We’re an ARTS-work in progress!
We are new nonprofit organization currently in the process of acquiring a building in the historic district of downtown Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where we will become a part of a developing and vibrant arts-and-entertainment culture. With an art gallery, gift shop, studio space, and a range of art equipment, our center will be a comfortable and welcoming gathering space for participants to collaborate and experience the synergy that comes from working with others. Programs at the Southeastern Indiana Center for Arts will include visual, media, and performing arts activities open to everyone.
We are committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion as we bring together and welcome individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, and life experiences and foster understanding, awareness, and acceptance by providing opportunities for individual and collaborative creativity.
We invite you to learn more about us and how you can help to make our vision a reality as we create a space that brings art and community together.
Our Mission
Our mission is to enrich the lives of individuals and families by fostering a sense of inclusiveness and well-being through the transformative power of the arts.
Our Vision
Our vision is a community where every individual has the means and opportunity to discover and develop his/her/their creative potential and then harness that potential to build a strong community.
Founders
LeAnn Price
I grew up in a family of artists. We lived in Broad Ripple in Indianapolis, where I went to a magnet high school for the arts. Because I have always recognized the healing potential of creative expression, in college I majored in Art Therapy, a blend of psychology and art, with ceramics as my major studio focus. I became a psychiatric social worker and then a high school guidance counselor for twenty-five years at Lawrenceburg High School.
Living in Dearborn County, with its small communities and rural areas, I came to realize how I had always taken access to the arts for granted. Although our county is only thirty minutes from everything Cincinnati has to offer, a large percentage of its residents have little exposure to the arts other than their K-12 education, where most programs in the arts have been severely reduced. In my work, I also became acutely aware of the social issues many in our communities face.
One of these societal issues, drug addiction, has stolen the lives of many people and devastated their families and loved ones. Upon release from jail, many of those incarcerated for drug-related offenses have lost everything. They often have no place to live, no money, and no job. They have burned bridges with their families and destroyed other important relationships. Left with little sense of self-worth, they feel "less than" in their community.
With a focus on the needs of this population, I had conversations with Tisha Linzy, Director of the Dearborn County Jail Chemical Addiction Program (JCAP), about my working with groups in our community to create public art and about her providing those in JCAP with the opportunity to participate in the arts. Knowing that our ideas intersected, we began Project Hope in 2020 with a small group of JCAP alumni.
Our goal was to teach the JCAP alumni to create large ceramic pieces for a ten-foot totem that would be displayed in the Lawrenceburg Public Library courtyard. This work, designed to bring them a sense of pride and accomplishment, was intended to be not only cathartic for them but also educational for others in the community, leading to a better understanding of addiction and recovery and the need to support those who are discovering positive purpose in their lives.
As we recognized the impact we were having with Project Hope, we realized that the entire community could share in these experiences and that access to and involvement in the arts would foster greater connections and make all of us better people. Believing in the transformational power of the arts, we began planning to bring this opportunity to everyone, and the new Southeastern Indiana Center for the Arts was born.
Currently we are in the process of acquiring a building, a place to call our home, where the arts can be in the center of everything happening in the Lawrenceburg Historic Downtown District. Our building will include a gallery, a retail shop, and studio space. It will be a place that welcomes everyone, a place to create and enjoy art, a place where art and community come together.
Tisha Linzy
Tisha Linzy began her career as a jail officer and moved on to juvenile probation officer, a position in which she helped develop and implement an intensive probation program for high-risk juveniles and families. With a desire to help others and make an impact on the community, Tisha earned her Bachelor of Social Work from Northern Kentucky University and her Master of Social Work from Spalding University.
Tisha was employed as a school social worker in the Guidance department at the Lawrenceburg Primary School where she instituted many innovative programs, such as Bully Busters, a bullying-prevention program. In 2021 Tisha received a Women of Distinction Award for her work with children in the community.
She is currently the Director of Clinical Services for Dearborn County Court Services and the Clinical Director for the Dearborn County Jail Chemical Addiction Program (JCAP) with the Dearborn County Superior Court. Tisha holds several clinical licenses and is trauma certified. Inspired by her work with the JCAP alumni, Tisha met with LeAnn Price, and the two partnered to create Project Hope as a way for formerly incarcerated individuals to participate in community art projects.
Board Members
Tisha Linzy, President
Corrine Morehead, Vice President
LeAnn Price, Executive Director
Bruce Canfield, Treasurer
Theresa Canfield, Secretary
Del Weldon, Member at Large