Spalding University Speaks Up: Why the Arts Matter

Spalding University faculty and staff share why the arts are important to them and to our community:

By: Linda Elisabeth LaPinta, Director, Ed.D.: Leadership Program

I was fortunate to be raised by parents who valued the arts and who provided me every opportunity to attend live performances and exhibitions throughout the world. My mother was a painter who chaired a college art department; my father developed a passion for opera as a result of spending his boyhood Saturdays listening to New York Metropolitan Opera performances on the radio as he lay in isolation with polio. My own love of literature caused me to realize that through reading I could participate in the great conversation of human history and possibility and never be lonely or bored.

As in any community, the arts in Louisville showcase our creative best and complement our city’s first-class offerings in innovation, education, tourism, and healthcare. Our support of the arts reflects the fact that Louisvillians value lifelong learning that transcends the classroom and promotes the development of the whole person.

In this era in which arts funding is threatened with cutbacks and even extinction, it is essential for those who care about enriching their own lives, as well as about raising their children in an environment in which they are able to enjoy and engage in creative possibilities, to contribute to the Fund for the Arts. I encourage my Spalding colleagues to donate what they can to help ensure that our community advances new artists and new neighborhood art and promotes the mission of our museums, ballet, opera, and orchestra to challenge us to think critically and creatively about our psyche, our culture, our global environment, and our collective humanity.

By: Meghan Caplan, Director of Institutional Advancement at KyCAD

The arts have the power to bring a community together like no other force.  In our participation we find the heart of human existence that binds us all together.  The arts can heal, inspire, inform and transform.

Please consider a gift to the Fund for the Arts!  Your support will directly impact the arts organizations in our city who provide access to the excellent performances, exhibits, and art experiences in Louisville.  Every gift matters!

By: Joyce Ogden, Professor of Art

I value the arts as both a creative process and a creative experience. Both the visual and performing arts give my life balance and meaning.  The arts make us think, question, feel, and look. The arts help us, as a society, consider contemporary issues and to have a public dialogue about difficult issues. They help us to remember the past, honor the present and strive for the best future.

The arts help to make the Greater Louisville area a unique and special place where we live and work. The Fund for the Arts supports a wide range of arts programming that helps to keep Louisville a rich, creative and vibrant city. Please help support the Fund for the Arts and all they do for Louisville.