Alverno Presents
At the age when most people think about retiring, Alverno's Sister Laura Lampe set out on an entirely
new project — creating what was then the Society of Fine Arts and what is now known as Alverno Presents.
Over the past 50 years, that venture has turned the stage of Pitman Theatre into a cultural crossroads and
brought world-class performers to Milwaukee's South Side.
"Unless you are educated in metaphor, you are not safe to be let loose in the world."
Robert Frost wrote this in 1930. It could be said that Sr. Laura Lampe was
guided by this thought back in 1959 when she founded what was then the
Society of Fine Arts and what is now Alverno Presents.
Sr. Laura was a visionary. This 50th season website celebrates her vision by
highlighting a few of the great artists and legendary performances she
brought to the Alverno campus. You may note that some of these artists
were presented here at Alverno College before their gifts were commonly
acknowledged. This is what a visionary does.
But individual performances are only the fruits of a vision. At its heart, a vision
expresses core values. About Sr. Laura, we must ask this question: Why did
she make the singularly audacious choice of creating a performing arts series
in a college on the south side of Milwaukee?
Sr. Laura understood that education was something more than stuffing heads
with facts. She knew that long after specific data is forgotten or deemed
irrelevant, our ability to analyze and imagine is what takes us from the known
over the chasm of the unknown. How we connect like with unlike and turn
the possible into the viable determines not only how we prosper but how we
survive.
Sr. Laura recognized that the arts, rather than being ancillary, are central to
the mission of higher education. They serve not only as inspiration but also
as a reinforcement of the fundamental process that is at the heart of how
we learn. They are metaphor made visible, a source of pleasure and a model
for thought.
In fact, at the heart of Sr. Laura’s vision—one that we strive to realize with
every Alverno Presents season—is the daring insight that thought and
pleasure are synonymous.
Please join us in affirming this vision both on the occasion of our
50th Anniversary and into the future.
David Ravel,
Director
Alverno Presents
The Alverno Presents series is conceived as part of a larger conversation about what is most
valued and vital in world culture at the dawn of the 21st Century. The curatorial vision is
to find and cultivate national and international artists in the performing arts whose work
exemplifies excellence, innovation, and profound accomplishment. The program reflects Alverno
College's diverse student and community demographics and connects them through a variety of
outreach initiatives.