Texas Arts for Aid Promotes Philanthropy Through Art and Community

The sound of laughter and sight of warm smiles can be found behind colorful tables adorned with homemade crafts on Speedway. Whether for students looking for a new keychain, or itching for a community built on service, Texas Arts for Aid provides a space for all Longhorns.

Established in 2024 to combine art with community service, Texas Arts for Aid, known as TexasAFA, takes a creative approach to service in the Austin area and beyond. Co-founders Mehak Gaba and Gauri Mishra created the organization in their hometown of Cedar Park when the pair were in high school. 

“I started Texas Arts for Aid in high school, because I feel like the arts and the world of service are very interconnected, but a lot of people don’t really realize that,” Gaba said. “I know sometimes service can be intimidating to people, (and) some people assume that they need a specific skill set to join.”

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To diversify their impact to the Austin community, TexasAFA devotes their efforts to three main pillars of service: donating their creations to other organizations, fundraising money by selling goods and collaborating with other organizations to support a common purpose. 

Kaitlyn Shelton, a medical laboratory science sophomore, serves as the inclusion officer for TexasAFA. 

“In fall of 2025, (TexasAFA) did a mixer with an organization on campus called Iswarah, and what we did there was we created bracelets for Iswarah to go sell,” Shelton said. 

Shelton said all proceeds from the mixer went to victims of international conflict.

After experiencing the organization’s impact during a 2025 Halloween service event, biomedical engineering junior Susie Huh decided to stay in TexasAFA. Huh now acts as the co-president alongside Gaba.

“(At Helping Hand Home), we did a whole Halloween carnival and we did crafts with (the kids), and just seeing them genuinely be happy made me feel really nice inside,” Huh said. “I was like, ‘Oh, this brings me back to when I was a kid,’ and I used to love doing Halloween carnivals, and I was glad that we were able to bring that to them. … We’re actually making some sort of impact to our society.” 

This atmosphere is what TexasAFA strives to create through each and every service project.

From a bracelet profit share with Sophic Creative Designs on Sept. 25, to an upcoming collaboration with Longhorn EMS, TexasAFA has no plans of stopping their creative acts of service anytime soon.

“You don’t have to be good at art to join (AFA)” Gaba said. “Our members are very diverse. We’ve had members that have been making art their whole lives. We’ve had other members that haven’t picked up a craft kit since they were a small child. But regardless, we try to emphasize the fact that creativity and service are truly interconnected”