Ruth Braeutigam- Supporting Arts & Culture in Southern Indiana

During her lifetime, Ruth Braeutigam was an educator. She spent more than four decades teaching in New Albany schools. She also deeply admired beauty, and supported the arts.

Her most substantial contribution to the arts in Southern Indiana was the
donation of a sculpture by Louisville artist Paul Fields for the lawn of the Paul W. Ogle Cultural and Community Center at Indiana University Southeast. On the day the sculpture was dedicated in 1997, she noted, “By line and design the artist has created a thing of grace and motion. From views across campus it appears to be a pair of hands reaching up, beseeching, and then again a pair of open palms ready to applaud.”

Ruth passed away in 2003 at the age of 89. During her lifetime, she made a donation that was invested as a charitable gift annuity with the Community Foundation. She received proceeds from the fund that gave her steady income. After her death, the balance of her gift has lived on, preserving her memory and legacy through several endowment funds. Each year, her funds support the causes she loved, including her church, cultural amenities and animal welfare organizations.

Her spirit lives on in the community through her carefully planned gifts.