$15M gift fuels Tampa Catholic arts center, fulfilling ‘a pledge to God’

Arnie Bellini said he sometimes failed to contribute to the collection plate as a student at Tampa Catholic High School. Years later, he’s making up for it.

The founder of the software company ConnectWise donated $15 million toward a center for the arts at Tampa Catholic that school leaders say will transform the campus and the curriculum. It’s the largest donation ever to a Catholic school in Florida, said principal Robert Lees.

“I made a pledge to God at that point in time,” Bellini said, recalling his high school days. “I said, ‘You know, if you give me the ability to be successful — if you can help me learn, if you can help me succeed — then I will give back.”

At a ceremony Wednesday, the school broke ground on what will become a $17.6 million, 28,000-square-foot building with classrooms and studios for art, computer graphics, video production, stagecraft and a performing arts practice area. It also will feature a bonus area that eventually could hold a music room, a 750-seat auditorium and versatile event space for reunions, lectures and special events. Hepner Architects will spearhead the project.

In the late 1970s, the “greed is good” concept on Wall Street was catching on, Bellini said, and he remembered thinking that was crazy.

After ConnectWise sold for $1.5 billion in 2019, creating 70 millionaires in the process, Bellini and his wife, Lauren, said the first call was to his high school alma mater. That year, Arnie Bellini announced a $7 million gift to Tampa Catholic as part of a plan to create more tech jobs in Tampa Bay.

The couple also has donated to USF, where they both attended, and to environmental causes.

For Arnie Bellini, Tampa Catholic holds a special place. Growing up, his father worked for IBM and the family moved frequently. His four years at the school felt like family, he said. The Rev. Tom Morgan — the president of his graduating class and now rector at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle — was at the construction site Wednesday to bless the grounds.

Lees, the principal, said the idea for the arts center took shape through conversations with Bellini over more than a year. They talked about the role technology and artificial intelligence would play in shaping students’ trajectories and their ability to get jobs. The school had long thought about improvements like incorporating iPads and more technology into classrooms.

But through their conversations, they felt students needed something more.

The arts, Bellini said, was the “best defense” in the “new era of artificial intelligence.” The Bellinis increased their gift for construction of the building.

“They were interesting conversations,” Lees said. “The creative among us will have increased advantages in the future. They will be the ones who can do what tech cannot add.”

Lees said the center will expand both the infrastructure and curriculum of the school.

“It’s not our ultimate goal to train professional actors and actresses and musicians, although that would be nice, since this is the school of Channing Tatum and Joanna Garcia, after all,” he said. “But rather it’s to expose students to the beauty of the arts and cultivating those creative abilities. It’s honing that creativity. That’s the invaluable skill we seek in the future.”

Bellini said he felt the arts are often pushed to the side in high schools as students focus on boosting GPAs for college applications.

“This is one high school where we hope now we’ll have the arts definitely smack dab center in the middle of the curriculum,” he said, “and I think that’s going to be important going into the future.”