John Mellencamp has enough personal and professional obligations to exhaust a guy half his age.  His recent album was recorded on location at a number of historic sites. He also compiled a career spanning retrospective box set, has an August Farm Aid concert in Kansas City and, come this fall, has a musical opening that he collaborated on with author Stephen King.  He is also expected to go through divorce proceedings with Elaine Irwin Mellencamp and may be planning to get married to actress Meg Ryan.  In the middle of it all the Indiana musician has found the time to continue to support an arts center in his hometown about 50 miles south of Indianapolis.  The Southern Indiana Center for the Arts in Seymour hosted an exhibit of 18 John Mellencamp original paintings along with some pieces painted by the singer\'s mother. 
The regional arts center is hosted in an 1850's brick mansion that once belonged to the family of a childhood friend of Mellencamps.  John bought the home and lived there while filming the movie Falling From Grace. He later assisted in transforming it into an arts center by agreeing to lease it for $1 a year for that purpose to the organization formed to establish and run the facility.
 SoInArt.com
 
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