The Brown County Art Guild is celebrating 70-years of excellence at this year’s artist colony weekend starting Friday at 11 a.m. and wrapping up Sunday with the auction at 1 p.m..

In the early 20th-century Brown County artists including Marie Goth, Carl Graf, Fredrick Rigley, Ken Gore and other pioneers of Brown County’s art scene embarked on a pursuit for inspiration, traveling up through New England to paint the rugged terrain. Their work captured the likeness of the New England region, while also playing homage to their roots in Brown County.

The exhibition of work during their time in New England will be featured all weekend from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

The artist’s colony weekend is in its 10th year of educating and celebrating art history in Brown County, said Art Guild Marketing Associate Marti Garvey.

“(The Founders Exhibition focuses on) bringing up the thought of when they were painting out there, knowing where they came from, how the landscapes were different and how their approach could have been different from what they already knew,” said Garvey. “It reflects on the history. They painted mostly in Brown County, but they ventured out. A lot of the paintings we have from the New England years were mostly prior to the guild starting. The Founders Exhibition every year is just to feature all the founders or one, sometimes we will feature one. It really entails our history, it’s the opportunity for people to really understand why Nashville is here and the history of when the artists came and painted well before the park was established. It’s a great opportunity to celebrate that history and for people to learn more about it.”

The main goal for the event is to garner excitement from people about art at the start of the season before events pick up in the fall, said Art Guild Executive Director Sean Hildreth.

The weekend is set to include guild tours, live music, the Founder’s Exhibition, Indiana Artists Club Annual Member Exhibition, the great outdoor art contest at T.C. Steele’s historic site, a community paint together, guild speakers, an auction and the founder’s cocktail party.

“We want to continue to celebrate the rich legacy of art here in Brown County and what we do is work with several of the art sites and groups here,” said Hildreth. “So we have musicians, tours, lots of fun happening on Friday at the guild. People can come in and see the remodeled guild and check out the artwork from our founders as well as from our current guild artists, so it’s exciting to connect the past and the present with that. Over the course of the weekend there are several really fun things, the cocktail party we have is a fun way to get everyone together and have a gathering here to celebrate art colony weekend. During the day on Saturday, there is the outdoor art painting at the TC Steele Site. That’s an exciting thing and then we have our auction on Sunday. The auction is a great fundraiser for us.”

The auction includes artwork from private collections, guild artists and selections provided by Auctioneer Bryan Jackson which can include unique pieces from Brown County that have not been on sale for many years, said Hildreth.

All of the events are free and open to the public except for the cocktail party on Saturday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m..

Tickets for the event are $40 per person and can be purchased in advance on the art guild’s website (www.browncountyartguild.org). The party is set to have drinks, hors d’oeuvres, live music, historical artifacts and prizes.

“We definitely try to make it accessible for everyone, obviously the auction is free but people come to buy,” said Garvey.