For Immediate Release
Contact: Amy Day
Tel: 515.271.0344 (o)
515.612.0775 (c)
aday@desmoinesartcenter.org
DES MOINES, IOWA (August 2024) – The Des Moines Art Center has received two Community Betterment grants from Prairie Meadows: a $15,000 award for its School Tours Program and a $7,333 award for its Community Art Access Program.
“At Prairie Meadows, we are dedicated to transforming the lives of central Iowans. We are proud to support the Des Moines Art Center and many other projects in our community,” said Julie Stewart, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Prairie Meadows.
School Tours Program
The grant for school tours will help support the cost of bussing students to and from the Des Moines Art Center during the 2024-2025 school year, making these visits possible. More than 8,400 K-12 students participate in the tours each year, including every fourth-grade student in the Des Moines, Indianola, Southeast Polk, Waukee, and West Des Moines Public School Districts. The school tours program is the Art Center’s longest running educational program and is an important tool used by teachers to promote visual literacy through creative, critical, and empathetic thinking outside of the conventional classroom. Tours are led by trained docent volunteers who offer content customized for various ages and grade levels. All tours are provided free of charge.
Community Art Access Program
Through its Community Arts Access Program, the Des Moines Art Center provides free art classes to individuals who face social, cultural, economic, and physical barriers to participation. Working with over 30 local non-profit organizations, the Art Center offers approximately 700 workshops to more than 2,300 individuals each year. The Art Center’s Community Access Programming meets an essential community need for the mental and physical well-being provided through arts engagement. For the last 24 years, this program has positively impacted the lives of children and adults by helping them to develop skills for life, such as creative expression, critical thinking, confidence-building, teamwork, and collaboration. The grant for this program helps support the cost of art supplies, adaptive art resources, and teaching artist fees.
About the Des Moines Art Center
The Des Moines Art Center is a vibrant, AAM-accredited (American Association of Museums) institution located in the capital city of Iowa that welcomes over 300,000 visitors annually from across the country and around the globe. Its historic campus consists of three buildings designed by major architects of the 20th century—Eliel Saarinen, I. M. Pei, and Richard Meier—incorporated into the natural landscape of Greenwood Park. The Art Center is home to one of the strongest collections of 20th- and 21st-century art in the region, and it hosts a series of ground-breaking exhibitions and lectures each year featuring artists known regionally, nationally, and internationally. The experimental art for which the Art Center cares is reflected in its creative offerings, including a celebrated education program that prioritizes access and collaboration, an art school with studio classes for all ages, and the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park, situated on 4.4 acres in downtown Des Moines. The Art Center is committed to the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, which are incorporated into every facet of its mission and identity.
About Prairie Meadows
Prairie Meadows operates as a public nonprofit, dedicated to lessening the burden of government by raising funds for charitable organizations and community improvement projects. Prairie Meadows is managed locally and overseen by a board of directors. This approach has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in profits remaining in Iowa and Polk County.
###