Assist Mary Kay Thomas After Family Tragedy

Mary Kay Thomas is an artist, an educator, a mother and a grandmother. She has worked with arts organizations in Cleveland like Assembly for the Arts , Artist Archives of the Western Reserve , FIG at the Pivot , Ursuline College , Zygote Press , Karamu , the Kaiser Gallery, Pretentious Cleveland Portrait Artists and David's Challenge Young Achievers in East Cleveland . She has touched the lives of hundreds of young people with her art and work in arts education, helping them connect to their community and revitalize their neighborhoods with art and gardening.

As every professional artist knows, most of the time your livelyhood is pieced together through contract work, and if you don't create, you don't get paid. Artists depend on their networks of fellow creators for opportunities for paid work so they can support themselves as they create. In the best of times, this can be a challenging undertaking, but when tragedy strikes it can become an impossibility. There is no safety net, no FMLA to cover expenses.

On August 29, 2024, Mary's grandson, Christian Thomas, was shot and killed by the Cleveland Heights police. The Thomas family and those who love them are still reeling from the tragedy two months later as they wait for answers from the city and police department as to why he was killed after his father called the police for help.

Mary's grief is all encompassing, and she has struggled to find her center emotionally and artistically as she tries to make sense of this family tragedy. She has tried to get back to the work she loves so dearly, but has not been able to escape the trauma of her grandson's murder.

This fundraiser has been set up to help Mary cover basic expenses for several months so she has more time to heal and hopefully get back to the work she loves.