ROSEMARY BUTTERBAUGH –
REGION 9 ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBER

Meet Rosemary Butterbaugh, an award winning artist, owner of a gallery in downtown Rising Sun, and an active member of the Region 9 Advisory Council.

2003 has been a great year for Rosemary. She was accepted to Hoosier Salon, and she received the First Place Award in Professional Watercolor at the Indiana State Fair. She was given the Award of Excellence at Post Cards from Rising Sun, and the Merit Award at the Watercolor Society of Indiana show at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

In 1999, she and her husband Bill saw an ad in Art Calendar Magazine inviting artists to come to Rising Sun to help build an arts community and revitalize a dying river town. The Butterbaughs were interested in building something: a new life. They were among the first groups of artists to come to Rising Sun. They opened Solar Flair Gallery in June 2000.

Leaving Washington D.C. enabled Rosemary focus on a life in art. As a result, she has continued to grow in both her creative work and in her involvement in the art community.

She and Bill got involved with Historic Downtown Rising Sun, and accepted some responsibility in helping to shape this fledgling community. “It is gratifying to be able to look around and see that you have made a real difference in your world, even if it is a small world,” says Rosemary.

“Because of the publicity from Rising Sun receiving the Governor’s Art Award this year, the town may start to see this investment in the arts as economics begin to reap some dividends.” Rosemary wants people to know that Rising Sun is a good place to invest in art.

She is the Ohio County representative for the Region 9 Advisory Council. When asked about the Regional Partnership Initiative she remarked, “Region 9 exemplifies the impact on rural areas of the state the RPI was designed for. The Mini Grants, for instance, have brought money for arts programs to these little areas of the state, which have never had such support before. The reason Region 9 is successful is because of the dedicated and talented Advisory Council, an invested leadership at CAAC and Jeff Kuehl.”

Rosemary has served on the Board of Directors for the Dearborn Highlands Arts Council. She is also a member of Arts Alliance Indiana and the Indiana Plein Air Painters. Last year, she received a scholarship from Arts Alliance Indiana for a monotype workshop at the Lee Arts Center in VA.

“The IAC has been very supportive of me and my artistic journey. They have awarded me two grants. The first was to paint Scenes of Ohio County. This smallest county in the nation is rapidly changing from a rural farming area to a suburb of Cincinnati. One way to save some ideas of the past is to record the scene as art”

The second Grant was to get an etching press to enable Rosemary to explore the development of watercolor monotype as a serious art medium. “It is exciting to do, and it is beginning to gain some national recognition,” she says. Her 24 pieces, “Discovering Water-based Monotype” were exhibited at Solar Flair Gallery this June. She has been teaching monotype workshops and is working on a book about the process.

After receiving a grant from the Ohio County Community Foundation to run an arts and crafts program at the Senior Center in Ohio County, Rosemary has found working with seniors very rewarding. In fact, after the funding ran out, she not only continued teaching for a second year, but she also provided all the supplies.

In addition to the visual arts, she has been active in the Rising Sun Writers Group. Last year, the Ohio County Extension Office received and RPI Mini Grant to help sponsor a writers’ conference with nationally known leaders such as Eric Maisel. This year the group plans to publish an anthology of members’ work.

Rosemary says, “Whether it is a painting, a monotype, an article, or an idea on how to solve a community problem, creativity is a gift we can all share. It’s a way of seeing life as a great adventure.”

We would like to thank Rosemary for making art an adventure in all our lives.