Furniture studio to support art scholarship

The Art League of Bonita Springs and Design Within Reach have teamed up to provide scholarships to give thriving young artists, designers, and architects a chance to go to college, technical programs or additional classes at the Art League.

“We have a lot of kids in our program that wouldn’t be able to go to college or even pay for our classes if we didn’t have these scholarship opportunities,” said Joni Loehnis, Art League spokesperson.

Design Within Reach, a classic modern furniture store, is donating money to the scholarship program because, after opening a new studio at the Coconut Point shopping district in Estero in November, the studio realized it wanted to give back to the community in a big way.

And, it is allowing the community to give back as well until Jan. 15.

Following its grand opening celebration on Thursday, the studio began its “Percent for Art” program in which 10 percent of all sales between Jan. 8 and Jan. 15 are awarded to high school students who intend to study art or design at the college level.

“We invite the community to come out and purchase the very, very cool looking furniture we have,” said Nanette Dorbeck, the studio account executive, who won’t give an estimate on how much the studio will be able to donate until sales end on Tuesday. “We are all about what the Art League does because we are supporters of design, too. We are thrilled that we can do this for them.”

Art students are the ones who will be seeing the big rewards but not until mid-March after the Student Showcase at the Art League.

“We get kids from Collier and Lee counties that come out to our classes and all participating students have a chance to be in the show,” said Loehnis, about the showcase that includes a gallery exhibition and awards ceremony. “This partnership will gives us an additional scholarship and give one more kid a chance to study art and that’s important to us.”

Last year the Art League handed out more than $12,000 worth of college tuition scholarships and other students received more than $9,000 to attend classes at the Art League.

“We know that this money will help local artists and that’s what we want. We wanted to support the nonprofit group as well,” Dorbeck said.

“It’s always good to have more money to go to school. It’s part of our mission statement to help enrich the culture of our diverse community,” Loehnis said. “We will be able to stick with that mission with the studio’s help.”