About Us
Tilga Scholarship is the philanthropic initiative of Wally Bakare as a vehicle to provide opportunities for minority students to obtain great college preparatory education and enable them to complete their collegiate education.
As an avid collector of arts from the African continent and the diaspora, Wally created The Tilga Fund for the Arts to support and foster criticality, broaden artistic practice and engage new and exciting modes of art-making among young contemporary African artists.
Wally's life mission is to help people become all that God has created them to be. He is very passionate about facilitating endeavors that will significantly improve the opportunity for under privileged young adults, particularly black and brown, to climb out of poverty and alter the financial trajectory of their families for generations.
Since 2012 Tilga Scholarship has partnered with the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), The Ohio State University Todd Bell Resource Center for African American Males, St. Charles Preparatory School and University of California, Riverside to offer scholarships to students.
We know it takes a village to raise a child. Our mission is to come along side minority students struggling financially to continue their college education, and young artists striving to build their careers. We strive to rescue their dreams.
From our experience with students, the difference between staying in school and graduating on time could be as little as $1,000. It doesn't take much to make significant difference for students that have exhausted all opportunities to meet their financial need.
We look at our scholarship and art grant as investments in each recipient. The expectation is that each investment would yield exponential returns as the students graduate, and the artists become more commercially viable.