The What's Good Project
art + exploration by Jennifer Drinkwater
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THOUGHTS

Thoughts about art and community.

Posts in creativity
Pop Up! Lessons from a Rookie, Part I
Pop Up! Lessons from a Rookie, Part I

Earlier this spring, I was invited (thanks, Niq Thomas) to participate in Iowa Pop Art Market, an inaugural pop-up art event at the National Czech and Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids. Being a pop-up and festival first-timer, I jumped at the chance and then scrambled to get myself organized.

Part of that scrambling was trying to figure out what I didn’t know that I needed to know. With that in mind, I’m writing a couple of blogs (and later a toolkit) for those folks who need a Pop-Up Prologue, so to speak.

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artist insight, community, creativity, tips, toolkitJennifer DrinkwaterblogComment
For the Common Good: A Community Artist Interview with Reinaldo Correa
For the Common Good: A Community Artist Interview with Reinaldo Correa

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed and learned from this conversation with Iowa State University colleague and fellow artist, Reinaldo Correa. It was one of those conversations that inspired me for the rest of the week. So much insight and wisdom - this is an interview I encourage you to read over and over, and take some notes.

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artist insight, creativity, community, For the Common Good, tips, interviewJennifer DrinkwaterblogComment
The Artist Interview Featuring Jennifer Drinkwater
The Artist Interview Featuring Jennifer Drinkwater

Got 85 minutes to spare? Listen to me talking shop with friend and fellow artist, Earle Rock. I was delighted to be asked by Earle to participate in this artist interview series. We cover the gamut from my weirdo early life experiences, to painting practices, to the business of art, to asset-based community development.

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artist insight, ABCD, community, creativity, For the Common Good, personal, interviewJennifer DrinkwaterblogComment
For the Common Good: A Community Arts Leader Interview with Amber Danielson
For the Common Good: A Community Arts Leader Interview with Amber Danielson

This year, I decided to expand For the Common Good to include interviews with Community Arts Leaders, many of whom are also artists (but not always), as well as serving in more formal nonprofit or civic leadership roles. These folks have often done the arduous (and often thankless) work of fundraising, navigating local red tape, and building diverse partnerships within their communities, all while supporting and advocating for their local artists.

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ABCD, community, creativity, artist insight, For the Common Good, disaster recovery, tips, interviewJennifer Drinkwaterblog Comments
Strange Souvenir: Guest Post by Jay Kasperbauer
Strange Souvenir: Guest Post by Jay Kasperbauer

It’s present day and a child on a field trip walks into a gift store on Pennsylvania Avenue. Immediately, she confronts a wellspring of memorabilia adorned with the president’s name in bold letters and the year “2024” beside it. She is puzzled by the significance of the year. But … it’s only 2020? Bright-red hats embroidered with a popular slogan tower high. Bobbleheads depicting our nation’s leader, with emblematic wavy hair and carrot skin, sit in a row ten figurines deep.

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community, creativity, artist insight, personalJennifer Drinkwaterblog Comment
What's Good in 2020: A Shout Out to Courageous Creativity
What's Good in 2020: A Shout Out to Courageous Creativity

This is little embarrassing to admit, but anytime I read, watch, or hear something that really resonates with me, I get an immediate and short-lived lump in my throat. In and out. Like my body’s way of saying “Yo, you need to pay attention to this.” The weirdo throat response has happened so often and for so long and in such unexpected ways that I’ve really learned to trust it. All that to say, each of these projects, organizations, and episodes elicited the two-second throat lump in 2020.

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ABCD, artist insight, civil rights, community, creativity, disaster recovery, For the Common Good, tipsJennifer DrinkwaterblogComment
For the Common Good: A Community Artist Interview with Catherine Reinhart
For the Common Good: A Community Artist Interview with Catherine Reinhart

Today’s a very special day. Today is the day that my lovely friend and inspiring artist, Catherine Reinhart, is in the For the Common Good hot seat. Catherine and I have been friends and artist pals for years. We worked together at Iowa State University’s Design on Main Community Gallery while Catherine was the Artist-in-Residence and Gallery Director, and I taught a class for the gallery interns; she’s generously been a part of lots of weird community art projects I’ve instigated over the years (including this one), and best of all, she’s always up for talking shop about what artists can do with folks, and what art can do for folks.

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artist insight, creativity, community, For the Common Good, tips, interviewJennifer Drinkwaterblog Comments
A Primer on Why Art Now (for the people in the back)
A Primer on Why Art Now (for the people in the back)

Art is small-p political.

It always has been. Thank God for that. And by political, I mean Merriam Webster’s definition. Art is “the total complex of relations between people living in society.”

Artists and art-experiencers know this intuitively. This is for the people in the back.

I credit the following three perspectives with wise artists and thinkers that I very much admire. They put to words the feelings that I have had for decades, and way more eloquently than I ever could.

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artist insight, creativity, communityJennifer Drinkwaterblog Comment