This editorial aims to celebrate the Fund for the Arts’ 70th Anniversary and invite the public to a celebration.
Title: You’re Invited to the 70 Years of Arts Celebration!
By: Fund for the Arts
It’s the year 1949 and the world is eager to capture new moments. The first Polaroid camera is sold for $89.95. RCA perfects a system for broadcasting color televisions. Humanity is about to see and remember so much more than we thought was possible. And in Louisville, an innovation sparks the course of our city’s history when Louisville’s Mayor Charles Farnsley establishes Fund for the Arts to cultivate the city’s captivating arts institutions that will propel Greater Louisville to be, well. . . great.
70 years later, Fund for the Arts carries on our founder’s vision while expanding and shifting to address the most pressing needs of the city today and in the years to come. Through our generous donors, we have fueled Louisville’s ascent as an unparalleled city of arts and culture. Classrooms have come to life, community centers transformed into playgrounds for imaginations, and our workplaces continue to reap the benefits of an engaged and inspired workforce. In our 70 years, we’ve raised and invested more than 200 million dollars in Greater Louisville’s theatres, museums, schools, community centers, senior care facilities, public spaces, and beyond.
The Fund has moved beyond our traditional role as a fundraising and granting organization to become a convener and advocate for a dynamic creative sector. We elevate the impact of the arts as a driver of economic development and address disparities in access, equity and diversity. Through the community’s master arts and culture plan, Imagine Greater Louisville 2020, we support initiatives like the Louisville Cultural Accessibility Association (LCAA), a partnership between the American Printing House for the Blind Museum, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Kentucky Center for the Arts. The LCAA patron who wouldn’t be able to see that 1949 Polaroid or hear the 1949 color television can today explore his or her imagination with innovations and training in accessibility in the arts.
We have so much to celebrate and many more lives to enrich in the next 70 years. And you are a vital part of that celebration—the arts enthusiast, the donors, the patrons, and the curious readers who devour the Voice to learn and connect. It is community members like you who are able see the world just a little differently and work collaboratively to create a better world for yourself, family, and fellow Louisvillians. Our community, our citizens create this rich environment for the arts to thrive.
You are integral to our past 70 years and we would be ever grateful for you to continue on this journey with us of creating more art for more people in more places. Please join us for our 70th Anniversary Showcase and Campaign Kick Off on Tuesday, January 29 at 6:00 p.m. For this event we’ll be revisiting our history at the historic Brown Theatre with some special guests—the city’s top influencers in business, government, arts and society to collaborate onstage with our cities finest artists. It will be an evening full of surprise, food, drink, conversations and connections over a shared love for the arts. We’ll celebrate the past, and we’ll celebrate you being present with us. And we’ll look forward, because together we create a more educated, economically vibrant, creative, and compassionate community through the arts.