Atlanta’s Spelman College has received a $12 million gift from the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation.
The donation will be used towards the state-of-the-art academic facility designed to bring creative disciplines, technology and innovation together.
“Spelman College is an exceptional institution,” said Russ Hardin, president of the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation. “We are pleased to support the Center for Innovation & the Arts with a grant that will allow Spelman to fulfill its ambitions in arts, technology and innovation.”
The Center is designed to create a vibrant community of innovators, collaborators, artists, musicians, and scientists.
“The rapid convergence of art, technology, and entrepreneurship with the liberal arts and sciences are beginning to yield new solutions to old challenges,” said Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., president of Spelman. “This new facility will be a dynamic learning environment that encourages Spelman students to master their chosen fields, and utilize technology inspired solutions to solve persistent urban problems.”
The college has raised $81.5 million toward the completion of the building. In 2018, the Center received a $30 million gift from Ronda Stryker and her husband Bill Johnston—the college’s most significant gift to date. Spelman has raised $81.5 million toward the completion of the building.
“The Center stands to redefine the way the arts are accessed at Spelman and lead to groundbreaking, cross-disciplinary discoveries,” said Trustee Lovette Twyman Russell, C ’83.
“Spelman is one of the greatest assets to Atlanta and I’m happy to know that one of the city’s most influential foundations wants to invest in the success of our students by supporting the new Center for Innovation & the Arts,” Russell adds. “The College’s demonstrated strength in STEM, coupled with its extraordinary assets in the arts, position Spelman to become an epicenter for artistic expression and digital innovation.”
