Welcome to the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation
The Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation enriches lives by advancing the best of public art by placing art in public spaces in the community through public and private collaborations, adding to the cultural record through its collections and educational programs. We invite you to discover public art through-out the Greater Des Moines area.
Featured Art this Month
Tom Sachs
2007, fabricated in 2008 from an edition of 5 (5/5) | Long-Term Collection
Other Public Art Downtown
Mitchell Squire
2019 | Short-Term Collection
Bus Wrap #10: Multiple Black
Kerry James Marshall
July 2018 | Long-Term Collection
Other Public Art Downtown
Featured Artists this Month
News + Initiatives Blog
Our blog posts are a growing knowledge base of insights, stories and information. Get inspired by and delve into a breathtaking array of public art.
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February 5, 2020Des Moines, Iowa (February 4, 2020) – The 6th Avenue Corridor Urban Neighborhood Main... -
January 21, 2020Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation proudly highlights a grant award of $40,000 from...
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October 29, 2019Internationally acclaimed artist Andy Goldsworthy’s project at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art brings to...
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October 18, 2019October 17, 2019: We mourn the passing of The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, renowned...
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June 22, 2019The Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation is emphasizes that the spaces embracing public...
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March 20, 2019Des Moines, Iowa: On 13 March 2019 the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation...
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November 20, 2018Who were the most influential people in 2018 contemporary artworld? ArtReview’s annual ranking of the...
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November 2, 2018The Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation in partnership with The City of Pleasant...
From Our Facebook Feed
Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation increasingly utilizes social media as an important method to communicate with current and prospective audiences. Facebook and other social media platforms provide diverse opportunities to share the best of public art in Greater Des Moines to people around the world.
Social media participants can witness the public art process. Followers can watch a video of installations or an interview with artists, public art professionals, and educators on particular subjects. According to the Director M. Jessica Rowe at the Public Art Foundation, people do want to see more than just having public art appear: “Rather than hoping for an audience, we want to build an audience.”
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What the world needs now is LOVE, sweet LOVE. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ Happy Valentine’s Day from your friends at the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation (@dsmpublicart).
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#dsmpublicart #desmoines #desmoinesiowa #LOVE #lovesculpture #dsmusa #catchdsm #desmoinesdoesthings #pappajohnsculpturepark #midwestmoment ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 2 weeks ago
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The 6th Avenue Corridor Urban Neighborhood Main Street Program and the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation have selected contemporary artist Sheena Rose for the 6th Avenue Corridor Bus Shelter public art project. This project is being implemented in collaboration with the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART) as part of a larger streetscape project.
Sheena Rose is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Barbados. Rose is a Fulbright Scholar and earned a BFA Honors degree, in addition to a MFA from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Rose has a multi-disciplinary practice. A large body of the her includes drawings, paintings, and performance art. Rose was awarded a number of international artist residencies. She has exhibited her work throughout the United States, as well as internationally in South America, Canada, Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Well known art institutions have exhibited her work, these include, for example, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (aka “MoCADA”), the Queens Museum in New York, and Turner Contemporary art space in Kent, England.
In 2017, Sheena performed her work “Island and Monster” at the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts, London. In 2019, she created a two-story mural at the Inter-American Development Bank Headquarters located in Washington, DC. She also created a large-scale mural for an exhibition called “The Other Side of Now” at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami (aka PAMM), Florida ... See MoreSee Less
Artist Sheena Rose Announced for 6th Avenue Corridor Bus Shelter Art Project | Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation
Des Moines, Iowa (February 4, 2020) – The 6th Avenue Corridor Urban Neighborhood Main Street Program and the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation have selected contemporary artist Sheena Rose fo...Posted 2 weeks ago
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The 6th Avenue Corridor Urban Neighborhood Main Street Program and the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation have selected contemporary artist Sheena Rose for the 6th Avenue Corridor Bus Shelter public art project. This project is being implemented in collaboration with the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART) as part of a larger streetscape project. The 6th Avenue Corridor (6AC) is the longest and most environmentally-sustainable streetscape project undertaken to date in the City of Des Moines.
The 6AC Bus Shelter Art Project will realize a series of seven designs digitally embedded into the glass panels of each bus shelter. The objective of this series is to create a collection with a common theme and inspiration to establish a distinct visual identity for transit in the 6th Avenue Corridor district. Each shelter structure features five glass panels and the designs will expand across the surface of each panel. In total, twelve bus shelters will be installed in three phases along this 1.2- mile district stretching from the Des Moines River Bridge south to Interstate 235.
“Public art, when most successful, is about taking risk,” remarked M. Jessica Rowe Director of the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation (GDMPAF), who led the art selection process. “GDMPAF has a track record of infusing innovative practices, new methods, perspectives, technologies, and fresh ideas into public art processes.” #DSMPublicArt #DSMUSA #CatchDSM ... See MoreSee Less
6AC Bus Shelter Art Project | 6th Avenue Corridor
Posted 3 weeks ago
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“Miffy Fountain” (2007)
Artist: @tomsachs ❄️🐰
Photo Credit: @karlajconrad ✨
The artist Tom Sachs explores the fountain’s function as an icon and metaphor. Miffy Fountain (2007) is the first, long-term fountain which the artist has created. This public art project is integrated into Des Moines’ Western Gateway Park as a downtown oasis. #dsmpublicart #tomsachs #publicart #miffy #miffyfountain #sculpture #desmoinesphotographer #desmoines #desmoinesiowa #catchdsm #dsmusa #desmoinesdoesthings ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 1 month ago
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Thank you to Karla Conrad for a fantastic picture in the winter snow
Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation proudly highlights a grant award of $40,000 from Bravo Greater Des Moines. The 2020 Cultural Enrichment Grant is for the calendar 2020 grant period.
Our programs, events, and community activities fulfill its mission of placing the best of art in public spaces. Through public and private collaborations, the Public Art Foundation entrusts a shared notion of civic identity that brings art and spectator together. Developing stories and connections between public art and the viewer is especially important for young people, encouraging them to find their own stories and connections. #dsmpublicart ... See MoreSee Less
Public Art Foundation receives $40,000 Grant from BRAVO | Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation
Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation proudly highlights a grant award of $40,000 from Bravo Greater Des Moines. The 2020 Cultural Enrichment Grant is for the calendar 2020 grant period. Our progra...Posted 1 month ago
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"A Monumental Journey" was inspired by the talking drum of West Africa. There African drummers communicated complex messages over vast distances by simply varying the pitch of the drum and using tone to mimic patterns of speech.
With the concept of one drum-form precariously stacked upon the other, artist Kerry James Marshall has created a powerful physical and poetic expression. The large-scale sculpture embodies the notion of communication among diverse peoples and a legal system that — though not perfect — strives to be balanced. ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 1 month ago
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Do you want to build a snowman? “Back of a Snowman (Black)” Artist: Gary Hume ❄️🖤
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#dsmpublicart #garyhume #snowmen #garyhumesnowman #publicart #midwestmoment #desmoines #instadesmoines #catchdsm #dsmusa #pappajohnsculpturepark #entirelyunexpected #desmoinesphotographer #desmoinesphotography #blackandwhite ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 1 month ago
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Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation Featured Artist: @kerryjamesmarshs
Kerry James Marshall is internationally known for large-scale paintings, sculptures, and other objects that take African- American life and history as their subject matter. Marshall’s art is a complex and compelling one that synthesizes a wide range of pictorial traditions to counter stereotypical representations of black people in society and reassert the place of the black figure within the canon of Western painting.
The artist’s works are held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; among many others.
Commissioned by Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation, a major public art project called “A Monumental Journey” was dedicated on 12 July 2018 in Des Moines, Iowa. #kerryjamesmarshall #dsmpublicart #publicart #publicartmatters #catchdsm #dsmusa #art #sculpture #artoftheday #artistofinstagram #artistoftheday #desmoinesiowa @ Des Moines, Iowa ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 1 month ago
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Great