Thom Kostura was born and raised on Long Island, NY and attended the Huntington School of Fine Art as a Grand Scholarship winner. He received his BFA in Painting and Sculpture from SUNY Buffalo in 2005, after which he returned to Long Island where he became a specialist in faux bois, marbling, and project management with an interior design firm.
While working in the Hamptons, Kostura began several side ventures including working with decorators on commissioned fine art, selling paintings of local landscapes in stores around the Hamptons, and starting a small line of fashion accessories sold online and in consignment shops in the Hamptons, New York, and San Francisco.
In 2012, Kostura relocated with his husband to Memphis, TN, where he completed his MFA from Memphis College of Art in 2015. In 2013 Kostura and his husband joined three other couples in the federal lawsuit “Tanco v Haslam" challenging Tennessee’s recognition of out of state same-sex marriages. The case was consolidated with those from three other States as “Obergefell, et. al. v. Hodges, et. al.” leading to a 5-4 victory at the Supreme Court. During this time, Kostura and his husband worked closely with state and local LGBT groups on fundraisers and media campaigns.
In 2017, he began working at The Center for Visual Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he would become project manager for Art in the Open, an outdoor arts festival. As of 2023, Kostura and his husband live in Washington DC where Kostura works as an art handler..