Edmundson Art Foundation Inc

With a focus on belonging, the des moines art center engaged in a variety of dynamic and meaningful events, programs, and opportunities throughout 2024. Our efforts centered on being a vibrant space for our community to gather, sharing our unique creative selves, and collectively creating work that resonates beyond our walls and into the future. The museum and pappajohn sculpture park welcomed 346,568 visitors throughout 2024. Our keystone family events, day of the dead (in its 24th year) and our biannual entirely kids days, explored the themes of "africa "stories told." these events collectively brought in over 3,800 visitors who experienced our campus through hands-on, artist-facilitated, family-friendly programming. This contributed to a community-created sense of welcome and creative participation for all ages. A few of the flagship museum learning and engagement programs are the my voice program, high school days, and creativity days. My voice served 12 students and is an art center mentor-based program in partnership with the by degrees foundation that empowers young artists to explore their creative potential and find their unique artistic voice. The program, supported by the principal foundation, provides students with opportunities to engage with the art center's collection, learn about art, and create their own original artwork inspired by their discoveries, culminating in an exhibition and celebratory reception of their work in the lobby of the museum attended by family and community supporters. High school days served 81 des moines public school teenagers with curriculum inspired by the "states of becoming" exhibition, identity-exploring gallery conversations reflecting on past, present and future, and zine art making in the studio. Creativity days drew 343 elementary students from rural school districts including baxter, adel desoto minburn, colfax-mingo, colo-nesco, and newton. Each year the workshop involves a multi-modal approach involving an interactive museum visit, art making, and creative movement. The 2024 iteration was guided by the theme of "looking for layers" in relation to samantha box's photography exhibition "caribbean dreams.". The des moines art center knows that an arts experience is made immensely more impactful when facilitated by a well-trained guide. In 2024, our team of 56 volunteer docents led 12,245 individuals through participatory tours of the museum and pappajohn sculpture park, many of whom were area fourth-grade students on their very first visit to an art museum. Additionally, our docents brought art out of the galleries and directly to 223 community members living in senior living centers through our art calls program, which is almost entirely managed and supported by this dedicated team of volunteer educators. In 2024, the des moines art center's community access program (cap) offered 514 free art-making sessions through four programs: educational enrichment, community resiliency, and adaptive arts. Our objective is to discover creative ways of making artworks and art making accessible to those in our community that otherwise lack this access due to cultural, economic, environmental, and social barriers. Our cohort of teaching artists use a student-centered method, creating a safe, respectful environment where everyone's art is valued as an outlet for self-expression. In the community resiliency area, a key partner was the veteran's affairs office. The art center offered year-round sessions both in the museum's studios in the form of drop-in "art clubs" as well as offsite locations. A particularly impactful event in the identity affirming area of programming was the third annual fine arts day with all of the des moines public schools' chapters of the clubs brother 2 brother and sisters 4 success. The keynote speaker was the 2024 iowa artist b. Robert moore. In addition to moore's rousing speech about his path to becoming a successful artist, the students participated in a group poetry writing exercise in the museum inspired by a work on view. Art spectrums, a monthly museum and art making workshop for neurodivergent youth and their caregivers, continued with great success in 2024, adding an artist with autism as a class teacher. "creating with clay lego brick printing on canvas tote bags were big hits among the students. Along with weekly programming, cap hosted three visiting artist workshops: elshafie dafalla (states of becoming) crossed language barriers with elder refugees with lutheran services as he guided participants to make creative and gestural drawings responding to the rhythms of music and collective movement around a large canvas; tamika galanis (hurricane season) led multigenerational community members in a five-day filmmaking seminar; samantha box (caribbean dreams) introduced still life photography to youth participants involved with oakridge neighborhood services.

Our efforts include providing art-making education and classes through our studio arts school. In 2024, the studio department provided 162 (31% increase from 2023) adult classes (18+), 159 (57% increase from 2023) youth classes (ages 3-18), and 8 weeks of 2-a-day camps that served 904 (6% increase from 2023) unique students in our area from ages 5 - 16. Through our school and vast network of 46 teaching artists, we can engage with numerous social and human services within the surrounding community. We offer on and off-site school enrichment programming that aims to create opportunities for child-centered learning and family engagement. The art center's studio program provides multiple art-making mediums from painting and drawing to metals and ceramics through both tuition-based art classes and free art programming thanks to our scholarship program, collaborating organizations, and donation network. In 2024, we provided 193 (33% increase from 2023) scholarships to youth and adults in our surrounding community.