Des Moines Art Center

For our 75th anniversary year, the exhibition program for the anna k. meredith gallery was chosen to highlight the best of the past, present, and future of this institution. Each exhibition featured work by iowa-based artists as well as works from the permanent collection, celebrating Art made in this state and grounded in our community. Kicking off 2023, Art Center: 75 years of Iowa Art featured over 100 works by dozens of artists, mostly taken from the permanent collection. All of the included artists are connected to Iowa in some way, have lived, worked, and made Art in the state. Performance artworks by rachel merril and firat erdim were commissioned for the exhibition, and a selection of works chosen with duane slick was featured in the exit gallery. The community group al exito collaborated with curators laura burkhalter and mia laufer to create artistic interventions in the exhibition commemorating the presence of the latinx community in Iowa's history. Underneath everything: humility and grandeur in contemporary ceramics, held in the anna k. meredith gallery and upper pei featured an international group of twenty artists working with ceramics. Clay is the humblest of materials, often overlooked and more readily associated with a morning cup of coffee than the international Art world. But there is an expansiveness to work made or based in this medium, as these artists push the limitations of clay, attaching layers of conceptual meaning and playing with the boundaries between ceramics and other media including film, photography, painting, performance, and installation. The exhibition navigated this tension, honoring the humility of the medium while simultaneously evoking a sense of grandeur and possibility. Curated by mia laufer, underneath everything was organized in consultation with an artist advisory committee including katayoun amjadi, donte k. hayes, ingrid lilligren, and chuck purviance. Four of the artists - ingrid lilligren, donte k. hayes, eliza au, and theaster gates have connections to Iowa. The exhibition also traveled to the grand rapids Art museum. Running from october 7, 2023 - january 14, 2024, transform any room, featured ten artists exploring domestic spaces and the objects found within. These elements are often perceived as gendered, related to certain cultural backgrounds, or can signify social or economic status. This group exhibition explored subversive, politicized, and sometimes glamorized versions of the objects we bring into our homes. Whether their initial inspiration is an object of utility, comfort, or decor, the resulting artworks included here comment on labor, wider social issues, and life events in this time and place. Works from the museum's collection by nick cave, martha rosler, and anne wilson, were included, and two Iowa based artists, tj dedeaux-norris and ange altenhofen made works specifically for the show. Other artists in the exhibition include max colby, faig ahmed, jay lynn gomez, liza lou, and lydia ricci. Transform any room was organized by senior curator laura burkhalter. The john brady print gallery, the curatorial team chose to highlight the Art Center's continually growing photography collection, as well as some of the oldest works in the collection - unexpected gems in this mostly contemporary museum. Postcards: recent photography acquisitions to the Art Center's collection, was curated by laura burkhalter. It focused on landscapes, travel documentation, and scenic imagery taken by photographers from the 19th century to the present. It is one of the first exhibitions in this space made up entirely of photos from the museum's holdings. Rembrandt and his world: 17th-century dutch prints from the Des Moines Art Center's collection, curated by mia laufer, highlighted portraits, landscapes, and cityscapes made over three centuries ago. Double take was co-curated by photographer ben easter and laura burkhalter. Choosing exclusively from the museum's photography collections, pairs of images were chosen that explore differences and similarities between staged photographs and those taken in a more improvised or quick manner.

Our efforts include providing Art making education and classes through our studio arts school. In 2023 the studio department provided 123 adult classes (18+), 101 youth classes (ages 3-18), and 8 weeks of 2-a-day camps that served 856 unique students in our area from ages 5 - 16. Through our school and vast network of 46 teaching artists, we can engage with numerous social and human services within the surrounding community. We offer on and offsite school enrichment programing that aims to create opportunities for child centered learning and family engagement. The Art centers studio program provides multiple Art making mediums from painting and drawing to metals and ceramics through both tuition-based Art classes and free Art programming thanks to our collaborating organizations and donation network. In 2023, we provided 145 scholarships to youth and adults in our surrounding community.

With a focus on inclusion and belonging, the Des Moines Art Center engaged in a variety of dynamic and meaningful events, programs, and opportunities throughout 2023. Our efforts centered on being a vibrant space for our community to gather, sharing our unique creative selves, and collectively creating work that resonates beyond our walls and into the future. The museum welcomed 101,593 visitors throughout 2023. Our keystone family events, day of the dead (in its 23rd year) and our biannual entirely kids days, explored the themes of "past, present, future "home." These events collectively brought in over 3,800 visitors who experienced our campus through hands-on, artist-facilitated, family-friendly programming. This contributed to a community-created sense of welcome and creative participation for all ages. The sense of home was further catalyzed during another summer family event honoring the Des Moines Art Center's 75th anniversary. On august 18, 2023, 1,700 visitors came together to explore and honor the history and impact of the Art Center, gathering on the lawn, in the Art studios, and in the galleries. The event featured local live music, food trucks, ceramic and weaving activities and demonstrations, and opportunities for everyone to share their love of the Art Center. The museum education department worked directly with students in area high schools, rural elementary schools in newton, perry, and ballard, the meskwaki settlement, and through our partnership with Des Moines public schools. We offered custom workshops, direct access to contemporary artwork, thoughtful connections to our temporary exhibitions, and impactful mentorship to almost 500 individual students. This year's exhibitions offered powerful opportunities for community programming centered around unique in-person experiences. Our Iowa artist exhibition, 75 years of Iowa Art involved more than 100 community members, including summer camp students and Art Center members, to collaboratively produce outdoor sound recordings using custom wind-harp instruments designed by artist firat erdim. Visitors also took in a performance work titled slobberknocker by artist rachel merrill, witnessing a live model clad in a hand-crocheted bodysuit as she held poses against a striking green crocheted floor cover, silently asking questions about grief, submission, and vulnerability. Additionally, three members of the young bear family of the meskwaki nation, mary, sarah, and daniel, gave a standing room only presentation about their beadwork that was featured in the Art of our time gallery of the exhibition. Additionally, one could have experienced the power of internationally recognized violinist, film composer, and activist from the huron-wendat nation, genevive gros-louis, playing live in the galleries in conjunction with the underneath everything exhibition performing a piece drawing attention to murdered or missing indigenous women in front of an artwork of the same premise, or attended a fascinating interview by newly minted john and mary pappajohn director, dr. kelly baum with renowned artist hank willis thomas about his public Art practice and collaborations. The Des Moines Art Center knows that an arts experience is made immensely more impactful when facilitated by a well-trained guide. In 2023, our team of volunteer docents led 10,307 individuals through participatory tours of the museum collection, exhibitions, and galleries, many of whom were area fourth-grade students on their very first visit to an Art museum. Additionally, our docents brought Art out of the galleries and directly to 664 community members living in senior living centers through our Art calls program, which is almost entirely managed and supported by this dedicated team of volunteer educators. In 2023, the Des Moines Art Center's community access program (cap) offered 695 free art-making sessions through four programs: educational enrichment, community resiliency, identity affirming, and adaptive arts. Our objective is to discover creative ways of making artworks and Art making accessible to those in our community that otherwise lack this access due to cultural, economic, environmental, and social barriers. Our teaching artists (32 currently) use a student-centered method, creating a safe, respectful environment where everyone's Art is valued as an outlet for self-expression. Educational enrichment programming provided school-based sessions to 22 unique schools, including woodward academy, serving male and female students in grades 6 to 12 who are experiencing behavioral difficulty in the public-school setting. Community resiliency programming provided community-based sessions top 15 community partners, including weekly sessions at families forward, a shelter for families experiencing houselessness in Des Moines. Identity enrichment provided 53 community and Art center-based sessions to five community partners who support local youth by uplifting group identities, including queer youth resource Center (qyrc). In 2023, cap partnered with qyrc to offer Art making gatherings as well as the first annual safe space prom held at the Des Moines Art Center. Adaptive arts programming provided 65 community and Art center-based sessions to youth and adults from the local disability community, including a very successful inauguration of cap's deaf and hard of hearing Art gathering, with two deaf teaching artists facilitating all classes. Along with weekly programming, cap hosted four visiting artist workshops. Ceramic artist, ehren tool, led multiple groups in workshops making his signature tumblers, including a group of 24 veterans. Duane slick, rae stern, and max colby each offered three-day workshops to local teens, during which participants learned new techniques and skills as part of our Art and activism programs.