Remembering Flo Lapin

Editor's note: Facing Middletown, the documentary and the book which are both underway, explores life in Muncie, Indiana in 2025, as representative city Middletown, USA as a 100-year mile marker of the Middletown Studies. 

Flo Lappin's support of the Center for Middletown Studies has helped to make possible the documentary, and as 2025 comes to a close, we pay homage to her life, legacy, and support of the storytelling to preserve Muncie's identity as Middletown, USA as founder of the Middletown Arts Project and supporter of "Facing Middletown". 

Remembering Flo Lapin

Flo Lapin, 1934-2025

Flo Lapin passed away earlier this fall.

As her obituary describes, she was an author, playwright and educator who had a deep commitment to creative work that spoke to and about community life. Much of her theatrical writing was set in Muncie and explored the city’s history and character, including works that reflected on its role as the subject of the (in)famous Middletown Studies. She helped establish and run the Middletown Arts Project, which staged plays and hosted other creative work that, as the description on her website puts it, “drew its inspiration from the history and people of Middletown, America.” Interested in furthering this mission, she established two funds, one with the Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County, and one with Ball State University Foundation, that support locally oriented creative work. 

Facing Middletown is a beneficiary of Flo’s generosity. The Flo Lapin Center for Middletown Studies Fund, maintained by the Community Foundation, has provided resources to help produce a film for Facing Middletown. Award-winning filmmaker Rani Day Crowe will direct it, drawing on contributions from community members who have submitted short reels about their lives or sat for interviews. Without the support of the Flo Lapin Fund, as well as the Community Foundation, we would not be able to complete Facing Middletown.

Our hope is that this film, and the project as a whole, will advance Flo’s vision of community built through art.

Facing Middletown will not only include the film, but also a book filled with stories about living the good life in Muncie. We also plan to do a staged reading of some of those narratives that features performances by local actors. (Look for that in Spring, 2026.)

Our aim is to harness creativity that helps us define who we are as a community, a goal that Flo pursued throughout her creative life.

We hope it honors her memory.

Thank you, Flo, for centering Muncie's future by helping to build a time capsule with your art.