The Iowa Arts Council will take its “Office on the Road” to Dubuque Dec. 10 to offer assistance and guidance with project planning and grant programs to Iowans.

IAC staff will hold office hours 1-5 p.m. at the Carnegie-Stout Public Library, 2nd Floor Rotunda, 360 W. 11th Street in Dubuque. Constituents interested in visiting with IAC staff should contact Sarah Ekstrand at sarah.ekstrand@iowa.gov or (515) 281-4657 to schedule an appointment. Meetings will be approximately 20 minutes long and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

“We know a face-to-face meeting can be more effective than emailing or phone calls,” IAC Administrator Mary Sundet Jones said. “So we’re going around the state to meet with those who don’t have the time or means to visit our offices in Des Moines.”

Watch this newsletter and the IAC web site for another Office on the Road location and date in late winter/early spring, 2008.

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Save the Date: Cultural Advocacy Days Feb. 18-19

Planning is underway for the 2008 Cultural Advocacy Day. This year, the event will be held Monday and Tuesday, February 18-19 in Des Moines. Activities will continue into Tuesday, February 19, with workshop opportunities for cultural advocates and nonprofit organizations at the State Historical Building. As a supporter of the arts, your presence is needed to celebrate and raise awareness of Iowa’s cultural assets during this very important event.

Activities are being planned by the Iowa Cultural Coalition, which serves as the main advocacy, technical assistance and communications network available to people and organizations who create an appreciation for all forms of art, historic preservation, museums, science and cultural educational endeavors in Iowa.

Participants will rally at the State Historical Building in Des Moines on the afternoon of February 18 before marching up to the State Capitol to talk with legislators. The annual Cultural Advocacy Day reception – always a good opportunity to rub shoulders with policy makers and your fellow advocates – will occur that evening. Watch www.iowaculturalcoalition.org for more information or to learn more about the organization.

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Facts & Figures You Should Know About IAC

· Iowa slipped from 44^th to 45^th in per capita state funding for the arts between FY06 and FY07; Missouri moved from 49^th place in FY06 to 33^rd place in FY07.

· In the past 3 years, every legislative district in Iowa has received the benefit of the state and federal funds designated for the arts.

· Big Yellow School Bus and EZ 1-2-3 Grant programs reach the most deeply into all areas of the state. The demand for these grants far exceeds the funding capacity. We routinely use up all available funds fairly early in the fiscal year, and need to turn away many applicants.

· The Big Yellow School Bus program made field trips to arts exhibits and events possible for 11,215 students from 158 Iowa schools in FY07.

· Staff is out there, connecting with constituents: In addition to in-office technical assistance provided by IAC staff via emails, phone calls, and in-office meetings, staff members met with Iowans and other colleagues in 47 Iowa communities, which resulted in contact with 13,706 people during FY07.

· The IAC’s “buying power” is down: Numbers of major grant applications received annually have remained fairly steady since FY04; however in FY07 we were able to fund only 64% as many applicants as we did in FY04 (69 grants awarded in FY04 vs. 44 in FY07).

· Requests are up: We have gone from an average of 13 mini grant applications per month in FY04, to an average of 17 per month in FY07.

· The State’s investment pays dividends: Return on investment for the grant funds that go out through the IAC’s funding programs is high. Final reports from grantees regularly show more than a 4-1 cash match provided locally for project grants funded by the IAC.

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Holiday Gifts at Buyiowaart.com

Tick tock, tick tock…20 days, 10 hours, 14 minutes to Christmas…but who’s counting? Don’t stress out about the shopping days left this holiday season, because your gift solutions are only a click away.

Visit www.buyiowaart.com to find something for the art lover in your family. More than 60 Iowa artists offer their best work in books, music, photography,

traditional arts and visual arts. Distract yourself with something sparkly from the array of one-of-a-kind jewelry by experienced artists.

Avoid the crowds and browse our selection from the comfort of your own home or even from your desk at work (we won’t tell if you won’t). Buyiowaart.com has gifts in all shapes and sizes, and in all price ranges and shipping is easy.

Remember Buyiowaart.com this holiday season…for all your gift needs.

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Public Art Artist Resource

Public art artists: submit your information to the Iowa Arts Council’s new Public Art Artist Resource! This new listing is a non-juried resource designed to help organizations, committees and design professionals and Art in State Building Committees identify Iowa artists actively engaged in the field of public art. Artists can submit information about their work in relation to any or all of five categories: Public Art (General), Art in Nature, Art in Transportation, Functional Art & Artist Designed Building Parts, and Site-Integrated Art. The work represented in each category must be appropriate to the category.

“The Public Art Artist Resource will address many of the issues and concerns Iowa artists expressed about the public art roster we used to publish, and will reduce the number of times an artist has to submit information in response to calls for public artists – at least those opportunities that the IAC facilitates. When these new projects come up, we will automatically forward information from all Iowa artists listed in the resource, for consideration by the project planners,” said Bruce Williams, IAC Public Art Program Coordinator.

Interested artists or their agents should schedule a consultation with Bruce Williams before preparing or submitting information. Email Bruce.Williams@iowa.gov to receive guidelines and template documents (available late December or January).

Eligibility: Artists must be 18 years of age or older and live in Iowa. Former residents of Iowa are eligible if they are represented by an Iowa agent/commercial art gallery. Artist Teams must be comprised primarily of eligible Iowa artists (an Iowa artist must be designated as the lead artist of the team). Students seeking a degree in the arts are not eligible if the degree they are seeking is related to the work that is represented in the resource. Artists or Artist Teams must also be registered in the Iowa Arts Council’s Artist Directory (Public Art must be listed as one of their art disciplines in the directory).

There is no deadline - resource information can be submitted and updated anytime. Iowa Arts Council staff will review the eligibility of artists/artist teams, completeness of the information submitted, and the appropriateness of the artist’s work to the resource category. The Iowa Arts Council reserves the right to edit information.

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Iowa Culture & Language Conference

The Iowa Culture & Language Conference (ICLC) advocates for culturally and/or linguistically diverse students and their families, educators and service providers.

The 2008 annual conference will be held Feb. 19-20 (with pre-conferences on Feb. 18) at the Polk County Convention Complex, 501 Grand Avenue in downtown Des Moines.

Each year, the Iowa Arts Council sponsors a “Folklife Stream” of workshops at this conference. This year’s program features sessions on Asian Indian dance, Tango, the developing Iowa Folklife II online curriculum, and cultural information about Iowa’s diverse Latino communities.

There is an early-bird deadline of 12/20/07 and a special reduced rate for students: http://www.nwaea.k12.ia.us/documents/ICLCconferenceannounce.pdf

For more conference information: Go to the ICLC Conference Web site at http://www.nwaea.k12.ia.us/programs/iclc/ or contact Helene Grossman, ICLC Conference Coordinator, by email at qualitycomm@walnutcreekhills.net or by telephone at (515) 321-4561.

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AEI Names Grubb “Art Educator of the Year”

Art Educators of Iowa (AEI) named Pat Grubb of Ankeny “Art Educator of the Year” at its Fall Conference Retreat October 13.

Grubb, who teaches elementary art in the Ankeny Community School District, is an enthusiastic art educator and a dedicated professional involved with AEI, National Art Education Association and VSA arts of Iowa. She has been instrumental in developing a school-business partnership with Community State Bank.

“Through her energy and positive attitude, she has encouraged many new art teachers to become involved in our professional organizations,” said Becky Kobos, AEI past president and Awards Committee Chair, reading one of Grubb’s letters of support for the award. “Pat cares enough to mentor and encourage student teachers and new teachers to the profession. She is willing to share her enthusiasm for teaching so that more of our students can be touched by a quality art education.”

Pat was also named the first recipient of the Mary Bucksbaum Scanlan Excellence in Visual Art Education Award from the Connie Belin & Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for the Gifted Education and Talent Development.

“Teaching art has been a rewarding and fulfilling career,” Grubb said. “I see how excited and proud children are of the images they create, the ideas they invent, and the problems they solve in their own, individual way. The arts allow each student to express themselves, often in ways that words cannot. There is magic that occurs in a classroom where young imaginations are stimulated and nurtured, and I feel fortunate to witness it every day.”

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Annabel Lee Holds Special Place for Iowa Poet

By Jim Coppoc

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

Poets who read publicly get used to answering questions. It’s a standard part of the visiting writer gig. Where do you get your ideas? How long have you been writing? How does one become a poet?

One becomes a poet by reading, writing, reading, writing, reading, and writing. If there is such a thing as the legendary Ivory Tower, the sign over the door reads “Library.” I became a poet because of the King James Bible. I became a poet because of Dr. Seuss. I became a poet—at least in part—because of Edgar Allen Poe.

My great-grandfather was a Baptist preacher from Nowhere, Iowa. He was paid in chickens and apple pies, and his family farmed to make ends meet. At night, after all the chores and prayers and goodnights to his children, my great-grandfather turned to his books. This is the story I was given when my grandfather gave the twelve-year-old me a tattered set of small, red-rotted volumes that comprised “The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe.” The first poem I ever memorized outside of Bible verses and nursery rhymes came from these books. It was Annabel Lee.

I don’t know why a small-town evangelist from turn-of-the-century Iowa had Edgar Allen Poe on his bookshelf. I don’t know why he read each volume enough to wear the corners and crumble the pages. My great-grandfather was dead long before I was born. What I do know is that these books mattered to him, and that now they matter to me.

So I learned the poem. I memorized it and recited it to myself on the many long, lonely walks I took at that age. I had no experience at the time with love or death or fate, but I knew the story was tragic, and the music of Annabel Lee was a whole-body experience for me. I still carry most of the poem in my head today.

There’s no pat ending to this story. I didn’t make any mystical connection to my long-dead great-grandfather. I didn’t go straight from Annabel Lee to my career in poetry. It was fifteen more years, in fact, before I began writing seriously. Somehow, though, even after all that time, some part of my prepubescent love affair with the ringing prosody and great melodrama of this poem stayed with me. Poems of today are supposed to be a little bit smaller, a little bit subtler, but still sometimes late at night, after all my chores and prayers and goodnights to my own child, I go to the special bookshelf with my great-grandfather’s books, take down the old volumes, turn them over in my hands, and whisper to myself the lines I’ve carried through most of my life—it was many and many a year ago…

Jim Coppoc of Ames is an award-winning teacher, writer and performer; lecturer in English at Iowa State University; and an adjunct instructor in the MFA Creative Writing program at Chatham University in Pittsburgh. He has had numerous poems, fictional stories, nonfiction, historical essays published as well as criticism in dozens of literary journals and anthologies. This fall, Jim was one of the presenters at IAC’s teacher workshops for Poetry Out Loud, the student poetry recitation competition.

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New on the IAC Web Site

Do you check the Iowa Arts Council Web site frequently? You should! A few changes and additions we’ve made just lately include:

A “Staff Roles Chart” that gives more information about what each IAC staff person does

A new link to Culinary Tourism information on the Iowa Place-Based Foods site

Updated information about this year’s Poetry Out Loud student poetry recitation competition

Two charts on the home page that share information about the IAC’s funding and grant distribution

A downloadable “Responding to Writing” exercise on the Grant Writing Tips page, that may help grant writers get good feedback on their drafts

Resources for Individual Artists

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New Initiative Funds Arts-Related Field Trips

More than 39,000 students in Polk and Dallas counties will have the opportunity to travel outside the classroom for learning, thanks to funding from the proceeds of The Principal Charity Classic, the annual Champions Tour event played in Des Moines presented by Wells Fargo.

“Connecting Kids and Culture” will fill a void created by dwindling public funding for transportation to educational and cultural experiences outside the classroom. The program will make available transportation funds for every student in Polk and Dallas counties, grades kindergarten through fifth. “Connecting Kids and Culture” will directly align community-based arts and cultural learning to core curriculum objectives and provide opportunities for educators to bring local arts and cultural experiences into their schools.

“Educators have told us that bus money can be a deal-breaker in getting kids out of the classroom for local arts and cultural experiences,” said Johnny Danos, president of the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation. “Thanks to the success and generosity of The Principal Charity Classic, we can get students on the road again.”

“Connecting Kids and Culture” is made possible by contributions from The Principal Charity Classic to the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation and Bravo Greater Des Moines (Bravo). Financial support is also provided through a grant by the Kenneth P. & Helen I. MacDonald Fund through the Community Foundation.

Program funding will be available beginning in January for field trips to 14 organizations: Blank Park Zoo, Des Moines Art Center, Science Center of Iowa, Iowa Hall of Pride, Des Moines Metro Opera, Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, Living History Farms, Des Moines Botanical Center, State Historical Museum, Des Moines Playhouse, Metro Arts Alliance, Terrace Hill Foundation, Des Moines Symphony and Salisbury House Foundation. Formal curriculum alignments will be posted on the “Connecting Kids and Culture” Web site, www.kidsandculture.org. Transportation or in-classroom funding can also be used with a large and varied number of arts and cultural institutions and individual artists.

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Featured Teaching Artist: John Jannenga

Meet one of the Iowa Arts Council’s newest rostered teaching artists: John Jannenga. An artist and illustrator with a passion for his work, Jannenga is a gifted teacher with a commitment to providing a positive learning experience through arts.

His love of art was evident early in life when he received his first arts scholarship in third grade from the Des Moines Art Center. He would continue to spend his summers taking art classes through high school, while attending Des Moines Technical High School where he majored in commercial art.

Jannenga’s drawings have been used to illustrate a number of teaching materials and screen print designs. His fine art has been displayed at the Iowa State Fair and at numerous art fairs.

In addition to being on the IAC roster, Jannenga is a master teacher for VSA arts of Iowa and is certified to teach curriculums for DARE. He serves as an advocate for children and adults with ADHD by helping them to develop successful life strategies. The IAC has received several grant requests from schools to have Jannenga teach his ABCD technique that allows all students, regardless of abilities, to create a successful work of art.

Jannenga is working to open a gallery and teaching studio in West Des Moines’ Valley Junction. Cottage House Studio is located at 314 5^th Street. Visit John Jannenga’s IAC Roster page or contact him directly by e-mail, john@johnjannenga.com.

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IAC Staff Out & About

Dec 4: Bruce Williams to Lamoni to attend The Nutcracker, an IAC funded project at Graceland College

Dec 5: Bruce Williams to Marshalltown for Art in State Buildings consultation meeting with Iowa Veterans Home

Dec. 6-9: Cyndi Pederson, Mary Sundet Jones, Riki Saltzman, Dawn Martinez Oropeza, and IAC Board Chair Brad Lang attend National Assembly of State Arts Agencies in Baltimore, MD

Dec. 6-7: Bruce Williams to Iowa City for Englert Theatre CLP applicant site visit

Dec. 10: Mary Sundet Jones, Sarah Ekstrand, and Bruce Williams to Dubuque for IAC Office on the Road; Riki Saltzman to attend VPArts of Des Moines focus group

Dec. 11: Bruce Williams, Cyndi Pederson, and Linda Lee to Iowa Youth Chorus (Des Moines) for site visit

Dec. 11: Sarah Ekstrand to North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City for meeting with Iowa performing arts presenters

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Tools for Results Tool-kit

The Texas Commission on the Arts has developed a “Tools for Results Tool-kit” as a resource for nonprofit arts and cultural organizations across the U.S. The Tool-kit is a collaborative project made possible with the help of the Meadows Foundation and Ballet Austin, and a host of other organizations that generously agreed to share their resources.

The Tool-kit covers six topic areas: Fundraising & Development, Programs & Exhibitions; Cultural Tourism; Marketing, Advocacy and Nonprofit Basics. Each section covers the basics, relevant concepts, best practices, things to consider, ideas for implementing change, common mistakes, ways to get started, do’s and don’ts and how-to’s on a variety of topics. The “tools” are sample forms, letters, documents, checklists, templates and other resources. The intent is for nonprofits to take these “tools” and adapt them for their own purposes.

Visit www.arts.state.tx.us/toolkit.

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National Arts Advocacy Day

Registration is now open for National Arts Advocacy Day March 31-April 1 in Washington, D.C. Participants will undergo arts advocacy training; attend a Congressional arts breakfast on Capitol Hill and meet with their members of Congress.

Arts Advocacy Day is sponsored by Americans For The Arts. Visit www.artsusa.org for details.

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