“I believe in this community and in our future as a thriving, growing region.” -Christen Boone
Did you see the headlines? Friday night the Fund for the Arts celebrated the success of the 2014 Fund for the Arts Campaign. $8,010,000 for the Arts in our community – stunning! More than 20,000 donors giving $1 or more per week to make 400,000 arts experiences possible for our children and bringing more than $259 million in economic activity every year. Thank you! Thank you for your support and your generosity.
It was a beautiful night in Central Park before the opening of Hamlet. Hosted by our nationally renowned Kentucky Shakespeare, we celebrated a year of success with the top 50 workplace campaigns and the many volunteers that made this total possible, starting with our 2014 Campaign Chair Mark Wheeler. Mark committed countless hours to the campaign inviting thousands of people from across this region to join him and make a gift to support our Arts community.
One highlight of the evening came when Mary Newby was awarded the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fund for the Arts for her volunteer work with the Fund and so many other nonprofit organizations in our community. Mary has led the Norton Healthcare – Fund for the Arts Campaign for more than 25 years and raised $1 million in just the past ten years alone!
The evening would not have been complete without a tribute to our fearless leader, Barbara Sexton Smith. 16 children presented Barbara with sixteen roses, a rose for every year of service to the Fund for the Arts.
Christen Boone in her one of a kind Construction hat by Chris Chappell.
I was welcomed and given my very own hard hat, created by Louisville Visual Art Association artist Chris Chappell and then heralded by a Kentucky Shakespeare actor as the new “Lady of the Arts”. (Incidentally, the actor and I graduated from high school together and he added “I know Christen read Hamlet because we read it together in Ms. Hagemen’s senior English class at PRP High School!)
It was an incredible way to begin my journey with the Fund for the Arts and you. Over the next several months, I look forward to meeting you, thanking you personally for your support of the Arts, getting to know your vision for this community and hearing your ideas and suggestions about how the Fund for the Arts can best steward your gift and serve this community. I invite you to reach out to me anytime by email at cboone@fundforthearts.com or by phone at
502-582-0129.
Thank you again for your support, now and in the future!
Christen Boone
President & CEO
Fund for the Arts
502-582-0129
