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Acknowledgments It all began with a dinner at the Indianapolis Columbia Club in October 2009. The idea of a third book about plein air painting (on location, outdoors) in Indiana emerged as an important goal for the Indiana Plein Air Painters Association (IPAPA). One of the board members, Richard McKnight, who also sits on the board of directors of Indiana Landmarks, a historic preservation organization,proposed a project that would use plein air paintings to document some of Indiana’s historical places. A collaboration between the two organizations seemed like a good fit. IPAPA has been involved with two previous book projects—Painting Indiana: Portraits of Indiana’s 92 Counties (Indiana University Press, 2000) and Painting Indiana II:The Changing Face of Agriculture (Indiana University Press, 2006).Of all the people we have to acknowledge and thank for this project,we must begin with the founders of IPAPA,Anne Carter and Dan Woodson,who established the organization as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit entity so they could raise funds for the first PaintingIndiana book.Without their foresight and hard work, IPAPA would not exist, and the many important projects accomplished so far would not have been possible. IPAPA is fortunate to currently have an engaged board of directors.Shaun Dingwerth,Richard McKnight,and I serve as nonartist board members.Artists Laura Appleby, Mary Ann Davis, Beth Forst, Corrine Hull, Chris Newlund, and Rick Wilson also served for most of the duration of this project. Artist Virginia Kramer was on the board when the project began, and artists Ron Burgess and Jeff Klinker joined the board in 2012.My thanks go to all of these individuals for their tireless efforts. IPAPA is also lucky to have Rachel Berenson Perry as a member and a friend. Rachel recently retired as the chief curator of cultural history at the Indiana State Museum and is a longtime member of IPAPA.When she expressed an interest in writing the text for the book, we quickly agreed to her offer. As a result of the success of the first two books, Indiana University Press was open to the idea of a third IPAPA publication.Mary Ann Davis and Rachel Perry presented the proposal to the press’s director, Janet Rabinowitch, and a memorandum of agreement was signed in February 2010. We are grateful to other staff members at the press who have been instrumental in bringing the project to fruition: sponsoring editor Linda Oblack, and Peter Froelich, who was the assistant sponsoring editor in the spring of 2010. Richard McKnight, Rachel Perry, and I then met with Indiana Landmarks president Marsh Davis and the vice president of development at that time,Andra Walters.WedraftedapreliminarybudgetthatwaspresentedtotheIndianaLandmarks board,and a signed memorandum of understanding resulted in May 2010. Once the collaborators’ commitments were secured, creating the parameters and logistics for the project and promoting it to all IPAPA artist members, became crucial.Although the participating artists were preselected for the first two books,this project would be different.We wanted to choose 100 of the best plein air paintings of historically significant places submitted by any IPAPA member. Artists were given eighteen months to paint so that all four seasons would ideally be represented. This proved to be one of the difficulties for the artists, who found it challenging to keep their finished paintings for an extended period of time.One of the paintings selected for the book was created in April 2010 at New Harmony. To put back a painting (that could possibly have been sold) and risk rejection in the final jurying process for a book eighteen months later demonstrates much dedication. Indiana Landmarks’s regional offices throughout the state provided lists of potential painting subjects, which were incorporated into the Web site dedicated to the project. Many of the paintings selected for the book were created during paint-outs organized during the time frame of the project. xii Acknowledgments Many thanks go to the people who organized and implemented these paint-outs. Todd Zeiger, director of Indiana Landmarks’ northern regional office in South Bend, was especially helpful in planning paint-out events tied to historic sites in the northern part of the state. George and Peggy Rapp organized another successful First Brush of Spring paint-out in New Harmony, which has been an annual event since 1998. They marshal the entire town’s participation to host more than 125 artists for five days of workshops and paintout activities.Thanks go to Maggie Rapp,director...

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