The board of Friends of T.C. Steele wishes each of you a great holiday season and we want to share our plans with you for 2026!
There remains confusion about Friends, and we hear at times “are you still around?” The answer is YES, and we now have the best offerings that have ever existed for the Friends members, supporters, and partners.
In 2020, the Indiana State Museum decided to transition specific Friends activities at all eleven sites throughout the state. This transition realigned Friends role at the eleven sites, to the on-site management teams.
In our case, this included the gift shop management that Friends of T.C. Steele historically helped manage and staff. We received the revenue from sales. This transition was at the direction of the Indiana State Museum and again, included activities of all eleven historic sites in Indiana. We continue to enjoy a great relationship with the T.C. Steele Historic Site team and collaborate with them when feasible.
As a result, Friends needed to decide and redefine their role. This has now been completed, and we have three distinct offerings.
- T.C. Steele Virtual Gallery
Located on our website we now have 124 of T.C. Steele’s paintings, professionally photographed at the location they reside, and many are unavailable to the public. Each painting includes provenance if available, dimensions, and details about the location, features of the painting and any other key information that viewers may find of interest. - T.C. Steele Historic Trail
Located on our website and available to download to your mobile device. The Historic Trail uses primary research and photos to highlight the seven Indiana locations where T.C. Steele lived, worked, and painted during his lifetime. The mobile application provides an opportunity to electronically stamp your passport at each location and receive a certificate when all seven sites have been visited. - T.C. Steele Podcast
To be launched in January of 2026, the podcast will feature a short interview with an expert on Steele regarding a subject that will be unique and provide additional insight into Steele’s work, family, and life.
The annual art show is paused at the present time due to the amount of various art shows and paint-outs in Indiana. We believe this area can be better served by those who specialize and have deep competency in hosting these events. We will evaluate this next year, but due to the resources required, including event space, management, and competition, we most likely will not offer this event.
In closing we need your support for our reset. These three activities need financial resources to professionally photograph artwork on location, manage the historic trail progressive web application, and produce podcasts. Additionally, on-going web support, and the creative work needed to maintain our presence on the world wide web is always in need of funding. Please consider becoming a member, renewing your membership, or talking with us about sponsorship of any of the three offerings we now focus on.
Thank you for your continued support. Please reach out to me with any questions or interest in sponsorship of our three offerings.
P. Garrett Adams
President