For Immediate Release
Contact: Tiffany K Nagel Spinner
Tel: 515.271.0338
E-mail: tspinner@desmoinesartcenter.org

DES MOINES, IA (December 2022) – The Des Moines Art Center is honored to receive a 2023 Cultural Leadership Grant from Bravo Greater Des Moines that will support free admission and programming throughout the year.

Bravo’s grant-making programs enable the Art Center to provide quality art and art education opportunities, vital in making Des Moines a vibrant community for people to live, work, and visit. Bravo’s longstanding support has allowed the Art Center to grow and sustain our free admission program, including extended Friday evening hours, and to continue offering robust educational programs that allow us to serve diverse populations and engage new community partners. For example, the Art Center recently offered new programs, including Art Center+ events featuring local businesses, musicians, and speakers and Art Calls, a program developed for senior members of the community.

The 2023 Cultural Leadership Grant will allow the Art Center to ensure these opportunities remain accessible through free programming nearly 365 days a year, including educational activities, tours, and admission to the museum and the Pappajohn Sculpture Park. Funding also allows the Art Center to offer exciting new exhibitions, including the upcoming exhibition Art Center: 75 Years of Iowa Art celebrating the Art Center’s 75th anniversary.

“The Art Center is especially grateful for Bravo’s continuing support as well as its support of the many cultural organizations that impact the vitality and economy of the Metro,” stated John and Mary Pappajohn Director Jeff Fleming. “We couldn’t do what we do without Bravo’s investment in our work.”

Grant funding from Bravo Greater Des Moines is made possible by the contributions of the following local government partners: Altoona, Ankeny, Bondurant, Carlisle, Clive, Des Moines, Grimes, Indianola, Johnston, Norwalk, Pleasant Hill, Polk City, Polk County, Urbandale, Waukee, West Des Moines and Windsor Heights.

For additional information, contact Director of Development Tiffany K Nagel Spinner at 515.271.0338 or tspinner@desmoinesartcenter.org.

About the Des Moines Art Center + John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park

Recognized by international art critics as a world-class museum in the heart of the Midwest, the Des Moines Art Center, an AAM-accredited institution, has amassed an important collection of art from the 19th century to the present, with a major emphasis on contemporary art. Focused on quality and global in scope, it includes major works by Henry Ossawa Tanner, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Francis Bacon, Andy Goldsworthy, Henri Matisse, Wangechi Mutu, Ai Wei Wei, and Kara Walker, among hundreds of others. The collection is housed in three major buildings, each designed by a renowned architect—Eliel Saarinen, I. M. Pei, and Richard Meier. General admission to the museum is always free for all.

In September 2009, the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park opened in Des Moines’ Western Gateway Park. Philanthropists John and Mary Pappajohn provided funding for and donated 31 sculptures by internationally acclaimed contemporary artists to the Des Moines Art Center. The collection of sculptures by such artists as Martin Puryear, Louise Bourgeois, Deborah Butterfield, Willem de Kooning, Mark di Suvero, Olafur Eliasson, Keith Haring, Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Yayoi Kusama, Jaume Plensa, Richard Serra, and Joel Shapiro is the most significant donation of artwork to the Art Center in a single gift in the museum’s history. The Pappajohn Sculpture Park is a collaboration of the Pappajohns, the City of Des Moines, the Des Moines Art Center, and numerous corporate and private donors.

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