Henry Leck
Visual Artist – Oil Medium
Professor Emeritus – Choral Music Butler University
Founder/Conductor Laureate – Indianapolis Children’s Choir
An internationally recognized choral director, Henry Leck is a Professor Emeritus in Choral Music at Butler University, where he served on the faculty for 27 years. He is also the Founder and Conductor Laureate of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, where he served for 30 years.
Upon his retirement in 2016, Henry and his wife, Meredith, moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where he began actively pursuing a long-dormant love for the visual arts. Over the past eight years, he has studied nearly every semester at Ivy Tech with Michael Teague. His dedication to learning has also taken him abroad to study in Mexico, Greece, and on three occasions in Cornwall, England, at the St. Ives School of Painting and the Newlyn School of Art.
Henry has taken numerous workshops from esteemed artists, including Lawrence Rudolech, Wyatt LeGrand, Pam Newell, Michael Chesley Johnson, Patrick Saunders, Kenn Beckhaus, Troy Kilgore, John Michael Carter, Mary Ann Davis, Guido Frick, Tad Retz, Dave Santillanes, Jason Bailey, Debra Huse, Derek Penix, Trisha Adams, John Doran, and Todd Williams.
A major source of professional growth has come from his close association with fellow Bloomington artists, and he frequently takes advantage of regular portrait group paintings and live model sessions at Indiana University. Henry is an active member of Upland Plein Air, the Indiana Plein Air Painters Association (IPAPA), Pillar Arts, the Bloomington Watercolor Society, and the Oil Painters of America.
Dedicated to his local arts community, Henry has served on the board and as Past President of the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington. His paintings are currently shown in several galleries, including the Arts Alliance Center and By Hand Gallery in Bloomington, as well as the Hoosier Artist Gallery in Nashville, Indiana.
Throughout his distinguished musical and civic career, Mr. Leck has received numerous honors, including the Sagamore of the Wabash and the State of Indiana Distinguished Hoosier Award. He received the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award, the highest honor one can receive in the arts in Indiana. He was named a recipient of the Lowell Mason Fellows Award (the highest award given by the National Association for Music Education), Outstanding Hoosier Musician in 2016 by the IMEA, and received the Distinguished Service Award from Chorus America. Additionally, he holds the NUVO Lifetime Achievement Award and the Indiana Historical Society’s Indiana Living Legend Award.
