Eros and the Arts: Activating Deep Connections to Place Through Desirability, Creativity, and Play–
In this Keynote session, Ashley Hanson, a place-based theater artist and Executive Director of the artist-led nonprofit, The Department of Public Transformation, will share how artists, storytellers, and cultural workers can help residents fall deeper in love with their places by inspiring a sense of wonder, creativity, joy, and play. Have you ever visited a thriving rural community or gathering space and felt drawn or attracted to it in a way that you couldn’t quite articulate? Or, have you found yourself wondering, what is the magic in the air in this place? And, where can I get access to that special sauce?

Through the intentional act of celebrating our rural community’s uniqueness and tapping into our collective radical imagination and wells of desire, we can attract new energy, new ideas and new connections, which, in turn brings an increase in community wealth, welcoming, and wellbeing; nurturing places we find irresistible and in which we deeply desire to invest. Ashley will share how working with artists in rural community and economic development practices, inspire a new story about rural America: one that is no longer a narrative (from residents and outsiders alike) that small towns are aging and declining, but rather that our places are positioned to be thriving sites of revolutionary civic, social, and cultural action — representing not America’s past, but America’s future.

About Ash Hanson:

Ash has 15 years of experience working with rural communities to activate stories, connect neighbors, and exercise collective imagination. She is the Executive Director of the Department of Public Transformation (DoPT), an artist-led nonprofit working at the intersection of creativity and civic life in rural communities; the founder of PlaceBase Productions, a theater company that creates original, site-specific musicals celebrating small-town life; and, a member of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice Leadership Circle.

Previously, she was the Program Director for the Minnesota Theater Alliance, serving the statewide performing arts community, and the Program Director for Public Art Saint Paul, producing large-scale public art events and experiences. She was an Artist-in-Residence in the City of Minneapolis Planning Department and with the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, where she employed creative community engagement strategies for equitable participation in urban and rural planning processes. She holds an MA in Applied Theater with a focus on Rural Community Development, and she was named an Obama Foundation Fellow and a Bush Fellow for her work with rural communities. She believes deeply in the power of play and exclamation points!

Learn more about Ash Hanson: https://www.publictransformation.org

Photographing Artwork–

Learn the basic camera settings and setup up to successfully photograph your artwork.

About Clark Colby:

A lifelong learner who is curious to the core, a photographer by practice, and educator by profession.

So, I Think I Want to Open a Brick & Mortar Location–
Participate in a discussion about the various conditions to consider when opening a business in a brick and mortar location.

About Sheri Benson:

Sheri is a business counselor for Mid Iowa and ISU Small Business Development Centers (SBDC). She is a Certified Business Advisor (CBA), Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP) and holds a Masters of Leadership Studies from the University of Oklahoma. As a small business counselor, Sheri consults one-on-one with small business owners on topics such as best practices, business planning, succession planning, exporting, and finding capital. Prior to joining SBDC, she was very active in public board and nonprofit work. She gained extensive small business acumen while operating a small business herself and then coaching others. In her free time Sheri enjoys golfing, playing with grandchildren, jigsaw puzzles and reading a good book. 

About Leah Locke:

Leah is a Regional Director for theIowa State University office of America’s SBDC Iowa. Her role supports Boone, Story, Marshall and Hardin counties. As Regional Director, Leah serves as a resource and advocate for small business start-ups, by developing financial statements, business plans and financing applications; counsel businesses on hiring, training and motivating employees; advising clients on marketing materials including websites and publications; among other things. After graduating from Iowa State University, Leah spent 10+ years working for startups and small businesses in Ames, Iowa. In her free time, Leah enjoys spending time with her husband, 2-year-old daughter and corgi. Go, Cyclones!

Excavating Blackness–
In 2020, Cameron Gray founded The Buxton Initiative. In this presentation, Cameron will talk about why he thought it was important to create his nonprofit and how he then deployed the vision and brought it to reality.

About Cameron Gray:

Cameron is a Birmingham born artist, whose work focuses on Blackness in America. He uses his work to help decipher his own understanding of self. He believes that Blackness is a universal force. He tries to reveal a small part of its glory through every object he creates. Through his artistic and social practice, He hope to be a reminder to people of how we got here, with the intention to spark inspiration in Black Futures. Gray founded the Buxton Initiative in 2020, which is an organization that centers Blackness in the realm of art, music, literature, and film. In 2021, he was the recipient of the Iowa American Rescue Plan grant and the Iowa Arts and Culture Resilience Grant.

What I Learned as a Small Business Accountant–
This session will provide some do’s and don’ts as they apply to accounting and tax issues encountered by small business owners.

About George Klotzbach:

George is a former bank examiner, bank officer, small business accountant, and tax preparer. Currently, George is a Tax Associate with CliftonLarsonAllen.

Reception–
Reception will be held at the Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Ave., Ames. The awards will be announced at 6:15 pm.

About Reggie Greenlaw:

I’m a singer/ songwriter/ musician living in Ames, Iowa. Instruments I play include guitar, hammered dulcimer, and mandolin. Performances are at eclectic venues throughout the midwest, including wineries, bars, celebrations, and Renaissance festivals. I’ve produced five CDs containing original songs as well as arrangements/ adaptations of eclectic melodies for hammered dulcimer.

Over the last several years I’ve won awards for performances at the Stratford IA Bluegrass festivals (Stratford IA), The Renaissance Fair of the Midlands (Council Bluffs, IA), the Traditional Music Festival in Avoca Iowa, and recently won The Peoples’ Choice Award for Musical Performance at the Art on the Prairie Festival in Perry, IA.

It’s fun to play in different configurations! Over the years I have performed solo or with several bands including The Blue Moon Players (lots of great friends and musicians including my wife Barbi), Stranger Than Fiction, Green Oaks (with Curt Snook and Steve Hurst), farmers markets, and performances with my multi-instrumentalist friend John Richardson.

I love playing mixes that are as eclectic as possible, Folk, Americana, Alt-Country, Trad, Bluegrass, old time fiddle music, Celtic, and Original songs/ melodies – performances don’t need to be confined to one genre of music. They should be as original as the audiences for whom I’ve performed.

From Studio Work to Systems Work: Translating Creative Practice to the Civic Realm–
The Department of Public Transformation (DoPT) believes that—when in collaboration with municipalities and civic systems—creative leaders, artists, and culture bearers can help local governments reimagine systems of support, representation, communication, and community connection to become more equitable and accessible for residents. Arts and cultural workers can play an essential role in designing creative, people-centered civic practices that increase transparency and trust in local government and helps communities achieve radically transformative results that can be adopted, adapted, and implemented across geographies for long-term change. In this interactive session, participants will explore how your creative practice can be translated to the civic realm through gaining fundamentals of civic arts practice, case studies of civic arts projects, and an opportunity to dream up civic arts projects to benefit your community.

About Ash Hanson:

Ash has 15 years of experience working with rural communities to activate stories, connect neighbors, and exercise collective imagination. She is the Executive Director of the Department of Public Transformation (DoPT), an artist-led nonprofit working at the intersection of creativity and civic life in rural communities; the founder of PlaceBase Productions, a theater company that creates original, site-specific musicals celebrating small-town life; and, a member of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice Leadership Circle.

Previously, she was the Program Director for the Minnesota Theater Alliance, serving the statewide performing arts community, and the Program Director for Public Art Saint Paul, producing large-scale public art events and experiences. She was an Artist-in-Residence in the City of Minneapolis Planning Department and with the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, where she employed creative community engagement strategies for equitable participation in urban and rural planning processes. She holds an MA in Applied Theater with a focus on Rural Community Development, and she was named an Obama Foundation Fellow and a Bush Fellow for her work with rural communities. She believes deeply in the power of play and exclamation points!

Learn more about Ash Hanson: https://www.publictransformation.org

Engaging the Audience Imagination: Lessons from the World of Puppetry–
In this session we’ll explore practices within puppetry used to identify, build, and strengthen relationships with audiences. We’ll then look at how these puppetry approaches can be applied to other art forms when seeking to engage and energize audiences. Throughout, we’ll consider the multifaceted possibilities of fostering audience connection to art through ideas, materials, content, culture, and artists themselves.

About Amanda Petefish-Schrag:

Amanda is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Iowa State University. In addition to her work as a playwright and director, she has been a professional puppeteer for over 30 years. Her research and practice focus on puppetry’s social-ethical function within communities, particularly as it relates to humans, ecology, and the environment. In her teaching and performance work, she strives to cultivate community-centered theatre practices – re-imagining what theatre is and who it is for. Amanda is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the International Union of Marionette Artists, the Puppeteers or America, and is a past recipient of the Kennedy Center National Teaching Artist Grant, and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education Innovative Teaching Award.

Small Production Tips and Tricks–
This session will be a discussion about what Caroline has learned in the past four years building a business around small batch production pottery. Motivation, focus, and challenging yourself is a daily struggle in this business, and even in everyday life. Caroline will share how she faces these challenges, and grows her business and herself around what she has learned.

About Caroline Freese:

Caroline was born and raised on a small farm in Iowa. Always involved in her parents’ farm and 4-H, she has a soft spot for animals and nature. Graduating cum laude from Iowa State University in the spring of 2016, Caroline earned a BFA in Integrated Studio Arts.

Caroline’s art is all connected through her animal designs, which form the base of her brand. She creates unique, folk-style animal paintings on wood, which she uses to decorate her hand-thrown pottery using black iron oxide printed decals. Caroline performs every step in her process by hand. Her ceramic forms are a canvas to display and spread her animal creations, and love of nature and landscapes.

The Art of Participating–
What happens when you invite theatre people to sit on the Chamber of Commerce board? This is not the setup for a joke — we’ve spent the past ten years finding out! And one key takeaway has been that a well-placed question is worth a thousand answers. So in this (you guessed it) hands-on session, we will explore generous participation and its long-term benefits for you, your creative business, and your chosen community, whether online, regional, or hyperlocal.

About Allison and Andy McGuire:

Allison and Andy help operate the George Daily Community Auditorium in Oskaloosa, Iowa. For the past ten years, they’ve been working with the community’s Arts and Culture sector to help grow the community’s creative ecosystem and the economic impact of the arts to benefit the entire region. They have found that if you give more than you take, work together, make everything count, and share what you can, a lot of little can build an awful lot.

Creative Play in Practice–
Cynthia will track the evolution of her fiber arts practice from craft to conceptual offering, an exercise in creative play which has untethered and opened her own approach to art making.

About Cynthia O’Hern:

Cynthia is a figurative fiber artist based in Des Moines, Iowa. An artist by nature and maker by trade, she has found feltmaking an apt medium to integrate her craft skill with artistic expression. In her art practice, she illuminates the connective threads of being through the fibrous medium of wool feltmaking.

Panel Discussion: Navigating the World as a Professional Artist —
Panelists will discuss the types of venues an artist may show their work and some of the pros and cons of each. There will also be discussion regarding industry standards around collecting compensation for providing artistic services.

About the Moderator, Barbara Walton:

Mainly a painter, in 2002, Barbara Walton began experimenting with encaustic painting. Her work has been exhibited widely in juried national and international venues as well as solo and invitational exhibits. In 2011, she applied for and received an Iowa Arts Council Major Grant. Walton is an Associate Professor who has been teaching drawing and painting in the College of Design at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa since 1993. https://barbaraewalton.com

About our Panelists:

Naomi Friend is a professional artist in Central Iowa. She explores the prairies of the Midwest through art-making. Her antique photo process and mixed media pieces are inspired by the ecosystems, the plants, and the animals that make up the texture of the Iowa landscape. She also explores ecosystems through agriculture on her 3 acre cut flower farm and her ongoing Iowa Park Stickers project. http://naomifriend.com

Mary Kline-Misol is a Des Moines based artist whose imagery revolves around figurative subjects, compositions, botanicals, and landscapes and is influenced by literature, myth, poetry, and the wildlife in her own backyard. Her work has been shown extensively in regional shows and she is working in a widening circle of private and public collections in the Midwest. www.gallerymkm.com

Anna Segner, a Minnesota native, is a studio artist focused in painting, mixed media and assemblage. Anna incorporates critical animal studies and other research to question the human act of “toying” with animals and nature. Anna earned her MFA from Iowa State University in spring of 2019 and a BA in Literature with Writing Emphasis and Studio Art from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in 2015. She teaches drawing at Iowa State University. Recently, Anna had a solo exhibition, Animals Among Us, at Lilian Davis Hogan Gallery in Winona, MN. In spring 2023, she will have a solo exhibition at Lanesboro Arts in Lanesboro, MN. http://www.annasegner.com

The Art of Sustainability in Slow Fashion–
Gretchen will discuss how she builds relationships with her clients and works with them to design and create one-of-a-kind pieces, whether it be a custom wedding gown for their big day, or tailoring a pair of denim they want to continue wearing. Gretchen Bohling Design promotes the idea that being mindful of where you shop and how your clothes are made is a great way to be a part of the ethical movement that is slow fashion and sustainability. Gretchen works with her clients to educate them on the importance of investing in quality-made clothing, being intentional with what they purchase, how to maintain their wardrobe, and how to creatively embrace their individual style.

About Gretchen Bohling:

Gretchen, 33, is a sustainable clothing designer, tailor and custom garment creator. The multitalented seamstress works under her own label, Gretchen Bohling Designs, based out of Mainframe Studios in Des Moines, Iowa. She grew up in Carroll and attended the Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago for fashion design. After graduating with her BFA in 2010, she worked in retail management in Chicago to learn the basics of the business before moving to Des Moines in 2016 to pursue her dream of starting her own company.

Session A: Strategies for Funding Artistic Projects — Lindsay Keast and David Schmitz

So, you have an idea for an artistic project? This is great; it means you have something exciting to share with the world. But securing funding and/or support for your project may be, besides your artistic vision, the critical part of bringing this project into the world. This session will introduce various ways to secure the resources needed to make projects happen and will include some real-life examples of creative strategies for securing funding, materials, volunteers, and venues for art projects.

About Lindsay Keast:

Lindsay is the Program Manager, Arts and Creativity at the Iowa Arts Council, Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. Lindsay manages initiatives serving creative industries in Iowa. Previously, she worked
as outreach coordinator for the Des Moines Music Coalition. She is a practicing artist, musician, and composer.

About David Schmitz:

David leads the Iowa Arts Council, the arts division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and has been active in the Iowa arts community for more than a decade.

Makers’ Activity–

TBA

Your Brand as an Artist: The Building Blocks–
As an artist you’re doing more than just creating art; you’re honing in on an identity. If you feel like your artistic identity is expanding, you may be interested in developing a brand! In this session, we’ll go over the basic needs of a brand and the relevance of these things to you as an artist. We’ll talk about your artistic voice and message, how those affect your brand, and some ways to effectively communicate the important aspects of your art. We’ll go over a few key items and resources you’ll need for when you’re ready to start getting your name out there. Lastly, we’ll discuss a few basic psychology topics that may be useful to you and your artistic brand journey.

About Casey Bridgham:

A graphic designer, game designer and digital illustrator with degrees from Savannah College of Art and Design and Iowa State University. Casey specializes in a wide variety of creative fields as both a visual artist and technical designer.

Art is the Study of Human Life — Tiffany Johnson

The whole world is a stage, and everybody is playing their part. We live in performance every day whether we realize it or not. The moment that we are interacting with another human being we are acting. It might be authentic acting or staged, we could be ourselves or adding a character. Performing arts provide the opportunity and is a vehicle for us to observe the human experience and reach better understandings. Art is a vital part of our educational experience, about life.

About Tiffany Johnson:

Tiffany Johnson, Berniece/Pyramid Theatre Company Producing Artistic Director, is passionate about acting as she feels it gives her the opportunity to ask tough questions, raise awareness of issues, and many times walk right up and touch the elephant in the room. In 2015, Tiffany became one of the founding members of Pyramid Theatre Company which was established to serve as a gateway to the arts and to enhance the experience by illuminating the presence of Black artists and providing opportunity for more diverse artistic expression.