[2] She is a founding member of Mentoring Artists for Women's Art in Winnipeg, Manitoba and the Sanavik Inuit Cooperative in Baker Lake, Nunavut.
[6] In the late 60s and early 70s, she along with her husband Jack Butler,[9] served as a special projects officer for the Northwest Territories where they engaged and supported Inuit artists.
[13] By 1970, the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council approved the sale of a collection of 31 prints and requested a special exhibition for the spring and the program expanded adding two more positions.
[13] Eventually, the Butlers founded the Sanavik Co-operative[14] who mission was to "foster and coordinate the art activities in the settlement, and to be able to contract for other community services.
[17] Butler explored themes of violence and fear in her collection The National and the Journal along with other artists including Eleanor Bond, Wanda Koop, Eva Stubbs and Diana Thorneycroft.
[21] A retrospective exhibition co-curated by Pamela Edmonds and Patrick Mahon, entitled Sheila Butler: Other Circumstances,[22] was held in Winnipeg in 2024, and in London, Ontario in 2021.