MADISON – A longtime Madison resident, Rosalie Holcombe has accepted the leadership role for an organization that has augmented the community’s quality of life for decades.

Holcombe is serving as President of Madison Arts Alliance, which represents a revitalization effort of the former Madison Arts Council or MAC. Madison Visionary Partners is the alliance’s fiscal sponsor.

In committing to the alliance’s lead, Holcombe “saw a need for our community to come together to celebrate the arts. We have so many talented people here and COVID-19 highlighted how important relationships are.”

“The arts have always brought people together. The vision for Madison Arts Alliance is to build a strong arts community with steady events and programs for all age groups, as well as increase public art,” Holcombe said.

In visual arts, Holcombe has experimented in many mediums. She has used acrylic paint, oil paint, watercolor, clay, stone, steel, printmaking, colored pencil, photography, video, digital art, jewelry, graphite, polymer clay and resin.

Since its founding, MAC has sponsored the Sounds of Summer, Kris Kringle Market and Christmas Card Lane. “We are beginning to feature visual artists at the Madison Library and plan to add more events in the future as we grow!” Holcombe said.

“Madison offers many wonderful things to the community, but none of it would be possible without the people behind them,” Holcombe said. “It’s a blessing to live in a city where so many residents take great care in building the community.”

After a workday, when can she think to herself ‘I did the right thing’? “In February, our real estate team hosted an event we named ‘Smooches for Pooches.’ We worked with Rocket City Rescue in hopes of helping to get some of their dogs adopted,” she said. “My parents attended the event and found a lab mix they decided to adopt, and we have all enjoyed him ever since then.”

Holcombe was born and grew up in Birmingham. Her family moved to Madison before her sophomore year at Bob Jones High School. “I was in the art program and learned so much from the incredible art teachers, especially Melissa Hughey who introduced me to sculpture,” she said.

Holcombe received an art scholarship to the University of Montevallo and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine art with a concentration in sculpture. At Montevallo, she created a public sculpture that was placed at Ebenezer Research Swamp in Montevallo.

She works as a full-time licensed Realtor with The Jeff York Team at Essential Real Estate. Rosalie is married to Taylor Sutherland, who works as a defense contractor on Redstone Arsenal.

To enjoy any ‘down time,’ Rosalie loves playing board games with family and friends. “Most of our beach trips and holidays include a board game night,” she said.

“If you know me, you know I adore my dogs and would love to have more. We have a chihuahua/poodle mix and a shepherd/husky mix,” Rosalie said. “They make us laugh every day.”