July 10: Public Art Sculpture Unveiling, noon, Iowa Department for the Blind, 524 Fourth St., Des Moines
July 15: Grant Writing Workshop, 1-4 p.m., Wilson Performing Arts Center, Red Oak.
July 15: Office on the Road, 9 a.m.-Noon, Wilson Performing Arts Center, Red Oak.
July 25: Small Operating Support Grant deadline.
Ongoing:
Artist Directory (Iowa Artists – are you registered on this?)
Iowa Public Art Artists Registry (For Iowa artists who create public art and are seeking public art commissions)
Mini Grants. Apply for up to $1,500 in matching funds for arts-related projects.
EZ 1-2-3 Grants are back! Apply for up to $500 to bring an artist to your school or community in 2009-10.
Big Yellow School Bus Grants are back! Apply for $200 to pay transportation costs for school arts field trips in 2009-10.
www.iacthelatest.blogspot.com. Check it out regularly for articles of current interest, announcements, and hot topics that are important to the arts in Iowa.
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The Iowa Arts Council will take its Office on the Road to Red Oak July 15 to visit one-on-one with area artists and arts organizations, and to present a free grant writing workshop.
IAC staff will hold Office on the Road hours 9 a.m.-noon and a grant writing workshop 1-4 p.m., Wednesday, July 15, 2009, at the Wilson Performing Arts Center, 300 Commerce Drive in Red Oak.
During Office on the Road hours, IAC staff can answer your questions about working as an artist, planning an arts project, etc., during 20-minute one-on-one sessions. To schedule a session, contact Sarah Ekstrand at sarah.ekstrand@iowa.gov or (515) 281-4657.
During the grant writing workshop, learn about the IAC grant application process, funding priorities and guidelines, and tips for writing grants. You’ll also be part of a mock panel review of actual grants submitted to IAC.
The workshop is free and open to any artists, educators, or staff from arts and other community organizations who want to develop new arts projects. Register for the grant writing workshop at www.iowaartscouncil.org.
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A major new Shakespeare festival in downtown Des Moines has an added twist: Shakespeare will be performed in Spanish at various metro locations over the course of the six-day festival.
The Iowa Shakespeare Experience (ISE), under the direction of Artistic Director Lorenzo Sandoval, added the multicultural component to recognize the need to reach English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) populations.
“Shakespeare is the world’s most produced playwright,” Sandoval said. “His enduring stories of humanity’s follies, foibles and frustrations are common to us all. We have found non-English speaking groups are just as hungry to hear his tales and we’re excited to bring this opportunity to the Latino community.”
Known as “Shakesperience Fest,” the festival will be July 23 through Aug. 2 with live performances at Simon Estes Amphitheater along downtown Des Moines’ Principal Riverwalk. Guests are invited to bring picnics and join in a summer tradition enjoyed all over the world. Each performance is free and open to the public.
ISE, a nonprofit, is exploring opportunities to have Spanish shows during the popular Iowa Latino Heritage Festival, Sept. 19-20 in Des Moines and other Des Moines locations.
“Beyond merely translating works into Spanish, a great approach to involving ESL audiences is to identify professional or emerging actors from within the ESL community who can appear on stage in the ESL shows,” Sandoval said. “We also find that the more substantial the audience we can provide to these actors the better.”
Additional performances will be geared toward families in disenfranchised Des Moines neighborhood parks, seniors and youth grades 3-8. From July through December, ISE will also produce radio shows, “Shakespeare on the Aire” to be broadcast via KFMG-FM.
For complete schedule of events and more information, visit www.iowashakespeare.org.
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President Obama unveiled “United We Serve” June 17, an extended call to service challenging all Americans to help lay a new foundation for growth in this country by engaging in sustained, meaningful community service. The initiative will be led by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency dedicated to fostering service in communities across the country.
The United We Serve summer initiative began June 22 and runs through the National Day of Service and Remembrance September 11. The National Day of Service and Remembrance was created by the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which President Obama signed in April to help encourage and facilitate community service across the country. During this summer, the President is renewing his call to all Americans to identify needs in their communities, engage in meaningful service to create change – and stay engaged with those projects long after September. The President’s call focuses on four key areas where everyone can have a continuing impact in their community: education, health, energy and the environment and community renewal.
To create new service projects, to find service projects in your community and to share stories about projects that are making a difference, visit www.serve.gov.
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The Iowa Department for the Blind will unveil a new work of public art Friday, July 10, 2009 at noon. A ceremony will take place in front of the artwork at the IDB offices, 524 Fourth Street in downtown Des Moines.
The Iowa Arts Council announced in September 2008 that artist Ann Cunningham of Golden, Colo., had been selected to create the work. The project is part of the Art in State Buildings program enacted by the Iowa Legislature in 1979 and overseen by the IAC.
Cunningham’s work, entitled “In Touch with the Seasons,” is visually appealing while engaging the viewer through sense of touch. She said the driving force behind her work is her desire to learn and teach how people share ideas through works of art, and it is important that her work is accessible to both touch and sight. IDB Director Karen Keninger agrees.
“It celebrates Iowa tradition through its Regionalist art by depicting in three dimensions an Iowa landscape and Iowa’s iconic ‘American Gothic,’” Keninger said. “Through additional pieces, this artwork also provides totally blind persons access to visual concepts such as perspective, overlap and abstraction which are not readily experienced by blind people. Worked in bronze, wood and slate, these pieces will ad much interest to our building.”
Board member Colleen Armstrong of West Des Moines will make comments on behalf of IAC during the July 10 event.
Call (515) 281-1334 for more information.
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Iowa will be well represented at the 9th Annual Midwest Folk Festival, to be held Aug. 1-2 in Bishop Hill, Ill., just west of the Quad Cities. State arts agencies in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, in conjunction with the Bishop Hill Heritage Association and Company of Folk, present this free outdoor event to celebrate the diverse cultures and folk artists of all three sponsoring states.
Ismail Alyassiri of Marion will be one of the featured Iowa folk artists. Alyassiri plays the ’ud (lute), a pear-shaped, unfretted, 11-stringed instrument found throughout the Middle East. After fleeing Iraq in 1991 and spending years in a Saudi Arabian refugee camp, Alyassiri and his family came to Cedar Rapids in 1995.
Alyassiri, along with cousins Salah and Haider Alyassiri, formed Arabian Tone, which performed traditional and popular Iraqi music at the 2000 Iowa Culture & Language Conference and the 2001 Festival of Iowa Folklife. Ismail, who became a US citizen in 2006, plays and sings traditional Iraqi rural tunes that focus on unrequited love, much as American country music songs do. He also composes his own tunes.
Along with Alyassiri and Bahri Karacay (Turkish saz), the festival will showcase the music and dance styles of a diverse group of ethnic and folk artists from the region. Work created by approximately a dozen artists and showcasing a variety of cultures represented in the Midwest will also be on display. A family area, led by participating festival artists, will offer hands-on activities for children of all ages.
The Midwest Folk Festival occurs annually, rotating its location among the three states. For information about the 2009 Midwest Folk Festival, contact Susan Dickson, (312) 814-6740 or susan.dickson@illinois.gov. Or see the Resources section of the IAC’s Folk & Traditional Arts web pages.
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By Mary Swander, Iowa Poet Laureate
Where have I been since being appointed Iowa Poet Laureate February 18, 2009? That very weekend I stepped on a plane for Palm Beach, Fla., where some Iowa retirees invited me to do a private reading for them in their condo overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I sat there on the balcony watching yachts float down the canal and thought, This poet laureate gig is going to be fun. And so far it has been.
Home again in Iowa, I’ve been on the road giving talks about poetry to such diverse groups as Buena Vista University, the Ames City Government and the annual meeting of H & R Block. I’ve been touring Farmscape, a play I wrote with my students at Iowa State University, to the Hearst Center in Cedar Falls, to Coon Rapids, Clinton Community College, and the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences Conference in Des Moines. In late spring, with the help of an Iowa Arts Council grant, I flew to Claddaghduff, Ireland, to begin researching and writing a book about my ancestral farm where my grandfather grew up.
I arrived back in Ames just in time to receive the advance copy of my new book of poetry, The Girls on the Roof—a Mississippi River flood saga. Since then, I’ve been doing book events throughout the state, from the Zanzibar Coffee House in Des Moines to the Skunk River Arts Festival in Oskaloosa. And I’ve been working with the Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre in West Liberty on an adult puppet show adaptation of the new book that will make its debut in Spencer in November. In June, I was completely honored to walk into Stone’s Printing Company in Carroll (the place of my birth) to be greeted by the mayor, and a large group of townspeople and relatives.
When I’m not on the road, I’m enjoying my garden and goats at my acreage in Kalona where Amish buggies (not yachts) roll by my window.
Upcoming Poet Laureate Events
Wednesday, July 15: Farmscape, The Sustainable Agriculture Education Association Conference, Iowa State University.Saturday, July 18: Poet Laureate Panel (with Marvin Bell and Robert Dana) Iowa City Book Festival, Iowa City.
Tuesday, July 21: 7 p.m., Prairie Lights Bookstore, Iowa City, reading, signing for The Girls on the Roof.
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Nonprofits today are looking for the best way to address smaller budgets and increased demand for their services. Strategic partnerships can offer a creative solution. This workshop is facilitated by Robert Harrington, a national consultant from La Piana Consulting and presented by the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation.
The event will be Thursday, July 30 from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the State Historical Building, 600 E. Locust, Des Moines. Cost is $75 which includes lunch and the “Nonprofit Mergers Workbook Part 1: The Leader’s Guide to Considering, Negotiating and Executing a Merger.”
For more information and to register, please visit the Grants and Nonprofit Resources section of the Community Foundation’s Web site, www.desmoinesfoundation.org. Early registration is encouraged.
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By Riki Saltzman, accessibility coordinator
On a rainy April Saturday, more than 450 children and adults took part in The Iowa Children’s Museum’s 2nd Annual Disabilities Awareness Day Celebration. In collaboration with museum staff, the University of Iowa Physical Therapy Student Organization designed a full day of creative activities. Their goal, explained Nicole Lokenvitz (IPT Student Organization), was to “promote abilities not disabilities. Having the event at the museum allowed us to let all children participate and created a fun, interactive educational experience.”
Deb Dunkhase, ICM executive director, was ecstatic. The day “totally rocked! It was just absolutely wonderful to see so many high quality interactions between people with and without disabilities. We’ve decided to make this an annual event and make it bigger each year.”
Special features of the day were VSA Arts of Iowa* artist Kevin Johnson and Reese, his Chocolate Lab service dog. An active member of the VSA Arts teaching roster, Johnson began working in stained glass as part of his vocational rehabilitation program after suffering an eye injury in 1986. More than 20 years later, Johnson’s permanent stained glass installations are in schools throughout Iowa.
Besides his glass work, Johnson also teaches wire sculpture. He collaborated with museum guests to create figurative and abstract sculptures with thick, pliable silver wire attached to a piece of wood and then shaped. Budding artists fashioned memorable artwork to take home. Nicole Lokenvitz had high praise for him: “He was an amazing addition to the activities we had going on.”
The Iowa Children’s Museum has invited Johnson back for his Wire Sculpture Arts Adventure Saturday, July 18, 2009 from 2 – 4 pm. Check the museum’s Web site for information about VSA Arts of Iowa artists’ workshops.
*VSA Arts of Iowa maintains an artist roster, provides in-service training to teachers, and assists those with disabilities to improve their learning, employment and life skills through art based education and programs.
Photo: Mira Kumar, age 7, and her dad Udaya Kumar creating a wire sculpture with Kevin Johnson, VSA Arts of Iowa (photo courtesy of Iowa Children’s Museum).
Photo: Kevin Johnson of VSA Arts of Iowa, leading children in a Wire Sculpture Adventure (photo courtesy of Iowa Children’s Museum).
This article is the third in a series providing examples of artistic outreach to diverse groups in Iowa.
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The Iowa Department of Administrative Services will dedicate a new piece of public art and mark the 170th anniversary of the landmark court decision that inspired it in September. The sculpture is located near the Iowa Judicial Branch Building at 1111 East Court Ave., Des Moines, just two blocks south of the State Capitol. Dedication ceremony details will be announced in the August IAC newsletter.
"Shattering Silence" by Iowa artist James Ellwanger, commemorates those moments when Iowa has been at the forefront of breaking the silence of inequality and commemorates those Iowans who refused to stand by silently when they saw injustice. Placed around the sculpture will be the story of Ralph, a slave from Missouri who found freedom in Iowa.
Impressively sized at about 28 feet at its tallest point and more than 32 feet across at its widest, "Shattering Silence" will be situated to the west of the new Judicial Building on the Capitol Complex.
Planning for this sculpture on the Capitol Complex has been underway since 2007. The Department of Administrative Services has received assistance from the Iowa Genealogical Society, which has conducted additional research on Ralph's story and has been searching for any descendants of Ralph, the farmer, the judge, and other key players in this story. A sponsorship team was led by Michael Gartner and Graham Cook, with considerable support and assistance from the Department of Administrative Services and the Department of Cultural Affairs.
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The Des Moines Art Center, in partnership with the Iowa Arts Council, will host the 2009 Iowa Public Art Network Conference Nov. 12-13, 2009, to celebrate the opening of the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Garden.
The 4.4 acre sculpture park will open to the public Sept. 29 in downtown Des Moines’ Western Gateway. The garden is located within a major crossroads of the urban grid, making it unlike any other sculpture garden in the United States, and will contribute to the ongoing revitalization of the surrounding neighborhood.
Jaume Plensa, one of the artists featured in the garden, will give the Conference’s opening lecture the evening of Nov. 12. Plensa is a Spanish sculptor who created “The Crown Fountain” in Chicago’s Millennium Park and “Nomade,” which will anchor the southern side of the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Garden.
The conference will take place 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, 2009. Conference schedule and registration information will be announced in August at www.iowaartscouncil.org.
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July 7: Dawn Martinez Oropeza to Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center in Cedar Falls for Poetry Out Loud Partner Meeting
July 14: Sarah Ekstrand and Dawn Martinez Oropeza conduct Artist Roster Training via webinar
July 10: Dawn Martinez Oropeza to L.A.M.B Theater, Sioux City, for Poetry Out Loud Partner Meeting
July 15: Sarah Ekstrand and Dawn Martinez Oropeza to Red Oak for IAC Grant Writing Workshop and Office on the Road
July 22: Dawn Martinez Oropeza to Arts On Grand, Spencer, for Poetry Out Loud Partner Meeting
July 23-24: Riki Saltzman to Cedar Falls for workshop on Family Cookbooks in conjunction with UNI Museums exhibit, “Slow Food, Fast Food.”
July 31-Aug 2: Riki Saltzman to Bishop Hill, IL, for Tri-State Midwest Folk Festival
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“Focus Groups on Next Generation Leadership”: A recent report released by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation offers strategies for increasing the involvement of young people in the work of nonprofit arts organizations. “Focus Groups” (executive summary, full report) explores the needs, values and perceptions that young people bring to the workplace. The report suggests 13 engagement-boosting strategies for cultural organizations and 9 involvement-expanding strategies for arts funders.
“Value of Volunteer Time”: The Independent Sector has announced a new estimated value for volunteer time. The estimated value of a volunteer hour in 2008 is $20.25, up from $19.51 in 2007.
“CEO Learned Teamwork, Coordination in the Arts” The New York Times (June 7, 2009): Darden Restaurants CEO Clarence Otis Jr. credits his experiences in theater for teaching him about the art of building a team in the corporate world.
“New Survey Links Choral Participation to Academic Success,” The Yuma Sun (June 8, 2009): Robin Perry, Chorus America director of communications, noted in a news release that the survey found children who sing in choirs exhibit enhanced social skills such as volunteering and charitable giving. Survey statistics showed 71 percent of parents responding said their children have become more self-confident and self-disciplined, while 69 percent report their child's memory skills have improved.
“Arts Participation 2008: Highlights from a National Survey,” National Endowment for the Arts (June 15, 2009): American audiences for the arts are getting older, and their numbers are declining, according to new research released today by the National Endowment for the Arts. This survey features top findings from the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, conducted by the NEA in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau. The 2008 survey reveals dwindling audiences for many art forms, but it also captures new data on Internet use and other forms of arts participation.
“Art Museum Attendance Down Nationwide, Reports Find,” Philanthropy News Digest (June 20, 2009): The NEA report “shows that audiences for the arts are changing,” said NEA acting chair Patrice Walker Powell. “While many now participate in arts activities available through electronic media, the number of American adults who are participating in live performing and visual arts events is declining. The findings underscore the need for more arts education to foster the next generation of both artists and arts enthusiasts.”
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Coordinated by ACE (Art Culture Experience) artists Mark McCusker and Nora Garda of Iowa City, Iowa Dance Fest 3 brought Iowa dancers into Iowa schools in April 2009.
Sixteen schools (around 3,000 students total) within a 50-mile radius of Iowa City benefitted from performances, demonstrations and activities with audience participation. From sprung-floor gyms to small carpeted classrooms, rural schools to metro schools, many students enjoyed their first exposure to dance as an art form.
The culminating event, the Iowa Dance Fest 3 Showcase, featured 33 performances by more than 20 Iowa dance groups and soloists at the Old Brick Community Center in Iowa City. People sat in chairs, pillows on the floor or stood around the auditorium, celebrating every movement during three nonstop hours of dance.
Garda and McCusker want to use this opportunity to publicly say “Thank You” to the dancers, the schools and the community for making Iowa Dance Fest possible and bigger than ever in 2009.
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The Iowa Arts Gallery is a new nonprofit organization dedicated to providing educational resources to the arts community, including students. These educational resources include a forum for discussion, critique and review of exhibits and movements, exhibit venue, and other competitive features and environments for artistic expression and exhibition.
The organization is the brainchild of brother and sister team Dick Shook and Lynette Sherer. Shook serves as CEO, curator and artist-in-residence, with a background as an illustrator and award-winning building designer. Sherer is the business director/treasurer and is a professional portrait photographer and stained glass artist. The business is based in Maxwell.
Environments may also be purchased or leased, designed and created, to duplicate existing venues or to provide any kind of unique space. Exhibits may also be released on DVD or CD for educational institutions. For more information, email lsherer@iowaartsgallery.com.
The site will include notice of upcoming events, exhibits and other related activities, as well as reviews and links to related Web sites.