This is part of a series of monthly articles about people who support the University of Georgia Performing Arts Center.

Meet Laura Carter. She’s a retired librarian who worked at the Athens Clarke County library for more than 40 years. Today she teaches genealogy classes for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) and lives on the same East Athens farm where she grew up; she recalls helping remove rocks from plowed fields as a child while listening to opera records through the open windows of her house.

The UGA Performing Arts Center is one of the many things that makes the Athens area have a great quality of life. Athens and the university were much smaller and more parochial when I was growing up here. However, even then UGA provided some amazing performances at the Fine Arts Theatre, which our parents made sure we could attend.

We were basic middle class folks and cash was not readily available, but our parents thought that exposure to the arts was essential for my brother and I to become well-rounded, productive people. Along with a cousin, they shared the purchase of two tickets to every performance in the Metropolitan Opera’s week of performances at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. They also bought tickets for other cultural events in Athens. So between some of the local offerings they could afford and some of the offerings in Atlanta, my brother and I got a smattering of exposure to live performing arts.

With the diverse offerings at the PAC from chamber music, classical music, choral music, dance, world music, jazz, and more, both young and old no longer have to drive out of town and pay much more expensive prices for tickets to world-class live entertainment. I really want to encourage people to bring young people to these performances, to provide experiences instead of stuff. I bring my grand niece and grand nephews. And I do not give much because I do not have the means, but the PAC is important to Athens and UGA so I do what I can.

Learn how you can support the University of Georgia Performing Arts Center here.

Photo: Mark Mobley