The Marisa Tufaro Foundation is honored to announce that Samantha Morgan, a student at Conackamack Middle School in Piscataway, has been selected to receive a 2024 Marisa Tufaro Memorial Art Scholarship.
The scholarship entitles Samantha to attend a weeklong art camp this summer at Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum, where Marisa previously honed her craft and where her artwork was once displayed at an exhibit.
A gifted and detail-oriented artist whose precocious talent belies her young age, Samantha is a student of Conackamack Middle School art teacher Teresa Michalski.
Cheerful, kind, and conscientious, Samantha’s passion for art is reflected in all her creations. Samantha is highly motivated, technically skilled, and always willing to challenge herself and explore new mediums.
Samantha was chosen last year to represent her school at the Board of Education Permanent Art Collection for Piscataway Township Schools. Multiple pieces of Samantha’s art were displayed in previous years for temporary showings.
In addition to her accomplishments as a student, Samantha is dedicated to helping others. Samantha’s benevolence includes volunteering the past two years at a Buddy Ball program her former primary school gym teacher runs.
Last year, the art teacher at Martin Luther King Elementary selected Samantha to design a T-shirt for the school’s Autism Awareness walk. Students and teachers purchased the T-shirts to wear for the event, which served as a fundraiser for Autism Awareness. Samantha was the walk’s top fundraiser.
The summer art camp Samantha will attend allows artists of various ability levels between the ages of 7 and 14 to explore their creative side and develop new skills alongside wonderful teaching artists in a unique setting only an art museum can provide. Children often find inspiration in the museum’s collection as they explore the galleries.
According to Rutgers University’s website, “During the hot days of summer, the Zimmerli is the place to be for budding young artists. Each year, new classes are added to stimulate, challenge and delight both veteran and newcomers who participate in the program. The Zimmerli continues to offer its popular classes in painting, drawing, pastels, watercolors, sculpture, and an art ‘sampler’ class.”
The scholarship opportunities have been made possible through donations to The Marisa Tufaro Foundation from a member of the Greater Middlesex Conference Baseball Coaches Association, who wishes to remain anonymous, and other generous benefactors.
Marisa’s ambition was to attend an art college, and while God’s plan did not allow her to make it to one, her work did.
A piece Marisa constructed with a New York City School of Visual Arts graduate student during an art therapy session at New York Presbyterian’s Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital was displayed at the “Your Turn” exhibit at the college’s Flatiron Gallery in Manhattan a month after her untimely passing.
Born with a complex cardiac defect, Marisa survived six open-heart surgeries and a heart transplant before succumbing in 2017 to a rare form of cancer following a valiant battle. She was just 13 years old.
Despite being hospitalized for more than two years and maintaining hundreds of doctor’s appointments, Marisa was an honor roll student involved in myriad extracurricular activities who lived a vibrant life that inspired.
Established just over six years ago, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has made a profound impact, donating more than $300,000 and spearheading multiple community initiatives to fulfill its mission of helping pediatric patients and other children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area.
The nonprofit has also donated thousands of toys, nonperishable food items, winter jackets, baby supplies, school supplies, and other items upon which it has placed no monetary value.
In addition, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has awarded $29,500 in college academic scholarships to 42 exceptional Middlesex County high school students who advance the nonprofit’s mission, and before year’s end will have sent 27 elementary and middle school students to the Zimmerli Art Museum’s weeklong Summer Art Camp.
To learn more about the Zimmerli Art Museum and its collections and program offerings, please visit https://zimmerli.rutgers.edu/