Autumn Joi Ellis has visited the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown for years, both to see art and to be around it.

“It's a place of inspiration, but it's a place of aspiration as well, as an artist myself, wanting to be a part of it,” Ellis said.

Dave DeOreo / Ideastream Public Media

Recently, the proud Youngstown native got the chance to see her paintings on view at her beloved Butler in her first solo exhibition, “Echoes of Us.”

Autumn Joi Ellis

In 2024, the self-taught painter entered her portrait painting “Braylin” in the Butler’s juried National Midyear Exhibition and was accepted.

That portrait went on to win Ellis the 2025 Midyear Prize Exhibition this past summer.

When Butler Chief Curator Liz Hicks saw Ellis’ painting in the juried show, she said she was st

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