Attracted by the splendid scenery, artist Theodore Clement (T.C.) Steele, is credited with solidifying Brown County’s status as an Art Colony. Steele was a member of the acclaimed “Hoosier Group” of American Impressionist painters and was also considered Indiana’s premier portraitist during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawn to Brown County to visit and paint with Steele, many artists also fell in love with the area’s beauty, relocating and settling in what they called the “Peaceful Valley” and thereby creating the “Art Colony of the Midwest.”

Today more than 250 artists call Brown County home, continuing the tradition and vision established by the numerous artists that came before them.