71-year-old woman donated her farm to create America’s arts park

Wolf Trap remains the only national park in the United States devoted to the performing arts, advancing the concept Shouse first put forth more than six decades ago Before it became a stage beneath the stars, Wolf Trap was simply a Virginia farm. But in the 1960s, one woman had a very different dream for the land: a place where music, theater and the performing arts could be part of America’s national park system. Meet Catherine Filene Shouse, a prominent Washington arts advocate and a political insider. A generous gift of land and money helped her vision become a reality: Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Fairfax County, Virginia, the only national park in the United States dedicated to the performing arts. Scroll down to read the details.A vision born of an arts renaissanceAccording to the Wolf Trap website, Shouse came up with the idea of a performing arts park in 1964, when excitement about culture was building in Washington, DC. The movement had been gathering momentum during the administration of President John F. Kennedy who championed the arts as an important aspect of American public life. One early harbinger of that change occurred at Kennedy’s 1961 inaug...