Kit Shearer and Barbara Hellman

The Carnegie Center for Art & History

Kit Shearer and Barbara Hellman, both Board members at the Carnegie Center for Art & History, met through a mutual friend and their shared passion for arts, history and nature bloomed into a strong friendship. 

Shearer studied interior design in college but earned her degree in horticulture from Purdue University.  Her early influence was her father, who was very creative and encouraging.  He instilled a belief that she could do anything. 

When her children were young, Shearer left the corporate world to gain more flexibility as family obligations increased.  Her passion for art led to a new career that is equally challenging and fulfilling. She has been a free lance designer for 25 years, with her specialty being floral design.  Shearer’s interior design clients include local designers, retail businesses, home show realtors and residential projects in 9 different states.

Shearer’s strength is seeing projects from the client’s perspective.  As a result, the end product is a reflection of the client rather than the designer. 

Barbara Hellman is an Immigration Specialist at Kindred Healthcare in Louisville.  Through her Board responsibilities at Carnegie Center and friendship with Shearer, Hellman has found new outlets for using her creative energies on projects that are fun, personally rewarding and of benefit to the community. 

The Carnegie Center for Art and History is a contemporary art gallery and local history museum located in downtown New Albany, Indiana. Along with a schedule of rotating exhibits, The Carnegie Center hosts two national, juried, fiber exhibitions: Form Not Function: Quilt Art At The Carnegie, an exhibition of contemporary art quilts and Rhapsody in Rugs, a hooked rug competition that draws from artists across the country and Canada.

In 2007, The Carnegie Center received Awards of Excellence from the American Association of Museums and the Association for State and Local History for a permanent exhibit titled, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage: Men and Women of the Underground Railroad. 

A division of the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library, the Carnegie Center is also very family-oriented and offers its popular “Family Fun Workshops” on the second Saturday of every month.

The Carnegie Center for Art and History is housed in the historic Carnegie Library building at 201 E. Spring St. in downtown New Albany. For more information, call 944-7336 or visit www.carnegiecenter.org.