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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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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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 weeks 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 weeks ago
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The Iowa National Bar Association (INBA) invites all attorneys to the second annual Meeting at the Monument: A Celebration of Diversity within the Iowa Legal Community on Thursday, October 8, from 4-5:30 p.m.
During this event, which will take place at the Monumental Journey (corner of Grand and 2nd Avenues) in Des Moines the INBA will present the Journey Award to three recipients for their demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“A Monumental Journey” honors the National Bar Association founders: 12 courageous African-American attorneys who — in Des Moines, IA — changed the course of American history in 1925. At a time when the American Bar Association and other national legal associations denied membership to African-American lawyers, these attorneys created their own legal organization. By honoring these individuals, the project preserves local cultural history that has had great significance at the national and international levels.
Today, the NBA remains the largest national network of predominantly African American attorneys, deans, professors, and judges. The INBA invites you to celebrate this heroic legacy and one of Iowa’s shining achivenments at its October 8 event.
***Social distancing and mask-wearing will be strictly enforced.***
#dsmpublicart #publicart #nationalbarassociation #BLM #KerryJamesMarshall #desmoinesia #desmoines ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 2 weeks ago
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Yayoi Kusama(草間 彌生), a celebrated avant-garde sculptor, painter and novelist, was born in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Kusama’s family ran a seed and plant nursery in her native Japan, and the artist grew up surrounded by fields of plants. As a result, pumpkins, usually covered in the artist’s signature fields of polka dots, have appeared in her art since she was a young girl. “It seems pumpkins do not inspire much respect,” Kusama once said. “But I was enchanted by their charming and winsome form. What appealed to me most was the pumpkin’s generous unpretentiousness.” These words also seem an apt description of Pumpkin (L), an 8 foot bronze celebrating the undulating curves of a ripe pumpkin. Accentuated with trails of polka dots, the giant gourd looks like it might come from a fairy tale landscape. As is the case with most fairy tales, uncanny or even menacing undertones may be found in this sculpture, evident in its large scale, dark colors, and the vining, fertile nature of the pumpkin itself. Many viewers will make associations with playful Halloween celebrations and the autumn harvest, lending the work a familiarity and “unpretentiousness” that can be found in much of Kusama’s work. @yayoikusama_ #dsmpublicart #yayoikusama #art #sculpture #dsmusa #desmoines #midwestmoment #pappajohnsculpturepark #entirelyunexpected #pumpkin #pumpkinspice ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 3 weeks ago
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The 21-Day Equity Challenge is a powerful opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of how inequity and racism affect our lives and our community. We are proud to be one of the 250 central Iowa organizations who are helping spread the word about the 21-Day Equity Challenge.
To learn more visit: www.unitedwaydm.org/equity-challenge
#EquityChallenge #dsmpublicart ... See MoreSee Less
21-DAY EQUITY CHALLENGE | Home
www.unitedwaydm.org
Daily topics include Understanding Privilege, Housing & Redlining, Justice System Inequities, Allyship, and many more (see below)Posted 1 month ago
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Iowa is now home to the largest mural in the United States.
It was unveiled at a ceremony Sunday morning. The massive portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at 300 West MLK.
Artist Michael Bowser began working on the portrait on June 1st. It required the help of 35 volunteers, and at least 300 gallons of paint.
Via WHO 13 News #dsmpublicart ... See MoreSee Less
Massive MLK Jr. Mural Unveiled in Des Moines
who13.com
DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa is now home to the largest mural in the United States. It was unveiled at a ceremony Sunday morning. The massive portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at 300 West MLK…Posted 1 month ago
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Jeanne, the MLK mural I was telling you about in the Blaze parking lot.
Happy Labor Day! Iowa is the 38th state to create a monument to its workers. The bronze sculpture represents four interlocking arms and hands, dedicated to the energy and integrity of the Workers of Iowa. Artist: Michael Stutz •
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#laborday #dsmpublicart #publicart #iowa #michaelstutz #sculpture ... See MoreSee Less
Posted 1 month ago
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We mourn this great artist and wonderful person. He created the project "Temple Chess and Poetry Garden," the first major public art project commissioned by the Greater DSM Public Art Foundation. ... See MoreSee Less
Siah Armajani (1939–2020)
www.artforum.com
Iranian-American artist Siah Armajani, whose work across media bridged architecture, democracy, mathematics, and the commons, has died of heart failure in Minneapolis. Long underrecognized, the eighty...Posted 2 months ago
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Makes me sad. I have been in 4 group exhibitions with Armajani starting in 1976 with "Sculpture for a New Age" in Chicago. The others included "Maquettes and Drawings for Large Scale Sculpture", 1979, Feigenson Gallery, Detroit. "Artists' Parks and Gardens", 1981, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. And, "The Artist as a Social Designer", 1985, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. We were part of the group of artists working with" Earthwork", "Environmental Sculpture", and "Site Specific-Participatory Sculpture" in different regions of North America. Although he and I never met I will miss him.