The Edmund F. Petty Memorial Lecture Fund was established in 1987 with funds from the Margaret Ball Petty Foundation, the Ball Brothers Foundation, and the Petty family. The fund was created as a permanent endowment for the purpose of bringing artists and/or art historians of national or international reputation to the Ball State University campus to serve as visiting lecturers, with an emphasis on benefiting the students and faculty of Ball State and the Muncie-area community. Over the years, speakers have included J. Carter Brown, Suzi Gablik, Grace Hartigan, and Joan Snyder. 

David T. Oswley, son of Lucy Ball Owsley and grandson of Frank C. Ball, presented "A Passion for Art: Confessions of a Collector," at the 19th Annual Edmund F. Petty Memorial Lecture.