There is no mathematical formula that can quantify the love parents have for their children, but Pam Kukla felt it during one special birthday when she turned nine.
“When I was a kid, we were poor, and I wanted a piano so badly,” she said.
That birthday, her parents ushered her into the den “where there was a piano. There’s a picture of me falling on the floor with excitement. That piano and its successors got me through adolescence. It got me through grad school, and it got me through single parenthood.”
It should come as no surprise then that Kukla has become a loyal supporter of the Arts Foundation not long after Julie Wake was named its executive director in August 2015, and they both appeared on an interview on Ocean 104.7 FM. “Just listening to Julie talk with such passion for the arts – I didn’t get involved right away, but eventually I did,” Kukla said.
And once she did, Kukla has remained committed to our mission because she understands how an inanimate object like a piano can make a world of difference if put in the right hands. “The ability to make music and sort of take care of myself – to get outside of myself – was tremendously important,” she said.
It’s why our work speaks to Kukla, especially our Arts Access program, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary, and which strives to connect all children in the region to the arts, regardless of their background.
“If I can, in a very modest way, make sure that the Arts Foundation is able to support kids in their access to art, I want to do that,” said Kukla. “I support the Arts Foundation because the work they do is really important across the spectrum of all ages and abilities on Cape Cod, from supporting artists to supporting those of us who live here, especially giving kids access to things like music lessons, and opportunities to act and paint.”
In the second stage of her life – she and her late husband Tom O’Hearn moved to Dennis full-time from Natick after she retired in 2008 – Kukla has found the joy in giving back and supporting organizations like ours.
“What really motivated me to stop working because I loved the work I did – what motivated me to stop working was the opportunity to support a couple of organizations that are really doing important work on Cape Cod,” said Kukla, who had a career in marketing and corporate communications in the tech sector, “The first one turned out to be WE CAN and the other was the Arts Foundation.”
Kukla’s impetus for her philanthropy is, in part, due to her childhood experiences, growing up poor and receiving help along the way. “When I went to school, I couldn’t speak English because we only spoke Albanian in the home,” she said. “My first grade teacher and second grade teacher paid so much attention to me and helped me get past that language barrier.”
Now is her time to pay it forward. “I think it is really important that we all be active members of our community in whatever way possible,” she said. “For me, it is supporting nonprofits that are doing work I really endorse and which I think is important.”
Learn how you can strengthen the arts as an Arts Foundation Patron by contacting Director of Development Amy Tuttle at atuttle@artsfoundation.org.
In September 2022, Pam and her late son David attended a Patron event where they got to meet acclaimed Wellfleet artist Robert Henry. Click here to learn why the day holds special memories for Pam.