The Coconut Grove Arts Festival (CGAF) has proudly awarded $10,000 to Comic Kids, a Miami-based nonprofit that brings free drawing classes, art supplies, and educational resources to children in need across South Florida. Part of a broader portfolio of CGAF initiatives designed to educate and mentor emerging artists, the donation reinforces the organization’s year-round commitment to nurturing the community’s next generation of creative talent.
For more than six decades, CGAF has maintained that a thriving arts community begins with investing in young artists. Comic Kids helps fuel that pipeline, giving children who might not otherwise have access to formal art education the tools to discover their creative potential. At the December 8, 2025 awards ceremony (pictured below), CGAF Executive Director Camille Marchese stated, “This is exactly the kind of innovative, grassroots program the organization is proud to champion.”
Founded in 2018 by Miami fine art dealers Reed and Kat Horth, Comic Kids serves children ages 5–12 in pediatric hospitals, foster care settings, homeless shelters, and underserved schools throughout the region. The organization teaches drawing skills through popular comics, cartoons, and books, using familiar characters as entry points to advanced techniques such as perspective, shading, scale, and color rendering.
Donation Is Paying Dividends
By March 2026, the partnership with CGAF was already paying dividends, as Comic Kids had begun expanding its impact through new and ongoing programs.
According to Kat Horth, patients at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital now receive free cartoon drawing classes once a month to keep them engaged both inside and outside their rooms. “We’re also providing free weekly curricula to dozens of partner nonprofits, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, Lotus House Shelter for Women, and Ronald McDonald House.”
She added that Comic Kids is expanding its Spanish-language programming as well, in collaboration with the University of Miami School of Communication, including the launch of a bilingual “Art History for Kids” video series — opening access to even more families across Miami.
“With the Arts Festival’s support, we’re also creating free, Miami-inspired character drawing activities to teach children how to draw local favorites,” Horth said, noting the initiative advances the group’s mission to make art accessible to children in need.
Where Art Education is Needed Most
Reed Horth, who participated in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program as a child, discovered his love for reading, writing, and illustrating through comics. That early exposure led to degrees in art history and journalism from the University of Florida and ultimately to a career in fine art. Together with his wife, Kat, he founded Comic Kids to bring high-quality art education to communities that need it most.
“What impressed us about Comic Kids is how they’ve reached thousands of children since 2018 with a model that is both scalable and deeply local,” said Marchese. “They meet children exactly where they are — whether virtually, in after-school programs, or in foster care — and provide personalized, professional-level instruction that builds true artistic vision and confidence.”
According to Horth, this support from CGAF comes at a pivotal time for the Comic Kids organization. “We’ve been working with the Ryan Seacrest Foundation and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital to bring our programs to kids who need them most, and now we can expand that reach.”
“CGAF understands that language accessibility isn’t just nice to have — it’s essential to our mission of making art free and accessible to children in need,” Marchese added.
Comic Kids enables schools and community organizations to host classes using smartboards with minimal materials — just pencil, paper, and coloring supplies. The organization offers several formats, including “Read + Draw” for ages 5–9, which pairs reading popular books with drawing their characters, and “Comics and Cartoons” classes focused on characters from movies, TV shows, comics, and graphic novels.
For more information about Comic Kids, visit www.comickids.org or email comickidsorg@gmail.com. To learn more about CGAF’s community programs or to donate, visit cgaf.com/initiatives or contact Camille Marchese at camille@cgaf.com or 305-447-0401.
About The Coconut Grove Arts Festival
For more than six decades years, CGAF has been dedicated to cultivating future generations of artists. As a nonprofit 501(c)(3), the organization champions South Florida’s arts community through educational programs and by hosting one of the nation’s premier outdoor art festivals. Proceeds fund year-round initiatives including scholarships, the Visiting Artists Program, and the Next Generation Emerging Artist Program. Learn more at cgaf.com.