These were done by volunteers earlier today on Court Avenue.

As an avid walker and biker downtown, over the last several weeks I’ve noticed these bird silhouettes appearing on buildings downtown. Last night I got my camera out for an evening photo walk and captured these. I kinda of like them, a little urban graffiti in a good way. Does anyone know the story behind them?

In case you are not aware, the Downtown Art Center will be closing up in a few weeks for good. This will be a shame, especially for downtown. When the current exhibition of Tara Donovan’s works ends on September 13, 2009, the downtown location will be closed for good.

A little background on the downtown location from the the Des Moines Art Center’s website. The downtown location is the centerpiece of Wells Fargo Financial’s longtime commitment to the arts in Central Iowa. The Art Center Downtown, a branch of the highly regarded Des Moines Art Center, opened in 2003 when Wells Fargo Financial completed construction of its SkyView building.

In addition to providing the 5,500 square foot gallery space without charge to the Art Center, Wells Fargo Financial provides services and covers some of the museum’s operating costs. Wells Fargo Financial also opens its facilities to groups using the Art Center, including numerous tours by school children who often eat their lunches in the company’s break room.

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From the June 26th Press Release:
MAJORITY OF SCULPTURES INSTALLED AT JOHN AND MARY PAPPAJOHN SCULPTURE PARK: The Des Moines Art Center and city of Des Moines are pleased to announce that installation is nearly complete at the John & Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park.

Featuring 24 sculptures by 19 artists, the Pappajohn Sculpture Park will be a priceless addition to Des Moines’ Western Gateway Park. The installation of the sculptures highlights a process that began over two years ago with the generous donation of the sculptures by philanthropists John and Mary Pappajohn to the Des Moines Art Center.

Currently, all but one of the sculptures in the Pappajohn Sculpture Park have been installed. The final piece, Nomade (2007) by Jaume Plensa, will be installed in early July. Meanwhile, landscape architects will continue paving walkways, installing lighting elements, and laying sod. While much of the work will be complete in July, the John & Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park will not officially open until September. In the meantime, the Des Moines Art Center thanks everyone for their interest and patience during the construction process.

I made my first trip down to the Arts Festival yesterday afternoon around 4pm. My friend Todd joined me at about 5:30, and we had a great time. The musical performances by Collective Soul and Gavin DeGraw were great and the art on display this year was awesome.

I always try and make a purchase each year, and for my purchase this year, I purchased a set of original paintings on wood. by Mark Traughber, made with spray paint on primed wood from stencils that he designed and created. Each piece is 4.25″ wide, 6″ tall, .75″ thick. faced with a protective glossy finish. I can’t wait to decide where to install them at in my place!

Here are a few photos I took yesterday evening, it was hard to take photos as I kept getting distracted by the wonderful art.

One of my favorite summer events is the annual downtown Des Moines Arts Festival. Here are some highlights about this year’s event, for more details check out their website at: http://www.desmoinesartsfestival.org

DATES: June 26 – 28, 2009

TIMES: Friday, June 26 – 4 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Saturday, June 27 – 10 a.m. – 10 p.m. (Fireworks at 10 p.m.)
Sunday, June 28 – 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

WHERE: Western Gateway Park, Downtown Des Moines, Iowa

WHAT: Des Moines Arts Festival
– 175+ Premier Professional Visual Artists sponsored by Aviva USA
– 24 Emerging Iowa Artists sponsored by Principal Financial Group®
– 24 Non-profit Organizations sponsored by Prairie Meadows showcasing services and activities
– GuideOne Insurance Interactive Mural presented by the Des Moines Art Center
– Non-stop live music on the U.S. Cellular Stage
– Gavin DeGraw and Collective Soul on Friday night proudly presented by
Hy-Vee in celebration of the Hy-Vee Triathlon and sponsored by Budweiser
– New Jazz & Wine Pavilion presented by Meredith Corporation
– Performing Arts Stage featuring dance, music and theatre
– Live Street Theatre
– 30 Interactive Arts Activities
– 376 students from 96 Schools in the Des Moines Art Center’s Nurturing a Student’s Vision Program
sponsored by Hubbell Homes
– Interrobang Film Festival presented by Nationwide
– 24 Eclectic Food Booths sponsored by Hy-Vee
– Sculpture Garden

ADMISSION: FREE

A couple of weeks ago we did a post on Downtown Graffiti, and we talk about graffiti, people tend to only think of graffiti as being necessarily illegal. While that may be the case much of the time, not all graffiti or sometimes referred to as guerilla art breaks the law.

Many urban artists manage to be creatively but legally subversive. Here are some engaging types and works of visual art that may prompt some thought or controversy, all without getting the artist in trouble.

I personally, would love to see more of this type of art downtown. I think it adds to the beauty and interest of downtown.

I’ve been hard at work organizing my downtown photos into some collections to share with you. There are several hundred up already and I promise to keep adding to them. I know that I’m no Herb Ritz, but I very much love digital photography. So check out the gallery at: http://www.livingdowntowndesmoines.com/downtownphotolibrary/

In the heart of the Downtown Core Neighborhood lies the Civic Center, located at 221 Walnut Street. Built in 1979 with a collaboration of public and private support. The City of Des Moines provided two prime blocks of real estate on which to build the theater and an adjacent plaza and private sources contributed the money for the construction and interior needs. The Civic Center still operates today as a private, not-for-profit business. The building opened its doors officially to the public in June 1979.

The building was designed by the Des Moines architectural firm of Charles Hebert & Associates. The Civic Center’s Main Hall features a 76-foot wide by 28-foot high proscenium stage and has a seating area that accommodates an audience of 2,735. With the design, every seat has a great fiew and no seat is further than 145 feet from center stage. The building also features two triangle shaped lobbies with 50 foot ceilings, glass walls, skylights and walkways. On the ground level, below the main hall, lies Stoner Studio Theater, a smaller venue that seats as many as 200 people.

The Civic Center is the performing home of the Des Moines Symphony, Drama Workshop, Stage West, and the Civic Music Association. The Civic Center has also been host to major Broadway touring companies, performers and groups since it’s opening. It has been nationally recognized as an excellent facility in which to perform and draws large crowds to it’s performances from throughout the Greater Des Moines area.

Here’s a quick list of some of their upcoming events:

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Running No-Where(A Time Lapse/Slow Motion mix) from HedsIc on Vimeo.

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Continuing in the theme of this weeklong photography showcase, I’d like to show off some of the nighttime photography that I captured this week downtown. My friend, Tina and I, have just finished a 4-week long course on photography as part of the Des Moines Community Adult Education Series. Nighttime photography is one of the areas that I would like to get really good in. These pictures are from one of my first evenings venturing out to try some of the new techniques that we have learned. I think the images that I got turned out pretty good for a beginner. I hope you enjoy them.

As promised, here are some downtown fall photos that I took this past weekend. Enjoy!

As part of my photography hobby I was looking into panoramic photography and came across a website called 360 Cities.net. I found that a local Des Moines resident, Thomas Hawbaker had photographed downtown Des Moines in three different locations in full 360 degree panorama.

His locations include:

• Downtown Library at Night
• Nollen Plaza at Capital Square
• Capitol Building Complex

You should check it out, but I warn you, you will end up spending some time looking through these, as the detail that he captures his totally amazing. I would love to learn how to do this and capture even more areas of downtown.

I recently updated the websites header to rotate through a collection of images. Here’s the ones I currently have. I hope to make more from fall and winter photos soon.

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Which of these would you rather see?

A creative use of walls in the skywalk, like this picture of the skywalk through the Financial Center from Wells Fargo? or	Another bland white wall as recently done for the Des Moines Building skywalk?

As the cold weather season approaches more and more of us will be spending more time in the skywalks getting to and from work, shopping, dinging and running errands. For most of the three miles we have nothing interesting to engage us except for the few lighted billboards that are scattered here and there. So here’s my idea to the powers that be:

• Use the blank white walls as a showcase to display Des Moines centered art or art from local Des Moines area artists

Ideas of what could be put on the walls:

• Murals on the walls, that show case Des Moines History, Des Moines Skyline, or scenes from Iowa or local attractions.
• Display photography groupings, similar to what’s done for the Iowa State Fair photography exhibit.
• Display canvas or mixed media art done by local artist and make the skywalks like an art gallery.
• Local galleries could also sponsor a wall or an empty store front window to display art. There’s a lot of empty store fronts, especially in the Kaleidoscope, why not allow local galleries to hang items in those windows along with the “For Lease” signs, again more foot traffic equals greater opportunity for leasing space. A good example of this is the bottom floor of the Liberty Building, an artist from the Art Dive showcases work in an empty retail front.
• Learning walls, for example, allow local non-profits, like Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Iowa to display items promoting their organization, telling their story in words and pictures.

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