Article by Kalessia Naishay Spain, c/o '23
Published in 2022
People should support the Lamb Center for Arts and Healing because it is run by a kind woman who loves art. The Lamb Center in downtown Hopewell is run by, Dr. Eliza Lamb who loved art as a child. She wants to share it with her hometown and relies on donations. She grew up with people in her home who would love to do art for a living. Her dad and mom do photography work. She inspired her mother to go back to college later on in life to follow her dreams.
Dr. Lamb had a child when she was in college and chose a career in art before returning back to her hometown. She works really hard to do what she loves. Now she runs a non-profit art business to benefit everyone from childhood through their golden years. Dr. Lamb explained, “it's been a long road. When I moved back in 2016, downtown Hopewell was pretty much in the same state. There had been a big push for the art in the renovation of The Beacon Theater.”
The Lamb Center Provides various art services to community members of all ages. Dr. Lamb would like to help people who are also into art like her family. Her organization creates jobs for people who work to support local art projects. It’s harder these days to work on your art skills. All people can come to her art shows, such as the Arts Fesitval in October to see art from around the community. She finds ways to curate the work of local artists for people to see in different ways. The Lamb Center is a non-profit organization that runs on grants and donations. It can be hard to work on what you love if it isn’t profitable. More and more people are getting into art, and can learn more about it through the Lamb Center. Dr. Lamb explained, "There have been a number of beautification efforts downtown, and the whole Downtown Partnership was working really hard to try to invest in infrastructure." She has been a part of that, and her mother recently helped with the interior design for a new local business called City Point Icecream and Burgers.
As mentioned above, the Lamb Center is a non-profit organization, which gets some of its funding through the John Randolph Foundation and the Camryn Foundation but also relies on other groups. Dr. Lamb explained, “Individual donors are really just people who want to help… it could be a dollar or a million dollars.” She said, “Our programs are all free so they [local donors] are people who want to help make a positive change.” Anyone can donate anything, and small amounts help, but according to Dr. Lamb, “Our usual donors… I would say give between $25-$50 per year… it just depends on people’s capacity to give.” She also applies for grants whenever possible to secure funds to put to work in our community through programs of all ages.
You can visit the Lamb Center for Arts and Healing at 210 N 2nd Ave, in downtown Hopewell. You can contact them by email at info@lambarts.org. If you want to support them you make a digital donation here.