Thoughts about art and community.
A while back, I had the opportunity to publicly talk shop about intersections of art and conservation in Iowa with two ISU Extension and Outreach colleagues: Catherine DeLong, program manager, Water Quality, and Adam Janke, assistant professor and extension wildlife specialist. As a once avid hiker, I’m embarrassed to say that I’d never really considered the parallels between natural resource conservation and art until meeting Adam and Catherine.
Read MoreLast week, I invited folks to share how to speak Iowegian.
To be completely transparent, I was pleasantly surprised with the level of response, even the arguments between was what authentically Iowan versus Minnesotan. Enjoy.
Read MorePainting is hard - particularly at the end of the process. Two steps forward, nine steps back. A great deal more time staring at the easel than actively painting.
Read MoreFollowing is a list of six handy facts to use when people make, shall we say, uninformed comments about art and the economy, plus the cited sources of said facts.
Set folks straight, kindly, and with a smile on your face.
Read MoreIn 2015-16, I organized and coordinated Intertwine, a collaborative, large-scale yarn-bombing project on the two-story façade of ISU Design on Main community gallery (RIP Design on Main) in the Main Street Cultural District in Ames, Iowa.
Read MoreLast week, I shared a Fairly Comprehensive List of 2025 Community Events in the Mississippi Delta-ish. Since I'm now a pseudo-midwesterner, I upped the ante and embarked on creating one for Iowa, my current home, that included every nook and cranny of the state. I give you: Bookmark This List: 100+ (Weird, One-of-a-Kind) Community Events in 99 Iowa Counties in 2025.
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.
Read MoreAs 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. :)
Read MoreBeing a regular, and being around other regulars - the fifth quality of third places – can change folks’ lives.
Regulars transform from strangers into trusted friends, and can change your perspective.
Read MoreFor all our talk of mental health these days, third places, and the short walk or bike ride they require to visit, can be an antidote.
Read MoreLet’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.
Read MoreAs places for anybody and everybody, pubs, parks, piers, and public libraries epitomize third places.
Read MoreDuring 2022, I interviewed a dozen Oskaloosa residents in a variety of places: Smokey Row coffee shop, private homes, downtown offices, golf carts, and Penn Central Mall. Among the myriad things I learned about the community is that’s a whole lot going on in Oskaloosa. Like a LOT.
As you travel through Iowa, I wholeheartedly encourage you to visit. Here are a few recommendations for your trip.
Read MoreSo let’s get back to third places.
For the next few months, I’ll introduce each of the six essential qualities that effective third places share, why they matter, and wisdom we can glean for other parts of our lives.
Read MoreLast 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.
Read MoreI’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.
Read MoreLast 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.
Read MoreAs 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. :)
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreBack 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.
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