About Barbara Antonsen

Sedona Magazine
Summer 1996

"V" really isn't Barbara Antonsen's middle initial but it should be. Indeed, few people in this community can match her unselfish participation as a volunteer. She has offered support, provided help and exercised leadership for almost every charitable organization and civic improvement in town.

Barbara puts her muscle where her mouth is!

"It all started when I was challenged by the dean of women at Macalester College in Minnesota," said Barb. "At the conclusion of a tea for the women in my graduating class, the dean handed all of us a membership in the American Association of University Women, and she stated: 'We have prepared you; now go into your community and serve.' Obviously, she was referring to volunteer work, in addition to providing professional service."

Barb says that short message made a lasting impression, and she's been volunteering ever since. While raising three sons with her husband, Lee, she enjoyed being a Sunday school teacher. Cub Scout den mother, a room mother at school and a member of the PTA. And later, after she completed graduate work and returned to her profession, teaching, she served as AAUW president in La Grange, Illinois.

During the course of numerous promotions for Lee, the Antonsen family moved to cities in five states "and there was something that needed to be done in every community, so we pitched in," explained Barbara. When Lee and Barb moved back to Minnesota, she was appointed to the board of directors for Macalester College. And while serving as the board's vice president, she participated in the founding of the college's Women's Student-Mentor Program.

"This exceptional program started in our home, with a potluck supper in our family room," Barb stated with obvious delight and pride. This venue for creating important organizations became very popular during the years that followed, especially after Barb and Lee retired in 1984 and moved to Sedona. When they built their home here, they made sure there was plenty of room to accommodate meetings for large groups of people.

Barb's first Sedona "job" was as volunteer president of Sedona Welcomers, literally a "piece of cake" compared to two years of working for the incorporation of this city. "But working for incorporation was just the beginning," Barb exclaimed. "After the petition finally was passed it was apparent that although Sedona was founded way back in 1902, now it was a brand new, real city. So much had to be done immediately!" So, where was the venue for myriad, critical meetings? The Antonsen home, of course, which became a "town hall."

Today it is apparent that Barb and Lee's room was not just "great." It should have been called an all-purpose room, perhaps, because after Lee and George Moore conceived the creation of a Sedona school district, the plan that evolved was activated in the same room. And don't you just know that Lee was elected to the first school board?

But enough of Lee, this profile is about Barb, who spearheaded a campaign to save a nine-acre part of Posse Grounds from development other than as a park.  And all the while, she also involved herself with what she calls "short-term, volunteer jobs" with Sedona Arts Center, Sedona Sculpture Walk and Sedona Cultural Park. She participated in a fund-raiser for Sedona Public Library, worked as a volunteer for the city's community plan and is a member of the arts and culture cluster associated with the Sedona Focused Future economic development plan.

All of these activities did not deter Barb from stepping forth when she saw another important, community need, however. "Early in 1989, upon becoming frustrated because Sedona did not have an established art festival, 1 accepted a self-imposed challenge. I decided to create an event an art festival that legitimately could be labeled 'Sedona' that would publicize this community's cultural resources and also raise money to support the creative activities of local art organizations."

Guess where Barb held meetings for her steering committee! In her great room, of course, where a board of directors was organized, and where she became the ongoing president of Sedona Apple Festival. Three years later, this name was changed to Sedona Arts Festival.

"It look us two years and three fund-raisers to accumulate enough money to stage our first festival in 1991," reported Barb. "However, as we prepare for our sixth annual festival, our event is ranked the best art festival in northern Arizona, and we have disbursed $50,000 to various organizations in this community.

"Raising money is a very satisfying, significant achievement," she said. "But our accomplishments are numerous; we provide a spectacular setting for more than 100 juried artists from around the country, a gallery-style exhibition for artists in our juried Sedona Artist Invitational, a showcase for eight of Sedona's favorite restaurants and an opportunity for dozens of entertainers to perform on stage."

Best of all, according to Barb, the money stays in Sedona. "I love this event; I love the exceptional volunteers who give us so much help; I love the volunteer life in Sedona!" she exclaimed. Is this unique woman retired? Obviously, no! Is she happily fulfilled? Absolutely, yes!