Arts Sponsorship
Spencer Alpert has consistently sought opportunities to support the arts. He comes at this naturally, having grown up with a mother who was a highly-regarded, award-winning art historian, as well as a medievalist, and a long-time docent at the University of Oregon Museum of Art. His father, too a world-renowned sociologist, always promoted the importance of art and culture to Mr. Alpert and his family.
“I’ve always been interested in the arts,” said Alpert. “In Texas, when I began the 1,200-acre Falcon’s Lair Master-Planned Mixed Use Community in the 80’s,” “I became acquainted with the arts community by serving on the Cultural Affairs Committee in the Chamber of Commerce and attending meetings of the Arts Council.” Alpert said he was very impressed with the attitude of arts promotion in the city and felt that corporate sponsorship was one of the best ways to become involved.
“It seems to me that companies have an obligation to promote the arts, said Alpert, “and they should do this because the arts tend to not be self-supporting. A growing community needs corporate and business sponsorship and I hope other businesses will join us. This happened in Dallas and it was very successful and I would like to see it happen in Mesquite.”
Alpert was modest about his contribution to the arts. “I have really done very little. I just saw this as an exciting opportunity to be involved with a community that has already put a lot of good ideas into place. I can’t over-emphasize how impressed I was with the work that Martha Range and other volunteers had already done. That type of dedication and team effort is what makes these things work.”
Mr. Alpert agreed to provide the lion’s share of the funding necessary to retain the resident composer of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to compose and produce “The Ransom of Red Chief”a comedic operetta to be performed by the Dallas Lyric Opera at Mesquite High School. According to Martha Range, the organizer behind this Sesquicentennial event. “I wrote Spencer and told him about the operetta,” Range said, “and he said he’d pay for half of the work done on the music. The Texas Commission for the Arts in Austin funded another 25% and the rest of the money came from other sources, like the Mesquite 50, a local group of individuals that is underwriting the “Ransom of Red Chief” While Range complimented everyone for their help and cooperation, she said this project became a reality because of Spencer Alpert. “We couldn’t have done it without him. The financial help pyramided because of his donation.”
Janet Mardis
The Mesquite Arts Review
April 1986