This is part of a series of monthly articles about people who support the University of Georgia Performing Arts Center.
UGA President Emeritus Chuck Knapp and his wife, Lynne, have been involved with the Performing Arts Center since the planning stages in the late 1980s.
Our interest in supporting the Performing Arts Center goes all the way back to when we arrived at the university in 1987. We recognized very quickly the need to strengthen the performing arts programs. The university’s programs in many areas were already very strong. But a balanced, great university also has excellent programs in the performing and visual arts.
When we got into the Performing Arts Center, a lot of the university faculty who ended up buying tickets to events were from other areas of the campus, like the hard sciences. Also, many of the people you see in the building — from the opening 26 years ago to the ones I see now — are from the broader Athens community. The PAC really has strengthened the town and gown relationship in Athens.
Lynne and I are the sponsors of the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine performance next January. This is an extraordinary opportunity, to bring in a group of wonderful musicians who also serve as a statement of our times. I think the facility has given the university the ability to do things like this.
Learn how you can support the University of Georgia Performing Arts Center here.