toward scholarships for four current UAPB students — two out-of-state students and two in-state students. The scholarships will be awarded this year.
“The $80,000 will cover the kind of gap between waiting for the endowment,” said Patricia Forgy, executive director of the Windgate Foundation, a private grant-making foundation established in 1993.
The foundation allotted $2 million that will go toward the Windgate Foundation Scholarship Endowment and will provide scholarships on a yearly basis. The University of Arkansas Foundation will invest the $2 million, and within a year the earnings from the investment should be enough to dedicate toward scholarships, Forgy said.
Officials expect the endowment to produce between $80,000 to $100,000 in scholarships annually, depending on variations in the investment market, Forgy said.
Windgate also donated $125,000 toward the John Miller Howard Art and Education Legacy Exhibition.
The exhibit honors John Miller Howard, who founded the UAPB art department and taught at the university for more than four decades. The collection includes Howard’s paintings, personal letters, collectibles, photos and memoirs. It will run from fall 2020 to 2022, traveling throughout the Delta to show at area schools.
“It has breathed life into this exhibit,” Alexander said.
The money toward the exhibit allows the university to extend its footprint, exposing children in the Delta to art at young ages, Alexander said.
Alexander said the university worked with the foundation to determine how to best utilize the money.
“We feel that providing scholarships is vitally important,” Forgy said.
Forgy said the foundation looked at the gift as a way to better a community without sufficient resources.
“UAPB is in an area that is very underserved, and we recognize that,” she said.