Sheila Butler
(1938–)
Sheila Butler
1938–
Sheila Butler (1938–) is an American-Canadian visual artist and retired educator. Butler was born in Leesport, Pennsylvania and received a Bachelor’s of Fine Art degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 1960, majoring in painting and printmaking.
Butler moved to Canada in 1962 and became a Canadian citizen in 1975. In the late 1960s, she moved to the Northwest Territories with her husband, Jack Butler, and served as the Special Projects Officer supporting and engaging with Inuit artists. In this role, they established a shop, including printmaking and sewing supplies. As a result, The Canadian Eskimo Arts Council approved the sale of a collection of thirty-one prints and requested a special exhibition. The Butlers started the Sanavik Cooperative to facilitate art activities in the Inuit settlement.
In 1972, Sheila Butler left the Northwest Territories, holding teaching positions at the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg. During her time in Winnipeg, Butler was a founding member of what is now known as Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA), an initiative originally started by Plug In. In 1989, she moved to London, Ontario, to teach in the Visual Arts Faculty at the University of Western Ontario. Butler, along with Ruby Arngna’naaq, William Noah, Patrick Mahon, and Jack Butler, formed the Art and Cold Cash Collective, a five-person artists’ collective. Butler is a fellow at the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.