If you’ve ever spent time in the Mississippi Delta, you likely noticed, among other things, the presence of tamales on nearly every menu and tamale stands in most towns. Sometimes literally driving down the highway.

art collection, creativity, process, painting, MississippiJennifer DrinkwaterSeptember 25, 2024blog Comment

Seed Savers: Evolution of a Painting

I garden because my mother gardens.

My mother gardens because her father gardened, and his people gardened, and their people gardened.

We come from a long line of east Mississippi dirt farmers.

art collection, creativity, community, Iowa, process, paintingJennifer DrinkwaterJuly 11, 2024blog Comments

Third Places: The Gift of Gab

Let’s be super clear –the magic of third places comes from the literal space and time they provide us to talk to each other. Not talk at each other. Not text each other. Not send DMs. But the ability to have real, meandering conversations, in person.

community, creativity, third places, tipsJennifer DrinkwaterJuly 2, 2024blogComment

The What's Good Project: Inspire(d)

If you live in the Driftless region of the Midwest, you hopefully know about Inspire(d) Media, a magazine I have been a fan of for years for obvious reasons.

I was real, real excited to be included both as the cover artist for their Summer 2024 issue and in a feature article inside.

artist insight, creativity, community, Iowa, interview, personalJennifer DrinkwaterJune 12, 2024blogComment

Ingrained Care: Evolution of a Painting

I made a short video about the creation of Ingrained Care, a painting inspired a conversation I had in 2019 with Drick Rodgers and Julia Rodgers Clark in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Watch the painting unfold and read the community story that inspired it.

art collection, artist insight, creativity, interview, Mississippi, processJennifer DrinkwaterApril 29, 2024blogComment

Oskaloosa Public Library

The Oskaloosa Public Library was built in 1903 with support from a grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation and leadership from the Oskaloosa Women’s Club. Beyond books, the Oskaloosa Public Library provides cultural programming, language classes, reading programs, music events, a seed library, a makerspace, a library of things, and a genealogy room.

ABCD, community, creativity, Iowa, process, third placesJennifer DrinkwaterMarch 25, 2024blogComment

Skate and Bike Park: Evolution of a Painting

In 2011, Oskaloosa’s Skate and Bike Park broke ground. This urban park sits north of Penn Central Mall and downtown Oskaloosa and was funded by grants from the Tony Hawk Foundation, the MCRF, local donations, and young folks fundraising.

ABCD, art collection, artist insight, community, creativity, Iowa, processJennifer DrinkwaterFebruary 18, 2024blogComment

Creative Placemaking & Cross-Sector Partnerships

Last spring, Arts Midwest invited me to host a really fun conversation with Amber Danielson, Melissa Bond, and Gabriella Torres, three really smart women who do meaningful, creative things in rural communities, for the Arts Midwest Rural Threads podcast and programming series.

ABCD, artist insight, community, creativity, interview, For the Common Good, tips, IowaJennifer DrinkwaterFebruary 11, 2024Comment

Evolution of a Painting, Vol. 2

The gradual evolution of A Beauty We Didn’t Expect, acrylic and tempera on wood panel, 36” x 48”, 2021.

The later stages, the slower the progress. It took me several minutes to detect the differences between images eight and nine. (They’re there, I promise.)

artist insight, creativity, personal, processJennifer DrinkwaterFebruary 4, 2024blog Comment

Murals, Murals Everywhere: A Community Mural Toolkit

I’m happy to report that I am contacted monthly, and increasingly weekly, by someone in Iowa who wants to begin a community mural project. The smallest community to date was a call from McIntire, Iowa (pop 122). The fact that more and more communities are finding value in community art projects fills me with joy.

ABCD, artist insight, community, creativity, tips, toolkitJennifer DrinkwaterJanuary 29, 2024blogComment

The Book Vault: Evolution of a Painting

Get a peek at the inspiration behind and the unfolding of The Book Vault, the first painting of 2024…

art collection, creativity, community, artist insight, painting, process, IowaJennifer DrinkwaterJanuary 21, 2024blog Comments

Marks Mule Train & Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign (Marking the Mule Train Cultural Trail)

“On May 13, 2021, history was made once again in Marks, Mississippi. After three years of planning and hard work… the Civil Rights Marks Mule Train Interpretive Trail was unveiled to commemorate the 53rd Anniversary of the 1968 Mule Train & Martin Luther King, Jr’s Poor People’s Campaign.

This historic trail showcased eleven markers, displaying the history and activities, which took place fifty-three years ago of Dr. King’s visit to Marks/Quitman County, and earned Marks the duly distinction of being known as the ‘Home of the Mule Train.’ ” Text by Velma Benson-Wilson and Cynthia Goodloe Palmer

civil rights, community, creativity, MississippiJennifer DrinkwaterJanuary 15, 2024blogComment

Bookmark This List: 100+ (Weird, One-of-a-Kind) Community Events in 99 Iowa Counties.

Last week, I shared a Fairly Comprehensive List of 2024 Community Events in the Mississippi Delta-ish. Not to be outdone by my own self (idk), I upped the ante and embarked on creating one for Iowa, my current home.

To do this well, I hit up the big guns: my top-notch colleagues in the Community and Economic Development unit at Iowa State Extension and Outreach and Husband Aaron.

community, creativity, tips, IowaJennifer DrinkwaterJanuary 8, 2024blog Comments

A Fairly Comprehensive List of 2024 Community Events in the Mississippi Delta(ish)

As January is for plan-making, and I’m feeling a touch homesick for the Sipp, I thought I’d make a list for, well, pretty much everybody: including all you fellow Mississippians, you Mississippi-appreciators, you adventurous folk always gunnin’ for a road trip, and especially for you folks who’ve never been to Mississippi, but have a lot of preconceived notions about it. :)

ABCD, community, A Quick 48, Mississippi, creativity, tips, toolkitJennifer DrinkwaterJanuary 2, 2024blogComment

Questions about Creative Placemaking? You're Not Alone.

It’s a tricky word, placemaking.

Places don’t need to be made. They exist already.

ABCD, artist insight, community, creativity, tips, toolkitJennifer DrinkwaterNovember 19, 2023blog

For the Common Good: A Community Arts Leader Interview with Andy McGuire

This week’s interview continues to capture the creative and community-centered genius that Andy and Allison McGuire discover and harness in the Mahaska County communities through their work at George Daily Community Auditorium.

artist insight, community, For the Common Good, creativity, tips, interviewJennifer DrinkwaterJuly 5, 2023blogComment

For the Common Good: A Community Arts Leader Interview with Allison McGuire

Back in 2017, I had the very good fortune of meeting Allison and Andy McGuire, two talented and community-centered theatre-makers from the George Daily Community Auditorium in Oskaloosa, Iowa (population 11,463). The Auditorium had just been awarded an Arts Build Communities grant from the Iowa Arts Council to create Home Again, a multimedia variety show to explore and share the many stories of the Oskaloosa and Mahaska County communities.

artist insight, ABCD, community, creativity, For the Common Good, tips, interviewJennifer DrinkwaterJune 26, 2023blogComment

Introducing Pop-Up! A Toolkit for [fun, invigorating, life-affirming] Temporary Experiences

I can't wait to share the fourth Community Arts Toolkit with y'all.

Pop-Up! offers an introduction to the nuts and bolts of planning for and pulling off a pop-up experience, be that an exhibition, a one-night event, an out-of-the-box community experience, or anything in between. Ideally, this toolkit will aid you in being thoughtful about every decision you make so you can squeeze the most mileage out of your event.

artist insight, ABCD, creativity, community, toolkit, tipsJennifer DrinkwaterJune 12, 2023blogComment

#whatsgoodtoday

This Charlie-Brown-looking-tree is What’s Good Today on my street. Read on.

ABCD, community, creativity, personalJennifer DrinkwaterMay 31, 2023blogComment

Meet Benjamin Saulsberry: A What's Good Project Interview

Please make the acquaintance of Mr. Benjamin Saulsberry, the Public Engagement and Museum Education Director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center (ETIC) in Sumner, Mississippi (pop. 310). I met Benjamin in 2019 during an impromptu trip to Sumner to visit the ETIC, and he was gracious enough to agree to be interviewed a couple months later. Please enjoy a few snippets of our 2019 conversation - lightly edited for clarity.

ABCD, civil rights, community, creativity, Mississippi, interviewJennifer DrinkwaterMarch 21, 2023blogComment

THOUGHTS