History

SOfa and the SOfa Foundation were founded by long-time friends Brian Ettensohn and Leanne Banna-Pritchett, who attended high school together in the 1980s and enjoyed a rich cultural experience at that time. Brian chaired the Fine Arts at Henderson County High School, and Leanne is a long-time supporter of youth and the arts in both Evansville and Henderson. The two rekindled their friendship on a visioning board where they both felt arts in education could be a critical piece in developing a better economic environment for Henderson County.

Brian, with his knowledge of the school system, state and local curriculum and student needs along with Leanne’s broad history of both nonprofits and business strategy were a perfect team to begin the vision of these entities to support the growth of arts in Henderson. Both had connections to many of their friends who went on from their 1980s education at HCHS to serve in the highest levels of their craft in NY, LA and beyond.

The two talked and met privately for several years before beginning to approach Henderson County Schools (HCS) leadership. Their ideas were met with welcoming interest, and the two were encouraged to push on with their detailed structure and plans.

With the help of the Community Foundation of Henderson (CFH) and West Kentucky Foundation (WKF), The SOfa Foundation was able to begin raising small seed funds almost immediately to support the arts at Henderson County High School. This was helpful while awaiting Federal and State approvals as a nonprofit entity of the SOfa Foundation, Inc.

The SOfa Foundation became its own official legal entity in the fall of 2016 with the blessing and knowledge of HCS on how we could best work and serve local youth together. The SOfa program accepted its first class of students in the fall of 2017. The two entities work separately but on parallel planes. The SOfa Foundation seeks not only to support and raise the bar of the arts for SOfa students but the full contingent of students in the Henderson County School system.

The first full SOfa Foundation Board was developed in the summer of 2017 after receiving its own 501(c)3 Status. A great deal of time was spent by the members of that initial board to develop various legal documents, hone their mission statement, create a strategic plan and establish all fundamental checks and balances to operate transparently and solely for the support of forwarding arts education in Henderson County.