For Immediate Release
Contact: Jordan Powers
Tel: 630.470.5136 (m)
Email: jpowers@desmoinesartcenter.org
DES MOINES, IOWA (JUNE 2020) – The Des Moines Art Center has been awarded a grant of $18,000 from the Iowa Arts & Culture Emergency Relief Fund*, administered by the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. Grant funds will support general operating costs of facilities, including utilities and maintenance expenses, as the Art Center responds to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are thrilled to receive this funding from the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs,” said Director Jeff Fleming. “From the moment we had to close our doors in response to COVID-19, our team has been hard at work, continuing to engage with audiences through virtual resources, personal outreach, and now in unrolling a full safety and welcome plan as we prepare to reopen the Art Center to the community on July 7. This award is an honor and an acknowledgement of that hard work.”
This award is part of more than $1.1 million dollars awarded by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs in 173 grants statewide. This includes $923,372 for emergency relief and another $178,000 in humanities grants to help Iowa cultural organizations rebound from the financial impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Funding was distributed as a subaward from the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Iowa Department for Cultural Affairs.
*This Iowa Arts & Culture Emergency Relief Fund award is a subaward under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act grant issued by the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number: 45.149). Grant SP-274008-20 was awarded to the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs on May 8, 2020 in the amount of $465,700 to support subawards for humanities programming and related general operating support at Iowa institutions and organizations that have been affected by the coronavirus. Subawards are subject to 2 CFR Part 200 Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, and the General Terms and Conditions for Awards to Organizations (for grants and cooperative agreements issued December 26, 2014 or later). The amount of this grant award directly supported by federal funds is $18000.
—
About the Des Moines Art Center
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 with a major emphasis on contemporary art. The collection’s overriding principle is a representation of artists from the 19th century to the present, each through a seminal work. This accounts for an impressive collection that ranges from Edward Hopper’s Automat to Jasper Johns’ Tennyson, Henri Matisse’s Woman in White, Georgia O’Keeffe’s From the Lake No. 1, Francis Bacon’s Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, Bill Viola’s Ascension, and Cecily Brown’s Half-Bind.
The Art Center’s physical complex marries with the collection for a totally integrated experience. The collection is housed in three major buildings, each designed by a world-renowned architect—Eliel Saarinen, I. M. Pei, and Richard Meier. With the exception of special events, admission to the museum is free.
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 Ai Weiwei, Louise Bourgeois, Deborah Butterfield, Willem de Kooning, Mark di Suvero, Olafur Eliasson, Keith Haring, Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Yayoi Kusama, Jaume Plensa, and 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.
# # #