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
Mitchell Squire
2019 | Short-Term Collection
Bus Wrap #10: Multiple Black
Tom Sachs
2007, fabricated in 2008 from an edition of 5 (5/5) | Long-Term Collection
Other Public Art Downtown
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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May 23, 2020Rendered site plan of urban farm planned for 2308/2310 Lyndale Ave, Hawthorne, Minneapolis. Image:... -
April 22, 2020"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... Variations of this proverbial expression can be...
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April 7, 2020Share stories of diversity, equality, inclusion and equity. Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation...
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April 1, 2020There is plenty of space around me as I take my daily walk, I...
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February 5, 2020Des Moines, Iowa (February 4, 2020) – The 6th Avenue Corridor Urban Neighborhood Main...
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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...
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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Ella & Pitr are known for their ambitiously large mural projects. ... See MoreSee Less
Artists Ella & Pitr Paint 21,000 Meter Rooftop Mural in Norway
www.thisiscolossal.com
Ahead of the 15th annual NuArt street art festival opening this weekend in Norway, French artists Ella & Pitr completed work on this absolutely enormous mural on the rooftop of the Block Berge Bygg co...Posted 20 hours ago
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“A Veteran’s Prayer for Eternal Peace”
Artist: Christopher Bennett
On #VeteransDay we honor and pay tribute to all of the brave men and women who have served our country! #thankyouveterans #dsmpublicart #publicart #art #sculpture 🇺🇸 ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 2 weeks ago
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V O T E 🗳 #election2020 #publicart #dsmpublicart ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 3 weeks ago
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“Spider” 🕷🕸👻
Artist: Louise Bourgeois
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The artist, Louise Bourgeois, has been using spiders in her work since the 1940s, and in the 1990s began sculpting them into colossal forms like this. Surprisingly, she sees them not as ominous predators, but as a symbol for her much beloved mother. For the artist, whose work has explored themes of childhood memory and loss, the spider carries associations of a maternal figure. Indeed, Bourgeois’ “Spider” series relates to her own mother who died when the artist was twenty-one. The allusion to her mother as a weaver refers to the Bourgeois family’s tapestry restoration business, in which her mother was the chief seamstress. #dsmpublicart #publicart #louisebourgeois #spiderart #pappajohnsculpturepark #desmoines #desmoinesiowa ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 4 weeks ago
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“White Ghost” 👻
Artist: Yoshitomo Nara
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#dsmpublicart #yoshitakaamano #publicart #whiteghost #boo ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 4 weeks ago
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“I hope to make the space come alive. There’s a time when a piece of sculpture stands up, becomes itself and there’s no way to describe what I feel like - it’s like poetry.” - Mark di Suvero
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#markdisuvero #dsmpublicart #publicart #sculpture #poetry #art #desmoines #desmoinesiowa #midwestmoment #fallcolors ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 1 month ago
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Fall in love with PUBLIC ART ✨🍁
“Three Cairns” is the largest project in the Western Hemisphere by British artist Andy Goldsworthy. Cairns are stone structures [or markers] that identify a place of great importance. Their dry-stone construction represents an engineering feat as well as artistic creativity. The process of shaping and stacking the stones into a simple oval shape is challenging and intense. The form symbolizes fullness and ripeness, time and energy, loss and endurance. Goldsworthy relays this concept in the “Three Cairns” project that was constructed in the United States from 2001 to 2002. #dsmpublicart #publicart #andygoldsworthy #threecairns #fall #desmoinesart #desmoines #desmoinesia #sculpture #dsmusa #midwestmoment ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 2 months ago
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This is a beautiful site to visit.
Public art shares stories of diversity, equality, inclusion and equity as they relate to the people and places of Iowa, especially those stories often untold. These resources are created to catalyze community conversations that can result in a shared, and fuller, appreciation of our common history — and common bonds.
Our FREE online resources engage a cross-section of individuals, as well as communities, in telling, discussing, and perhaps even producing the stories depicted in public art.
For more information, please visit: dsmpublicartfoundation.org/resources/ (link in bio)
#dsmpublicart #publicart #artseducation #art #sculpture #dsmusa #desmoines #midwest #midwestmoment #thisisiowa #fallvibes #fallcolors ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 2 months ago
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