Our Vision
Brushes for Vincent exists to equip art teachers, students, and community programs with the art supplies and creative resources they need to learn, create, and thrive.
We believe art has the power to bring hope, healing, confidence, and connection. By providing free art materials to public school art teachers and their students, we help remove financial barriers that can limit creativity in the classroom and ensure that more young people have the opportunity to discover and develop their artistic gifts.
We also support children facing serious illness by providing art supplies through Arts for Life and its hospital-based programs, helping bring creativity, encouragement, and moments of joy to children and families during difficult seasons.
Inspired by the relationship between Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theo, Brushes for Vincent is built on the idea that encouragement, generosity, and practical support can make a lasting difference in the life of an artist.
Through partnerships with art supply manufacturers, educators, healthcare arts programs, businesses, donors, and members of our community, we work to place quality art materials where they can have the greatest impact.
Our mission is simple: to equip creativity, strengthen community, and use art as a source of hope, healing, and opportunity for the next generation.
A Note from the President
When I was young, art opened a door in me. It gave me a way to wonder, to observe, to imagine, and to express what I could not always put into words. In many ways, art helped me find my place in the world.
I believe art is not extra. It is not decoration added after the important things are done. Art is part of the human experience. It helps us remember, grieve, celebrate, heal, question, dream, and hope. It teaches us to look more deeply at the world and at one another.
Somewhere along the way, I fear we have forgotten that. The arts are often treated as optional, and in schools they are too often among the first programs cut when budgets grow tight. But history tells a different story. Again and again, communities, towns, and cities have been renewed by creativity. The arts bring people together, give places identity, and help communities imagine what they might become.
I have seen this firsthand in the city I call home: Asheville, North Carolina.
In the early 1980s, downtown Asheville was struggling. Storefronts were boarded up, buildings were neglected, and large portions of the city many now love were threatened by demolition and redevelopment.
But artists, preservationists, business owners, and people who believed in the power of creativity began to see Asheville not only for what it was, but for what it could become again.
They moved in. They invested. They created.
Spaces that had been forgotten began to find new life. Old buildings were restored. Galleries opened. Theaters grew. Public art became part of the city’s story. Over time, creativity helped reshape the heart of Asheville.
Today, Asheville is known for its vibrant arts community, a place where creativity is not hidden away but woven into the life, identity, and spirit of the city itself.
Creativity is not only personal. It is communal.
Creative people, creative work, and creative places can shape the life of a city and the spirit of a culture. That belief is at the heart of Brushes for Vincent.
When we place art supplies into the hands of a child in a hospital, equip an art teacher with materials for a classroom, or encourage a young person to create, we are doing more than providing supplies. We are opening doors.
We are giving someone the opportunity to imagine, to express, to heal, and perhaps even to discover a gift that will shape the rest of their life.
That is why this work matters so deeply to me, and why I believe investing in creativity is ultimately an investment in people, families, and the communities we share.
Philip DeAngelo
President, Brushes for Vincent