Jill Wells is a Des Moines-based multimedia artist whose murals confronting issues of race, history, accessibility and human experience have been seen—and felt—by thousands. She creates 3D, tactile murals designed with the disability community in mind.
John Busbee
Posted inCentral Iowa, Recreation
Descend into Yellow Banks Park, 576 acres of ancient history
Tucked along a panoramic stretch of the Des Moines River in southeast Polk County is a park that feels many miles away from the state’s largest metro area. Buffered from the usual traffic sounds by dense woods and isolated stretches of natural landscape, Yellow Banks Park exudes an almost zen-like allure, with 150-foot high yellow-colored […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Officers trained at Fort Des Moines broke barriers during WWI and WWII
Iowa has had three army posts called Fort Des Moines. The first, a ramshackle outpost along the Des Moines River in what’s now Lee County, existed from 1834 to 1837. The second was built at the confluence of the Racoon and Des Moines rivers in 1843 to stop the Sauk and Meskwaki peoples from returning […]
Posted inStatewide
Contact Buzz: The right to read we will maintain
“Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book …” ―Dwight D. Eisenhower In its current, divisive state, Americans are doing a lot of talking at one another and very little listening on […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Lights, camera, inaction: Iowa needs to get back in the blockbuster business
Filmmaking and all of its related fields are perfect for boosting a creative economy. So much so that, 16 years ago, the state of Iowa attempted to brand itself the Hollywood of the Heartland, offering an enticing film tax program. It’s easy to see how this could have worked in the long run. The heralded […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Contact Buzz: Short-changing education will cost Iowa everything
“We must create a climate where people agree that human beings are more alike than unalike. The only way to do that is through education.” —Maya Angelou Education. A word rife with possibility, capable of triggering memories of a person’s most foundational moments. Today, it has become a malleable lump of social and political clay, […]
Posted inStatewide
Contact Buzz: Environmentalism isn’t anti-business
“Land, water and vegetation are just that dependent on one another. Without these three primary elements in natural balance, we can have neither fish nor game, wild flowers nor trees, labor nor capital, nor sustaining habitat for humans.” ––Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling (1876-1962), two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist I’m often asked why my writing and […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Contact Buzz: Getting to the roots of STEM in Iowa
“Creativity is the capital of the 21st century.” When Robert Bluestone shared this insight during his inspirational keynote for the 2010 Arts Advocacy Day in Des Moines, he was on target. Back then, tying arts to economy and education as an integral part of a comprehensive learning process was still in a formative stage. One […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Contact Buzz: Volunteer work keeps central Iowa’s community theaters running smoothly
“Volunteerism is the voice of the people put into action. These actions shape and mold the present into a future of which we can all be proud.” –Helen M. Dyer (1895-1998), American biochemist and cancer researcher Much attention is given to volunteerism in the realms of advocacy, human rights, community and education. Arts and culture […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
DSM Book Festival to feature authors of ‘The Flight Attendant’, ‘The Lost Apothecary’ and other page-turners on March 25
“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature.” ―Maya Angelou Iowa has a national, even global, reputation as a place with a legacy of writers. The DSM Book Festival is central Iowa’s stellar literary event, an eagerly anticipated destination for bibliophiles, authors, readers and budding writers. It received […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Contact Buzz: Create your heart out across Central Iowa
Few countries have monetized making an annual expression of love more than America. Thankfully, true love does not place the almighty dollar as the main ingredient for its most alluring recipe. The arts offer a myriad of avenues to explore variant facets of love. Just as the beauty of nature is always around us, if […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Contact Buzz: ArtForce Iowa gives immigrant and refugee kids the tools to make art, bridge cultural gaps
Don’t let this organization’s generic mission statement — “Creating opportunities for youth to transform through art” — deceive you. Like paints and brushes, unless they’re in the hands of the right person, such a statement remains passive. ArtForce Iowa truly leverages its raison d’être to transform the lives of their young participants. Launched in 2013 […]
