Octagon Center for the Arts

Papercutters Times Three LINDA EMMERSON, LUCKY KIM, & BETH WUNDER
2021-01-09 - 2021-02-06 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
LOCATED IN THE COMMUNITY GALLERY
Papercutters Times Three
Paper Cutting is a traditional art form practiced in a variety of guises in countries around the world. The
three of us found our ways from different directions. Beth was introduced to the Polish style at a
Wycinanki workshop in New Mexico. Linda visited a museum devoted to Scherenschnitte in Switzerland,
and Lucky grew up with the Korean traditional paper (Hanji) art. All of these influences can be seen in
our individual and developing styles.

Linda Emmerson Statement + Bio
Since my discovery in 1976 of the Swiss Tradition of papercutting, I have been happily snipping away.
After 20 years of drawing with a T-square and triangle, my new career, 40 years and counting, continues
to be a liberating source of discovery and satisfaction.
Beth Wunder Statement + Bio
From my very first cutting, I have been fascinated by the challenge of changing a drawing into a
silhouette and deciding which lines must be cut to portray the essence of the design. I like the precision
and exactness required, and the clean look of the cut. Doing that with scissors or knife and paper, easily
accessible and inexpensive materials, is always exciting and fun.
I took a course from Elsbieta Kaleta, a Polish Wycinanki artist, in 1993 and have been cutting ever since. I
have taught weeklong workshops and do commissions as well as printed cards of original work. I am a
member of the Guild of American Papercutters.
Lucky Kim Statement + Bio
Lucky Kim, originally coming from South Korea, specializes in Korean Traditional Paper Art, Korean Paper
(Hanji) made from mulberry tree. Though she had no formal background in art, 30years ago, she
discovered the art of Hanji and fell in love with the bright colors and intricate, traditional patterns. In the
past, she has meddled in woodworking and felt and recently discovered clay as a new medium, inspiring
her to make traditional Hanji boxes with clay.

2021 Elementary / Middle / High Exhibit: An Exhibition of Local Elementary, Middle, and High School Students
2021-02-13 - 2021-02-27 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
COMMUNITY GALLERY AND VIRTUAL

The Octagon Center for the Arts is highlights artwork by local elementary, middle, and high school students annually. The Octagon loves loves hosting the work of these young emerging artists.
See the K – 8 Virtual Show here! The High School Show is in the Octagon Community Gallery, Feb. 13 – 27, 2021, at the Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames, Iowa.

2021 Jurors: Cathie Gebhart, Nancy Gebhart, & Lydia Mae
Cathie Gebhart is a former public school teacher teaching all grades preK- college, including high school art classes. After retiring, she taught the preK art class at the Octagon for two years. Author of several children’s books, she manages Dan the Fish Publishing which gives a voice for new writers and artists. Cathie’s favorite artist is Vincent Van Gogh. Cathie is the Mema to nine grands and mother of four, including Nancy Gebhart.
Nancy Gebhart is currently a PhD student at Iowa State working on her doctorate in Social and Cultural Studies of Education with a focus on the intersection of art and social justice. She was the Education Director at University Museums for ten years and has curated many exhibits both in Ames and Des Moines. Prior to coming to Iowa State, Nancy worked at the Lyman Museum in Hilo, HI and the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri. Nancy has received numerous awards including Art Educator of the Year from the Ames Community Arts Council, and the Woman of Achievement Award from the YWCA. Nancy’s favorite artist is Keith Haring. Nancy is the proud mother of Lydia Mae.
Lydia Mae is 2019 Octagon winner in the Kindergarten division for her wood block print on handmade paper. She has taken art classes at the Octagon since the age of two. She has also taken art classes at the Workspace, Reiman Gardens, and at Fused, a glass fusing studio in Roslyn, WA. Lydia has traveled to 16 states, visiting museums across the country. Her favorite artist is Georgia O’Keefe. Her favorite living artist is Yayoi Kusama, and her favorite artist that she knows is Cameron Gray.

2021 Octagonal: The All Media Show
2021-03-06 - 2021-04-10 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Octagonal: The All-Media Show is the annual, juried all-media exhibition at the Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames, Iowa. Originally titled the Clay and Paper Show, the exhibit opened in 1968 to provide an opportunity to the central Iowa arts community. Over the past 53 years, the exhibit morphed over the decades to become the Clay, Fiber, Paper, Glass, Metal, Wood Exhibit that has featured hundreds of artists from dozens of states. The newest version of the exhibit, Octagonal: The All-Media Show, launched in 2018 taking a note from the past while moving forward to continue to provide an exciting opportunity for artists across Iowa, the Midwest, and the nation. This exhibit features a regionally-recognized juror each year, attracts artists from across the United States, and provides significant cash awards.

Awards
Winifred V. Brown Best of Show award: $1000
Media award for each category: $100

2021 Juror: Jenie Gao

Jenie Gao is a full-time artist, creative director, and entrepreneur. She specializes in large-scale projects including murals, public installations, curatorial works, and creative direction. She is an interdisciplinary leader with a professional background in the arts industry, public education, and lean manufacturing, and an advocate for equity for artists and creative labor. As a first generation American, she is a spokesperson for the arts as a path to cultural relevance for a diverse citizenry.

Jenie is an arts ambassador who has served as the Vice President of Wisconsin Visual Artists, Chair of the Biennial at Museum of Wisconsin Art, and Public Art Committee member for Madison Arts Commission. She is a founding member of Arts + Literature Laboratory and Dane Arts Mural Arts, where she has served as a fundraiser and systems builder for the financial longevity of these nonprofits. Jenie is a TEDx Madison speaker and outspoken advocate for the value of the arts in our ecosystems. She is a former artist-in-residence at Proyecto’ace in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museo de Arte Moderno in Castro, Chile; Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, Madison Public Library, and Artist Campaign School with Fractured Atlas. As a curator, she has produced exhibits at companies like Promega Corporation and AC Hotel
Marriott as a way to build bridges between artists and businesses.

Jenie currently runs a 1,700 square foot production studio and has hosted 20 interns since 2018. Through her interdisciplinary work, Jenie has become a visionary leader who knows how to bring together industries, education systems, and cultural representation to create a more equitable ecosystem for everyone. https://jenie.org/

The competition was fierce this year. Jenie Gao chose 41 pieces from a total of 349 submissions by 134 artists. This means that 12% of the overall submissions were chosen for this show. The artwork is selected through a blind process (the juror sees the artwork without the artist’s name or location). Award winners will be selected by the juror just before the show opens. Awards are partly funded through an endowment from the Brown Family. We would also like to thank our Octagonal sponsor: Haila Architecture, Structure, and Planning.

2021 Award Winners

Priscilla Sage Fiber Award: “Iridescent Turkey Sticker on the Outside” by Lily Martina Lee. Sponsored by Haila Architecture, Structure, and Planning.

Janet Harris Squires Clay Award: “Ignorant” by Ingrid Lilligren. Sponsored by Haila Architecture, Structure, and Planning.

Martha Benson Metal Media Award: “Quilted Grid” by Jeremy Diamond. Sponsored by Haila Architecture, Structure, and Planning.

Veronika Ruedenberg Mixed Media Award: “The Transition of Venus” by Jamie Malone. Sponsored by Haila Architecture, Structure, and Planning.

Paper Media Award: “Frozen Floral Waste #1” by Jody Boyer. Funded by the Brown Family Endowment Fund.

Wood Media Award: “Tortuous” by Tom Whalley. Funded by the Brown Family Endowment Fund.

Painting Media Award: “Self Portrait as an Invasive Species” by Caylin Jayde. Funded by the Brown Family Endowment Fund.

Emerging Artist Award: “Baptism” by Paige Holzbauer. Funded by the Brown Family Endowment Fund.

Winifred V. Brown Best of Show Award: “Stretched Thin” by Katie Walberg. Funded by the Brown Family Endowment Fund.

Please visit our YouTube channel to see the virtual reception, which includes juror comments and a panel discussion with artists (Jody Boyer, Tibi Chelcea, Cyndi O’Hern, and Josh Sorrell) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvK13pCHrqg

2021 Accepted Works

First Name
Last Name
Title

Chris
Abigt
Rock Bridge

Janet
Bergeron
Ketchikan

Jody
Boyer
Frozen Floral Waste #1

Makayla
Carlson
Testing the Waters

Makayla
Carlson
Whatever Keeps You Is All Right By Me

Nanette
Catigbe
Heart of Glass

Tiberiu
Chelcea
Randomly Accessed Memory #4

Kelly
Devitt
Outward

Jeremy
Diamond
Quilted Grid

Terry
Dooley
Little Big Creek

Maggie
Douglas
Surroundings

Jennifer
Drinkwater
Man, Superman, Gunman (March 11, 2013: Part I)

Nathan
Edwards
Horizons

Charlie
Esker
the divine feminine

Desiree
Fuller
Still Life #4

David
Garrison
Rushing Water

Cindy
Gould
Salt Flats: Great Rann of Kutch

Jill
Guffy
Small Quilt Collage II

Susan
Heggestad
Embellishments: Adorn/Repress

Paige
Holzbauer
Baptism

Randy
Hoshaw
SWITCHGRASS ON 69

Caylin
Jayde
Self Portrait as an Invasive Species

Marcia
Joffe-Bouska
RIO DE MI CORAZON (triptych)

Carole
Kunstadt
PRESSING ON No. 8

Diane
Kunzler
Turbulence

Lily Martina
Lee
Iridescent Turkey Sticker on the Outside

Lily Martina
Lee
Pot is the New Tanning

Ingrid
Lilligren
Ignorant

Jamie
Malone
The Transition of Venus

Christopher
Merchant
End Table Cabinet

Cynthia
O’Hern
(F)emanate

Chuck
Richards
A Gallery of Grotesque Self-Portraits

Anna
Segner
Bite Back

Josh
Sorrell
Viral

Jac
Tilton
Bullis Discount

Jac
Tilton
Chillin’ Below Michigan Ave.

Katie
Walberg
Stretched Thin

Gina
Westergard
With The Stars and With Me

Tom
Whalley
3-D Portholes: A Study in Black and White

Tom
Whalley
Tortuous

Alicia
Wilkinson
Setting The Oppressed Free

What's Good Project JENNIFER DRINKWATER
2021-04-17 - 2021-05-22 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
LOCATED IN THE COMMUNITY GALLERY
Please join us for a closing reception on Thursday, May 20th, 5 – 7pm with artist, Jennifer Drinkwater! The reception will be at the Octagon Community Gallery.
What is What’s Good, you ask.
Culturally, it seems that we are addicted to negativity. What happens when we deliberately acknowledge and discuss the assets in our communities? What happens when we make a choice to look for what is working where we live? Can this build community momentum and lead to a “spiraling up effect” within the community?
The What’s Good Project stems from asset-based community development and highlights community strengths. According to research, shifting focus from community challenges to strengthening community assets can result in more effective community improvement. Using that as a framework and art as the output, The What’s Good Project explores what we value where we live.
A Mississippi native, Jennifer Drinkwater has lived in various communities across the country – including the Mississippi Delta, a state park in Western Massachusetts, New Orleans, multiple Appalachian Trail crew base camps, a Blackfoot reservation in Montana, along the shoreline of Lake Turkana in Kenya, Eastern North Carolina, Mississippi suburbia, college-town Iowa, Atlanta, and artist residencies in Truth and Consequences, NM; Peoria, IL; Marquette, NE; Johnson, VT; and New York Mills, MN.
She has spent one year of her life in tents, and currently lives with her beloved husband and dog in a house in Ames, Iowa.
Jennifer is an assistant professor with a joint appointment between the department of art and visual culture and Iowa State University extension and outreach. She has a B.A. in both studio art and anthropology from Tulane University and earned an M.F.A in
painting from East Carolina University. Her paintings have been exhibited nationally in juried and solo exhibitions and have been featured in New American Paintings and Studio Visit magazine.
Jennifer explores how we bring artwork from the studio into the world, and accordingly, how this work can both build and shape community. During the past few years, she has partnered with communities in Iowa and Mississippi in various community
art projects, programming and theatre productions. She helped to organize a community-wide steamroll printmaking event in Perry, Iowa; created installations in restored prairies in Nebraska; collaborated on public art projects in vacant sites on
Iowa main streets; spearheaded a community knit-bombing project; and painted two murals with middle school children on a juke joint in the Mississippi Delta.

Octagon Member Show
2021-05-29 - 2021-07-03 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
LOCATED IN THE COMMUNITY GALLERY
More information coming soon.

Theater of The Absurdo LEON RICHMOND
2021-07-10 - 2021-08-13 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
LOCATED IN COMMUNITY GALLERY
Artist Statement
Why is when, and now is why, and we will ALWAYS want, AND all is “What the holy crap!”
Never has this been an obstacle for lucid critical or crucial thought for whom the dummbbbell tolls in the skies of material wantonness. Q: How did we even get here? The needs, creeds and greeds of all the wants are re-assembled in this body of work. Faux luxury facilitated by dead corporate machines like Sears, JC Penny’s and Montgomery Wards with 1200 page catalogs are a good place to begin perhaps. Paper bricks printed on glossy non-archival paper layered to the sky for empire building. If aliens from outer space were to visit us right now, many of their questions could be answered in those catalogs. Core samples have been gathered in these non-fine art things and born again from merely rummaging through the grave yards of consumable “goods” re-swapped for $$ in the stores of thrift and performing fleas. By the process of cultural anthropology, many of these cheap consumer goods have been given a new life, again to adorn the walls and tables of mainstream America. The artist has found inspiration in the cheap stuff of yester-year, thusly re-arting the stuff that was mass-produced to give the façade of style and class. So hurry! We’re running out of stuff fast!
The white middle/upper/other classes examined have been recorded in both the good and bad books of history and consequently flushed out the birth canals of the unimaginative landfills (progress). Facsimiles with objective meanings defy our understanding in the rubbish now, yet provide proof-positive of who we were, who we are and what we mostly still want to be. So uselessly useful in their time now become “utilitarian fine art” again for their utilitarian purpose in the third place. Artistic alchemical license has freely given the artist a full-on-all-out-all-American stratagem with these junk store findings. America in its most peculiar vintage hour… American at its final artistic process…
So for now, we look to the past for where we went wrong, right and/or left. Based on the hunting and gathering of antiquated pictorial evidence, allegorical signifiers, aggressive branding and personal insider insights, observable clues are given in an absurdist, unflinching and often lowbrow way for your viewing entertainment. To laugh or to cry?… You decide…
Meet the artist at the closing reception Friday, August 13, 5 – 7pm in the Community Gallery. Everyone is welcome and masks are required.

Image & Text: Visual Art and Creative Writing in Partnership
2021-08-21 - 2021-10-02 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
LOCATED IN COMMUNITY GALLERY
Image & Text features visual and written artworks crafted from partnerships between visual artists and creative writers. Whether the individual artworks or the overarching concepts behind the artworks are the collaboration, this gallery installation intends to show artwork generated by the interplay between (or among) visual artists and creative writers. A call for artists took place in the summer of 2019. Originally planned for the 2020 gallery season, the pandemic required rescheduling of this gallery show.
Additionally, throughout the month of September, The Octagon will be hosting several events to celebrate the collaboration of visual art and writing. We would love to have you join us!

Wednesday, September 1st, 7:00 PM
Gallery Talk with Debra Marquart and Ingrid Lilligren
A conversation with Ingrid and Debra involving art, readings of poems and excerpts, and a view into how collaboration between the artists creates new visual art. Watch the recording here: https://fb.watch/8b3U_6AZd4/

Thursday, September 9th, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Eraser Poetry + Collage and Open Mic Night
A drop-in activity to learn about and create eraser poetry and collage alongside a public open mic night. Share the creative writing in your life. $5 suggested donation to help The Octagon cover material costs. Partnership with the Emerging Writers.

Thursday, September 16th, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Galley Show Reception
A reception to celebrate the works of all artists in the show. Plus impromptu poetry readings of the show artists in attendance. See the Facebook event here.

Thursday, September 23rd, 6:00 PM NEW TIME!
Words Meet Art with Ana McCracken
A literary arts event that demonstrates through words how art invokes feelings, triggers memories, and inspires conversations across divides and demographics, plus a special announcement.

Thursday, September 29th, TBA
Reading Night with the Emerging Writers at Dog-Eared Books
A literary arts event that demonstrates through words how art invokes feelings, triggers memories, and inspires conversations across divides and demographics.

Saturday, October 2nd, 12:30 – 4:00 PM
Bookbinding: The Cross Structure Book, Ages 16+
A class on bookbinding. The Cross Structure binding is a non-adhesive structure that offers much freedom to the text block. This 20th century design is greatly inspired by the Long Stitch bindings of the medieval era. It is suitable for conservation or new bindings, such as travel journals or decorative bindings. The structure is uniquely constructed by interlocking the front and back covers at the spine. Instructed by Peggy Johnston. Pre-registration is required. Cost $95 class fee.

The Art of Climate Planning
2021-10-12 - 2021-11-06 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
LOCATED IN THE COMMUNITY GALLERY
The Art of Climate Planning is produced by The EcoTheatre Lab and funded by a City of Ames Small Art Grant. The project is inspired by the City of Ames’ commitment to developing a climate action plan in the coming months. The EcoTheatre Lab commissioned seven local artists to develop art pieces with the aim of encouraging community participation in the climate action planning process. These art pieces will be displayed in various community spaces through March 2022. A big thank you to everyone involved in the Octagon Center for the Arts’ Outrage to Change Project in Summer 2020, which inspired the structure for The Art of Climate Planning.
About The EcoTheatre Lab: The EcoTheatre Lab is a small collective of three Ames artists (Charissa Menefee, Taylor Sklenar, and Vivian M Cook). They partner with fellow ISU and Ames artists and community members to produce arts events that build community and engage audiences in sustainability conversations. They approach their work from an asset-based perspective, examining the many assets that exist within our community and identifying ways to amplify and build on those assets through art. Follow The EcoTheatre Lab on Facebook and Instagram.
Work in image by Keygan Sands.

AMENDA TATE
2021-11-13 - 2021-12-24 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
LOCATED IN THE COMMUNITY GALLERY
Artist Statement:
In Latin, the word Manibus means “from the hand.” I created the Manibus robotic painting device to utilize as an extension of the artist’s hand. A dancer wears a motion-sensing remote directing Manibus to render an artistic depiction of elapsed time and motion. Using this tool, I capture and translate the movement and visceral dynamics of dance into painted works of art.
I facilitate collaborative processes as a director combining the necessary components for creating the work of art. With a nod to Abstract Expressionism, I allow for spontaneity in the mark, but utilize my own set of constraints to orchestrate order in the process. I determine the scale, width of the brush, the color, the starts and stops, while resigning myself to accept some aspects of the output as they occur. In the spirit of Happenings, I encourage the contribution of creative energy within a prescribed structure.
My process yields an observable abstract representation of what has transpired. It is an opportunity to analyze the fleeting movements of dance. The works take shape as dynamic linear renderings that embody kinetic verve. The emotion of the dance becomes a painted vestige honoring that instance in time. The lingering traces are mapped connections facilitated by social interaction, art, engineering, and technology.
My work explores how art and dance can be utilized in a participatory way to cross societal divides, break down barriers and increase empathy through tangible and embodied interactions. Through imagination, curiosity, and courage, we can increase our self-awareness to grow introspectively and consciously thereby enabling us to better understand the experiences of others. I have been conducting happenings/events that encourage public participation in the performative and improvisational creation of a collaborative work of art as a means to explore social structures and confirm connections to being emotionally intelligent humans.
This work questions responsible use of technology, the construction of identity in a socially digitized world, authorship and ownership, privacy, and legacy.

The Colors of Nature BRIDGET MARCUS & PAMELA DOUGLAS
2021-12-30 10:00 - 2022-01-30 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Bridget Marcus has been bird watching for most of her life and her wonder and love for birds is only increasing as the vulnerability of our avian neighbors becomes ever clearer. Growing up in South Africa much of her free time was spent in the “bushveld” resulting in a deep knowledge of South African birds. Since emigrating to the midwest United States, she has grown to know and love the birds of eastern deciduous forests and urban gardens.
Bridget loves intense, highly saturated color and so has been drawn to pastels. Jack Wilkes, her private teacher and mentor, has exposed her to the magic of this medium.
Inspired by the depth of color with pastels, Bridget has recently started developing a body of work depicting American birds that are attracted to the Michigan woodland property where she and her husband, Rick, are actively birdscaping by planting native plants to attract the insects on which specific bird species depend. This summer’s birds of note include scarlet tanagers, indigo buntings and cedar waxwings bathing in the pond, which was built as a source of water for the birds.
As a part of Bridget’s commitment to aid in bird conservation, she will donate 30% of any sales at this exhibition or from online sales to the Audubon Society to assist them in the meaningful work being done by this important organization.
“My lifelong connection with nature feeds my soul but I fear that opportunities to experience first hand its exquisite beauty and wonder are rapidly diminishing with the inexorable rise in extinction rates of so many species. I aim to share my love of and reverence for some of these magnificent creatures by depicting them through the use of texture and vibrant color. I hope to inspire those who see my work to slow down, notice, and feel.”
Pamela Douglas specializes in painting and drawing. She has worked in a lot of dierent mediums, but over the last several years, her works are primarily created in pastel. Landscapes and still life are the subject matter she paints most often. Rather than represent the row crops of the midwest, Douglas is drawn to the beauty of the natural landscape. Her still life work contains contemporary compositions representing simple objects set in a specific orientation in space.
Whether in the studio or outside along a dusty road, Douglas enjoys the experience of being in the moment while painting. Through her works, she invites the viewer to imagine the serenity found in nature and hopefully to realize how important those places are in our world.
In Douglas’ work, the interaction of color intensity and temperature strengthens the illusion of light, color, and form. Through her continued investigation of the use of color, she intentionally works to produce the limits of depth or atmosphere.
Douglas applies pastel in a layered method, working first with the hardest density pastels and then finishing with soft pastels. Values are generally applied from dark to light. Depth of space is created by applying just the right temperature, value and intensity of color where needed.
“As a child, most of my fondest memories are about creative play. I believe being actively creative was something important enough to have brought me to what I do today. Making art teaches me something new about myself and the creative process every day. I feel most fulfilled when I am alone and experiencing the creative process.”

Catching My Breath CAMERON GRAY
2022-02-05 - 2022-02-19 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Community Gallery — View from the Sidewalk

Show Statement

Do we have time to slow down? And I don’t mean that Only in the sense of physically, but mentality. Though we are living in a pandemic and things are to supposed to me moving much slower, I feel that is far from the truth. From the multiple Deaths to trials, when have we had time to be at Peace!

Catching my Breath is the visual representation of me finding (or trying to find) that peaceful state through the trauma and chaos. We live in a society where it is not hard to be wrapped up in the sensationalism of the media with Black death being the tagline. That you can get lost in it all. This installation is all about taking and making space/room to breathe.

The gallery space will not be entered after install to allow the Black Spirit to be able to flow and breathe uninterrupted! I truly believe that is what Every Black person deserves and needs!

Bio

Cameron Gray was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1991. It was growing up in Birmingham when he started to see the effects of racism. He focused on feelings stemming from these effects when he entered his first art class at Auburn University. He graduated from Auburn University in December of 2013 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in Printmaking. In 2014, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri to work as a press assistant with a printmaker. In 2020, he graduated from Iowa State University with a Master of Fine Arts.

Gray has shown his artwork in solo and collaborative shows, nationally and internationally, including in Cortona, Italy, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, Iowa, North Carolina, California, and New York. In 2020, he founded a community-based initiative called The Buxton Initiative where he conceives community-based projects that celebrate Blackness in art, literature, music, and film. His first major project is the Black’d Out Book Library where he is providing space where only Black voices are being heard and felt.

2022 Octagonal: The All Media Show
2022-03-04 - 2022-04-09 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Located in the Community Gallery
Octagonal: The All-Media Show is the annual, juried all-media exhibition at the Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames, Iowa. Originally titled the Clay and Paper Show, the exhibit opened in 1968 to provide an opportunity to the central Iowa arts community. Over the past 53 years, the exhibit morphed over the decades to become the Clay, Fiber, Paper, Glass, Metal, Wood Exhibit that has featured hundreds of artists from dozens of states. The newest version of the exhibit, Octagonal: The All-Media Show, launched in 2018 taking a note from the past while moving forward to continue to provide an exciting opportunity for artists across Iowa, the Midwest, and the nation. This exhibit features a regionally-recognized juror each year, attracts artists from across the United States, and provides significant cash awards.
Join the Octagon staff, exhibit artists, and exhibit juror for the 54th annual Octagonal: The All-Media Show’s opening night reception on Friday, March 4th at 6:00 p.m.! Juror Akwi Nji will announce Octagonal 2022 award winners and share juror comments. Then, join four Octagonal artists in a panel discussion on “Identity and Connection: Art as a Reflection of our Environments.” Featured artists are Natalie Deam, Jennifer Gauerke, Kimberlee Rocca, and Anda Tanaka, who will discuss how connections to their environments – social, ecological, occupational – shape their identities and their artwork.
Octagonal 2022 will be open for viewing in the Community Gallery, starting March 4th at 6:00 p.m. and until April 9, 2022. The Octagon requires proper mask wearing and physical distancing while in all parts of the building.
This event is in partnership with the Ames Community Arts Council. A big thank you to the 2022 sponsors: 10Fold Architecture + Engineering, Cook’s Emporium, Dog-Eared Books, Gilger Designs, Nook & Nest, Sherwin Williams, Z.W. Mercantile, Brown Family Endowment Fund, Huff Endowment Fund, Iowa Arts Council, City of Ames Commission on the Arts.

Awards
Winifred V. Brown Best of Show award: $1000
Media award for each category: $250
Priscilla Sage Fiber Award
Sponsored by: Z. W. Mercantile
“Siphonophore” by Betty Busby
Janet Harris Squires Clay Award
Sponsored by: Cooks’ Emporium
“Socially Distanced” by Hank Hall

Martha Benson Metal Media Award
Sponsored by: Gilger Designs
“Exhale” by Katie DuVal Mihelich

Veronika Ruedenberg Mixed Media Award
Sponsored by: Nook & Nest Ames
“Forces of Change” by Maggie Douglas

Paper Media Award
Sponsored by: Dog-Eared Books
“Stink Eye” by Mattea Whetstone

Glass Media Award
Sponsored by: 10Fold Architecture + Engineering
“Highland Meadow” by Jerene Kruse

Wood Media Award
Sponsored by: 10Fold Architecture + Engineering
“Carousel” by Amelia Currier

Painting Media Award
Sponsored by: The Sherwin-Williams Company
“Beautiful Nymph” by Jess Quinn

Emerging Artist Award
Sponsored by: The Octagon Center for the Arts and Brown Family Endowment Fund
“Untitled (For Nona)” by Anda Tanaka
Winifred V. Brown Best of Show Award
Sponsored by: Brown Family Endowment Fund
“We’re all under the same sky” by Linda Lewis

2022 Juror: Akwi Nji

Akwi is an award-winning artist creating in words, performance, and visual art. She specializes in creative personal narrative storytelling across artistic mediums. Her work and words have appeared on stage from California’s Wine Country to New York’s Fashion Week.
She is owner of Threshold Gallery, an artist-run gallery and micro venue with a mission to support women artists and artists of color in the Midwest; creator of The Remoir Project, a nationwide audio and visual storytelling arts initiative, and a champion of the artist and the arts through her role as producer of multi-media arts events in the Midwest.
Akwi has served as an arts ambassador in multiple roles including as founding executive director of The Hook, an Iowa Arts Council board member, producer of nearly 100 events in recent years, involving more than 300 writers and performers; and advisor of Arts Midwest initiatives.
Her art serves as manifestations of her exploration of race, gender, Black history as American history, and a parallelism of current social issues with their historical and cultural counterparts, tensions between the ‘outsider’ and ‘insider’, and concepts of spiritual and geographic home. As a writer, voice artist, performer, and producer her collaborative partners include Emmy-award winning composers and nationally-renowned dancers and choreographers. She has been an Iowa Arts Council Fellow and, for her efforts in the business community, she was named one of Corridor Business Journal’s Forty Under 40.
Akwi was born in Iowa City, Iowa, and raised in Cameroon, Africa. Her experiences as a Cameroonian and Cameroonian American inform her work as artist and advocate. She lives in the Midwest with her two daughters, the family dog, and her daughters’ cats.
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
Akwi’s professional background is in nonprofit leadership, public education, journalism, and strategic communications. Prior to launching her businesses, she was most recently Director of Communications at the fourth largest employer in her county and serving more than 20,000 stakeholders. Her professional expertise uniquely spans the corporate and creative world, positioning her as a sought-after voice on strategic creative communications in the Midwest region.

We would like to thank everyone who submitted work to be juried for Octagonal 2022: The All Media Show. The following artworks have been accepted by juror, Awki Ngi. Congratulations!
2022 Accepted Artworks

Last Name

First Name

Title

Adam

Penny

Sunny Day Window

Alberda

Joanne

Woven Toss

Bauerle

Marcia

Saint Analogous

Brown

Sara Slee

Souls Ascending Green Gate

Busby

Betty

Siphonophore

Courter

Cherie

Buck Run #2

Currier

Amelia

Carousel

Dayton

A K

Larch Creek

Deam

Natalie

Bloom (Invasive)

Douglas

Maggie

Forces of Change

Douglas

Maggie

Where does the time go?

DuVal Mihelich

Katie

Exhale

Eastburn

Judith

Golden Hills #2

Ellis

Amee

Laundry Day

Elshout

Karen

Wild Hair

Flynn

Meghan

Tiger (Lily) Queen

Gauerke

Jennifer

Sister Earth

Guffy

Jill

Mini quilt Aerial Blocks

Hall

Hank

Socially Distanced

Harris

Amy

Ebb and Flow 2

Hensley

Katharine

Seawall

Herren

Kenneth

Shofukan

Joffe-Bouska

Marcia

Rio De Memoria (River of Memory)

Kruse

Jerene

Highland Meadow

Laursen

Annie

Landscape Nesting Bowls

Lehmkuhl

Gayle

Gus, Mike and me: we are from the land

Lewis

Linda

We’re all under the same sky

Lopez

Ana

London Wall

Pasutti

Lynsi

Coil Vessel Part 1: Wave

Piippo

Mariah

Untitled Textural Painting (Size: 16Hx20Wx2D)

Quinn

Jess

Beautiful Nymph

Rocca

Kimberlee

Fish Out of Water

Schnitzer

Amy

The Quest

Shook

Richard

The Magician

Sorrell

Josh

Erupt

Stewart

Lori

Maintaining Equilibrium

Tanaka

Anda

Untitled (For Nona)

Tanaka

Anda

Walking With Amira

Whetstone

Mattea

Stink Eye

Whetstone

Mattea

Tomorrow

Wilkinson

Alicia

Healing Landscapes Series: From Mexico City to the Midwest, USA

Yavorskaya

Irina

Dancing Penguins ’19

Zeitler

Deborah

Three Bowls in a Bowl

Cherish LIZ MOYER
2022-03-22 10:00 - 2022-03-24 17:00 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Located in the Reading Room (Small Wall Gallery).
Show Statement
Cherish (2022) is a collection of interactive soft sculptures that seek to ask “How do we view end-of-life planning?” Death is a universal experience, and yet remains in many ways a taboo conversation topic. These works are derived from questions of why we collectively struggle to talk openly about death and dying, and how that impacts the quality of our death. By shifting the lens of how we have these conversations, from one of discomfort and foreboding to instead an act of love for those around us, these pieces consider what a more communal, open approach might look like. Combining circuit driven interactive elements with traditional quilting aesthetics, these pieces are driven by human touch and exploration. Quilting becomes a metaphor in these works for what end-of-life could be. Life is in some ways like a quilt, made up of pieces or moments that combine to create a whole mosaic of experience; why not treat death the same way? By planning for end-of-life you are creating a warm, comforting legacy to be there when you are no longer able to be.

Artist Bio
Liz Moyer is a graphic designer living in Ames, IA. Born in South Dakota in 1990, she perused a degree in Printmaking from the University of South Dakota, before resettling in Seattle, WA. After several years working in the arts in Washington state, she returned to school to pursue a Master’s degree in Graphic Design. Liz is currently an MFA candidate set to complete her degree in the spring of 2022.

Apricity ISU BFA ISA STUDENTS
2022-04-16 - 2022-04-23 | IA
Located in the Community Gallery

Seventeen Integrated Studio Arts seniors from ISU’s department of art & visual culture will be exhibiting artwork in Apricity, their BFA exhibition, with media ranging from ceramics, painting, metalwork. wood, drawing, textiles, printmaking, photography, and digital media. Students designed the exhibition and decided on Apricity as their exhibition title, which means the warmth of the sun on a cold day.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Integrated Studio Arts focuses on in-depth studio work with an emphasis on crossing conceptual and media boundaries. It is designed for students intending to become professional artists and those planning to continue their studies in a graduate program in studio art.

The show runs Saturday, April 16 to Saturday, April 23, in the Octagon’s Community Gallery. Gallery hours are M-W 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Thurs. 10 – 8 p.m., Fri. 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. A public reception will be held on Thursday, April 21, from 5 – 8 p.m.

Featured Artists:
Mali Bilstad
Emma Bolles
Kalie Callison
Helen Chandler
Maddison Edwards
Nicole Eppens
Kalli Goerdt
Jacob Graeber
Carolyn Henry
Alyssa Mendoza
Clara Mikovec
Khue Nguyen
Nur Sachleben
Marilyn Schuling
Elynn Tan
Ashley Vance
Nikole Vollmer

2022 Elementary/Middle/High School Annual Student Show
2022-04-30 - 2022-05-14 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Located in the Community Gallery/Virtual
The Octagon Center for the Arts highlights artwork by local elementary, middle, and high school students annually.

2022 Kindergarten – 8th Grade Student Show
See the K – 8th Grade Show virtually! Visit our YouTube channel to see the Show: https://youtu.be/l_N0KeDsDNI

2022 High School Student Show
See the High School Show in the Community Gallery April 30 – May 14, 2022. The reception for High School Show was held on Thursday, May 5, 2022, 6:00 – 7:30pm in the Community Gallery. Our juror announced high school awards and share comments on the show. The award presentation and comments can be viewed on the Octagon Facebook page.
2022 High School Show Juror: JAMIE MALONE
Jamie Malone (they/them) is an Iowan traditional and graphic illustrator who graduated with a B.A. in Biological/Pre-Medical Illustration in 2019 from Iowa State University. They have been working as a freelance illustrator for many non-profits, authors, and schools in the central Iowa area. Their art is heavily influenced by celestial bodies, music, mysticism, and the natural world.
Jamie worked at the Octagon Center for the Arts as the 2021 Curator in Residence.

2022 High School Show Award Winners
Jeffrey L. Brown Memorial Photography Award: “Cue!” by Derek Peng, Senior, Ames High School (Art Instructor: Lindsay Wede)
David Burton Stone Memorial Painting/Drawing Award: “Self Portrait” by Cecilia Moyer, Senior, Nevada High School (Art Instructor: Mark Beauchene)
Juror’s Choice (Sponsored by Ames Silversmithing): “Beautiful Wonders” by Emma Brockman, Freshman, Ames High School (Art Instructor: Lindsay Wede)
Juror’s Choice (Sponsored by Ames Silversmithing): “Starlights” by Emma Hudnell, Freshman, Madrid High School (Art Instructor: Danielle Dalluge)
Juror’s Choice (Sponsored by Ames Silversmithing): “First Night” by Carter Wolfe, Junior, Ballard High School (Art Instructor: Lisa Bell)
Jeffrey L. Brown Best of Show Award: “Ancestry Nesting Dolls” by Lorna Schuckert, Senior, Ames High School (Art Instructor: Lindsay Wede)

THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS 2022 SPONSORS:

The Brown Family Endowment Fund
The Stone Family Endowment Fund

Place and Memory CINDY LESPERANCE, CAROLYN ALBRACHT, & JEANINE COUPE RYDING
2022-05-21 - 2022-07-02 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Located in the Community Gallery
Exhibit Reception: Join us at our exhibit reception on June 9, 6-8pm at the Octagon! Come meet some of the artists, see the show, listen to our crowdsourced exhibit playlist, and if weather permits, hang out on the patio and enjoy some light refreshments! Masks are required for events.
Artist Panel: Register here to join a virtual panel event featuring the artists of Place and Memory! Carolyn Albracht, Jeanine Coupe Ryding, and Cindy Lesperance will discuss their artistic process, their artwork that is currently exhibiting at the Octagon Center for the Arts, and how their work reflects on place and memory. Tuesday, June 14th, 6:00-7:00 p.m. CT, Zoom.
Gallery Show Statement: Place and Memory
Sometimes a place is experienced from the ground. Sitting in the window of a rural coffee shop, imagining the lives of passersby. Or walking through the prairie as birds flit from one tall stem of grass to another as the sun beats down overhead. Place is made from the detailed goings on, the minutia, of everyday life within local communities and ecosystems.
Sometimes a place is viewed from above, distilled down into forms, colors, and textures. As the scale expands, the intricacies of place become less important. The composition of the geographies and tone of the topographies as the sun casts shadows across the landscape take precedence over the experiences of the people who live there or the ecosystems those people exist within.
Sometimes a place is built from the experiences had, the relationships created, and the opportunities taken by those who lived there or perhaps those who passed through. Humans bestow emotional meaning. Meaning creates place. Over time, the place is remembered and re-remembered. The remembering is reflective and performative. As memories are made and re-made, the place changes.
The concept of place, or the historical progression of place as an idea, traces back to Aristotle and Plato in Ancient Greece. Plato wrote of place as simply a location, and Aristotle defined place as a container 1. Place can be a physical environment such as a city, town, or neighborhood; a complicated interplay between people and the environment; or, more obscurely, a way of knowing 2. Place is as much a way of knowing as it is a thing in the world 3. With the addition of meaningfulness through experience and memories, a geographical place has a sense of place, or essence, formed by the subjective and emotional attachment that people have to place as profound centers of human existence. 4
Place and Memory is a compilation of three artists. Who come from different backgrounds. Who have different lived experiences. Who, using different media, share their conception of place, and the importance of memory, through their artwork.

[1] Tim Cresswell, Place: An Introduction (Chichester, United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2015), p. 25.
[2] Ibid., p. 18.
[3] Ibid., p. 18.
[4] John A. Agnew, Place and Politics: The Geographical Mediation of State and Society (Boston, MA: Allen & Unwin, 1987). Also Edward Relph, Place and Placelessness (London, United Kingdom: Pion, 1976), p. 43.

Biography: Carolyn Albracht
Carolyn Albracht is Associate Professor of Art Education in the department of Art and Design at Wayne State College. She is also owner and director of Blue Cat Gallery & Studio in downtown Wayne, NE. She formerly owned and operated L’eglise Art Center & Gallery in Aurora, NE and taught K-12 art at Hampton Public School in Hampton, NE. Carolyn served as the Visual Arts Coordinator for the Fall Arts & Music Festival in Aurora from 2004-2007, and served on the Fine Arts Board of the Hamilton Community Foundation for ten years. She has been a member of the Nebraska Art Teachers Association since 2008, has served as the organization’s secretary since 2016, and served as the organization’s 2014 Fall Conference Chair in Aurora. Carolyn studied Studio Art and Psychology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney where she earned a BA in 1999. She continued her studies at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, earning an MA in Museum Studies in 2003. She completed a K-12 Art Education teaching endorsement in 2009. And finally, she earned a PhD in Education Studies at UNL in August 2016. Carolyn’s personal artistic and teaching philosophy includes the idea that the arts are a necessity and not a luxury, and so she strives to make the visual arts as accessible as possible to people in her corner of the world.
Find Carolyn at https://bluecatgalle
Biography: Jeanine Coupe Ryding
Jeanine Coupe Ryding’s prints, collages and artists books are in museum and private collections in the U.S, Europe and Japan. Her work focuses primarily on woodcut prints, etchings, artist’s books, collage and most recently, painting. She founded both Shadow Press and Press 928 in Evanston, Illinois for fine art printing and publishing. She received her BA degree from The University of Iowa and her MFA from the Universitat der Kunste, in Berlin, Germany. Jeanine has received various awards and residencies including Illinois Arts Council Award, Arts Midwest Grant, Frans Masereel Center residencies in Belgium and Anchor Graphics residency in Chicago. She taught in the PrintMedia Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1991 to 2019.
Find Jeanine at www.jeaninecouperyding.com

Biography: Cindy Lesperance
Cindy Lesperance is an award-winning Chicago based artist who works out of her private studio in the NW suburbs.
Her art has been exhibited in many galleries and museums including: Zhou B Art Center–Chicago, IL, Bridgeport Art Center, 4th Floor Gallery–Chicago, IL, RMU-State Street Gallery–Chicago, IL , Atlantic Gallery–New York, NY, Niza Knoll Gallery–Denver CO, Rockford Art Museum, Quad Cities International Airport Gallery, Freeport Art Museum and has been chosen by prominent jurors such as: Joanne Materra, Kaveh Mojtabai, Fred Camper, James Yood, Aron Packer, Dan Addington, Sarah Krepp, Jerry McLaughlin, Lisa Pressman and Sergio Gomez to participate and earn awards in many juried shows. She has been featured in publications including: EA Magazine, ACS Magazine, Cover or the Journal of Financial Service Professionals and Featured Artist of the Red Dot Blog. Her work is displayed in private and public collections throughout the nation and is on view as part of the permanent collection of the Encaustic Art Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She is member and Past President of FUSEDChicago (2018-2021), a Chicago Based group of Midwest artists who work in Encaustic and a member of the Northwest Area Arts Council.
Cindy has evolved a personal style that is highly sophisticated and meticulous in attention to craftsmanship. Her process incorporates a technique she developed of applying small droplets of encaustic, a combination of beeswax, resin and pigment, one-by-one to the surface of the painting and exploring the relationship of these drips to the spaces in between them. The overall effect produces a tactile quality that when viewed in person, engages those who encounter it.
Find Cindy at www.CindyLesperance.com

Second Annual Member Show
2022-07-09 - 2022-08-13 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Located in the Community Gallery
This unjuried show celebrates the skills, creativity, and lived experiences of the Octagon community! Let’s fill the gallery and surround ourselves with our own amazing work — established artists next to emerging artists, all media.

The Octagon’s Member Show 2022: Participating Artists

Carolyn

Abbott

carolyntabbott.smugmug.com

Penny

Adam

Robert

Anders

Instagram: @bobsretirementhut

Deb

Anders-Bond

Tiffany

Antone

Instagram: @My_Lil_Weirdlings

Carol

Barrick

Layna

Bentley

Terry

Brigman

Ruthellen

Cunnally

Instagram: @CutandPasteMosaics

Susan

Cunningham

Instagram: @susanacunninghamart

Linda

Emmerson

Google Sites: Linda Emmerson papercutting

Kristy

Evans

Instagram: @kristys_abstract_art

Naomi

Friend

www.naomifriend.com

Cathie

Gebhart

danthefishpublishing.weebly.com/

Lydia

Gebhart

JIll

Guffy

Facebook: Jill Guffy

Rex

Heer

rexheer.com

Jim

Hellemn

jimhellemn.com

Katharine

Hensley

Laurie

Hoifeldt

www.etsy.com/shop/LaurieJaneArt Facebook: Laurie Hoifeldt

Julie

Hughes

Instagram: @juliehughesart

Linda Cather

Johnson

Catherjohnson.myportfolio.com

Connie

Johnson

Letitia

Kenemer

Svetlana

Lubota

Emily

Lupita

emilylupita.com/

Joshua

McCunn

thumbsphotography.squarespace.com/

Sara

Merritt

Instagram: @papercranesara

Jon

Muller

Nicole

Nevels

Facebook.com/Nicole.Tolson.7

Christopher

Norris

Instagram: @hedrawsgood

Susan

Norris

Instagram: @eccentricoldwoman

Hailey

Nyman

Etsy: CourageXConfidence Instagram: CourageXconfidence23

Sasha

Phillips

Instagram: @SashaBlu_Art

Joseph

Plum

emilylupita.com/joeplum

Timothy

Pross

www.ProssWildlifeArt.com

Kyle

Renell

www.kylerenell.com

Kimberlee

Rocca

www.kimberleerocca.com/

Sam

Senti

Skunkriverburls@gmail.com

Richard

Shook

www.dickshook.com

Jill

Sneed

josh

sorrell

www.joshsorrell.com

Kevin

Stow

Robert

Sunderman

www.facebook.com/RobSundermanArt

Kathy

Svec

Barb

Thompson

www.bthompson.studio Facebook/Instagram: @bthompson.artwork

Sean

Thornton

Theresa

Warren

Alicia

Wilkinson

aliciawilkinson.com

Kelsey

Wilson

www.kelseywilsonstudio.com

Norma

Wolff

Irina

Yavorskaya

ArtPal.com/impressionsByIsy

Tom

Zimmerman

Member Show artists respond to the question,
“What does Octagon membership mean to you?”
“The Octagon thanks each of its members and patrons when we all should be thanking them for being here! In my opinion, The Octagon has become the cornerstone of the art world in Ames, Iowa. Through their hard work they have moved the arts forward in such a way that the lives of the community members has become enriched in many ways.” – Penny Adam

“Art is important, it feeds our souls and helps us find our place in the world. The Octagon, by nurturing artists all ages, enriches the fabric of life in Ames.” – Ruthellen Cunnally

“Octagon membership is an intentional way to participate in our local creative community, which is invaluable.” – Naomi Friend

“The Octagon has been my safe space to think and create, teach and be taught.” – Cathie Gebhart

“Octagon membership is mutually beneficial: It is gratifying to support the arts in Ames, thereby enriching the broader community. And it is rewarding that the Octagon encourages and supports individual artists and engages those who appreciate art.” – Rex Heer

“My membership means that I have a place to belong in the community. Where I can experience art and create art.” – Katharine Hensley

“The arts are essential to the human experience, and membership is just a tiny way to show support for local art and artists. The Octagon has made dramatic, intentional changes over the past few years and is now I think the most relevant and necessary it has ever been – it is often art that builds empathy within a community, creates space for dialogue, and elevates expression so we can connect to each other in meaningful and transformative ways. I am proud to be a member, and hope to see the arts in Ames expand even more with the Octagon leading the way.” – Sara Merritt

“Octagon membership means that I can partner with and learn from the greater art community here in Ames and beyond in an accessible and accepting space.” – Sasha Phillips

“I get to be a part of a great art organization that I can help support, while it also supports me.” – Josh Sorrell

The Details

Each current member may submit one of their own original works, any media. This is work created by the member.
A simple form must be completed (form coming soon!). Let us know if you need a little help signing up.
This is an unjuried, all media show; all submissions will be accepted (one per member) as long as the instructions, including hanging requirements, are followed.
Traditional hanging requirements must be followed; full instructions for accepted works are here. Let us know if you need to talk about this.
Please label your work carefully with your name, e.g., the back bottom right corner for a 2D piece.
Drop off June 11 – July 2, 2022
The Octagon will not take a commission on any work sold in the Member Show, as a benefit to members. Work may also be submitted as “not for sale.” Work must be picked up August 16 – 20, 2022.
Keep in mind , any artwork that is shown in the Octagon galleries will not be eligible for future Octagonal or other Octagon juried exhibits.

If you want to join next year’s show by signing up for a membership, visit https://octagonarts.org/home/membership/
For further information, please contact us at exhibits@octagonarts.org

Work-In-Progress: Jordan Brooks, Susan Norris, & Lindsay Wede
2022-08-20 08:00 - 2022-10-01 17:00 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Exhibit Title: Work-In-Progress
Exhibit Location and Dates: Octagon Community Gallery, August 20 – October 1, 2022
Exhibit Description: The Octagon’s Work-In-Progress exhibit will display the behind-the-scenes work of an artist. Artists Jordan Brooks, Susan Norris, and Lindsay Wede will use the Octagon’s Community Gallery as their studio space for the duration of the show. The three artists represent varied media, local artists, and art educators. Through making visible the process of creation, in a public and collaborative space that considers the value of intergenerational dialogue, Work-In-Progress seeks to celebrate art as a dialogic, community-informed, and collaborative professional practice.
Artist Bios and Statements:
Jordan Brooks
Jordan Brooks is a creator and educator. His primary mediums are performance art, pen and ink, and painting both digitally and traditionally. His artistic practice and research explore the development of and commitment to identity, specifically Black identity. Guided by the affirmation, “See yourself, know yourself, be yourself.” Jordan’s creative practice seeks to understand self in relation to the social and physical world. Jordan created KNWSLF (Know Self) to bring his passion for creativity and identity development together. KNWSLF stands for Knowledge, Wisdom, Self Love, and Fellowship. Through all forms of creativity, he explores these four concepts in hopes to better know self.
Artist Statement: Developing imagination creates capacity to imagine and develop a nation!

Susan Norris
Susan Norris, an Ames artist, is a human magpie. Walk with her and you’ll witness her exclaim as she picks up a bit of rusty metal or a shard of plastic. Variety is the spice of Norris’ life from the colors, patterns and textures of her thrifted clothing and garden to the way she sets a table.
She is a scrappy collector and determined connector who can stitch Humpty-Dumpty back together again in a variety of imaginative ways. During the 2021 Ames Artist Studio tour folks asked, “How did you think of so many different ways to put things together?”
Norris is passionate about rescuing discarded objects, likening them to discarded people. The process of finding, sorting and grouping objects inspires ideas for expression through assemblage. Norris is currently experimenting with ways to combine her lifelong love of hand stitching and her newfound interest in mending with found object art.

Lindsay Wede
Lindsay Wede sees her world as a big adventure in art. She teaches art at Ames High School and helps students with their own projects. At home, she tackles creative challenges with her son. Lindsay loves the process of creating art and wants to use it as a vehicle for making a difference in the lives of others.
Visit www.pinzprints.com for more of her work.
You can also find her books at www.lulu.com/spotlight/pinzprints
Artist Statement: Brainstorming with botany, building blocks, bookmarks, books, and more.
Making art can be both refreshing and terrifying. It gives a chance to construct meaning and to release an array of emotions. It is a means to celebrate and rejoice or grieve and offer sympathy. It also offers a framework to pose questions and search for answers.
With art, I can study and share various perspectives and stories. I like to explore all aspects of life, from early childhood to old age. My work swings from silly stories to more sophisticated themes. I constantly think about my purpose and how my work can be used to make a difference. I think about what can be learned, as I am in the process of creating.
My pieces go through constant revision, because I approach them much like I approach life. Art mimics life, after all. As I work, I discover, learn, and grow. Like my art, I am a work in progress. Recently, I broke my finger on my primary hand and had to have surgery. I have been retraining myself how to use my hand and the process has taught me a lot. I have so many different ideas and mediums that I wish to investigate more. That is one of the reasons why I love teaching kids about art- there are always so many opportunities, even with limitations.
I enjoy making bookmarks and books to encourage reading and morals. I like designing building blocks for play and making connections. With the blocks, children can see familiar faces, expressions, and interesting colors and characters. I also am interested in drawing concepts from current events and various times in history together to try to better understand and make connections that are a lot harder to make. I am continually planning and creating with natural materials, as I really see them as the best art supply and a reminder of how connected we are to the earth. I use them to inspire me and make paintings and prints. To encourage my art, I spend a lot of time outdoors, talking with others, reading, taking notes, and sketching.
I hope you enjoy my work and take some time to engage with it. There are some interactive activities and there are books, bookmarks, blocks, and prints for sale. Please write your name in the guest book and add your email address. Please share any comments and questions you may have.

Events:
Work-In-Progress: Open House
Thursday, September 1, 2022, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Octagon Community Gallery

Join all three Work-In-Progress featured artists for an open house! Jordan Brooks, Susan Norris, and Lindsay Wede will spend the evening showcasing completed and in-progress artworks, answering questions, and engaging with the Ames community to discuss their artistic processes and current projects.

Work-In-Progress: Artist Studio Hours
Visit the Octagon Community Gallery to see the exhibit artists at work!

Jordan Brooks: Thursdays, 4:00-8:00 p.m.; Saturdays, 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
Susan Norris: Mondays-Fridays, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Lindsay Wede: Thursdays, 4:30-7:30 p.m.

Additional Events: TBD

OUT Exhibit
2022-09-01 08:00 - 2022-09-30 17:00 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
On View September 1-30, 2022
Exhibition Locations:
Ames History Museum: “Selfportrait: Flickering” by Sasha Phillips
416 Douglas Avenue; Hours: Tuesday-Friday 1-4, Saturday 10-4
Ames Public Library: “Queer Family” by Charlie Esker
515 Douglas Avenue; Hours: Sunday 1-5, Monday-Thursday 9-9, Friday-Saturday 9-6
Back Alley House Plants: “The Box” by Ashley Vance
111 Main Street; Hours: Wednesday-Sunday 11-5
Dog-Eared Books: “Social Medium” by Lane Maxson
203 Main Street; Hours: Monday-Thursday 9-7, Friday-Saturday 9-8, Sunday 10-6
Heroic Ink: “Mushroom Abduction” and “Portal” by Jennifer Leatherby
211 Main Street; Hours: Tuesday-Friday 11-9, Saturday 9-9, Sunday 12-6
Little Woods Herbal: “2424 2.0 (June 24th)” by Jameson Malone
136 Main Street; Hours: Monday-Friday 10-6, Saturday 10-4
London Underground: “a hot haven” by Piper Smith
212 Main Street; Hours: Monday-Thursday 3 pm-2 am, Friday-Sunday 2 pm-2 am

Exhibition Statement:
OUT extends an invitation to connect to the LGBTQIA+ community with authenticity. Each artwork was chosen because they bring forward key elements of community building like creation and maintenance or people and locations.
The artwork featured in OUT presents communities in a way that contains abundance, masses, and movements that are neither monolithic nor are they stagnant. A few of the artworks invite you to share specifically in the LGBTQIA+ community in hopes that you will understand and see what we know and hold dear. Other artworks invite you to see the more difficult parts of community: the loneliness, the effort, the isolation, and the need to escape.
By actively engaging in OUT, you are actively engaging in the many levels of community in and around the exhibition. You are building a community with the artwork, with the artist, with the people and places the artist calls community, with the Octagon Art Center, with Ames, and with me. Welcome.

~aj castle, Out Exhibit Juror
Juror: aj castle (they,them,theirs) is currently transitioning from full-time creator of programming and resources to support and advance gender equity in higher education to full-time scholar on the intersection of gender and technology. Their specific interests include researching, exploring, and understanding the creation and viewing of digital bodies, digital gender identities, power disparities in social media and user generated content, and the gamification of relationships. Their current multi-media works in progress include an analysis of the technologies of gender in sci-fi/horror films, a body horror short story, and various assemblages of found objects that speak on transitioning and expanding gender.
Artist Bios and Statements:
Charlie Esker – behance.net/profile/charlieesker; @charlieesker
Hello! My name is Charlie Esker (they/she), I am a nonbinary artist born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I moved to Ames to study Integrated Studio Art at Iowa State and now work as a full-time artist!
Artist Statement: Often, queer people’s stories get told for them. Whether it be by their families or by the media, queer people hardly get a narrator role when it comes to our own struggles. My art is my way of telling my story and working to heal my trauma through the artistic process. Most of my work revolves around my experiences as a transgender person, both internal and external. Inviting the viewer into my story; whether that be to connect with other queer individuals, or allow non-queer viewers a chance to see queerness through a queer person’s perspective. I strive to depict queer people in all our diverse, divine, glory.

Jennifer Leatherby – @jenleatherbyart
Jennifer Leatherby is a queer multimedia artist who lives in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. She was adopted at a young age and grew up in a town of population 200 in rural Iowa. Her work explores themes of gender, mental illness, death, nature, and escapism. She visualizes her themes through abstract painting and fiber art and with symbolism of black holes, surveilling eyes, hands, psychedelic landscapes, celestial bodies, otherworldly plants & animals. Her work includes drawing, painting, fibers, digital, video, performance, and sculpture.
Artist Statement: My work reflects my life through a mirror of fantasy and abstraction. I am interested in every day connections and contradictions. I explore the time between our first breath and our last breath, after our breath has ended, the space between breaths, and the things that take our breath away.

Jameson Malone – jamiemalone.com; @artbyjmalone
Jameson Malone is a 25 year-old multidisciplinary artist who graduated from Iowa State University with a BA in Biological/Pre-Medical Illustration. They create in various mediums, most commonly known for their digital and acrylic works. Malone is heavily inspired by celestial bodies, musicians, the occult, and the natural world. While infused with themes found in traditional art, their pieces often focus on the understanding of oneself within gender, sexuality, and mental illness.
Jameson is currently located in Des Moines, IA. This is the the ancestral, unceded land of the Báxoǰe (Bah Kho-je) or Ioway, Sauk (Sac), and Meskwaki (Fox) peoples. The Meskwaki Nation settlement is located in Tama, IA, and you can read more at www.meskwaki.org/
Artist Statement: I seldom depict more than one subject at a time in the pieces I create because much of my childhood was spent in isolation. Contemplating how the loneliness of childhood isolation has impacted and informed my young adulthood, I’ve seen how the pieces I create can often reflect the feelings, passions, or subconscious rhetoric that individuals in the community often feel as well. We so often feel we go through hardships alone, but as we reach out to those we care for, often the currents of time are having us flow in the same wave.
Proceeds from this piece will be donated to the Iowa Trans Mutual Aid Fund.
Lane Maxson – maramaxson4.wixsite.com/lanemaxson
Art has been incredibly influential to Lane throughout his life, though it wasn’t until a few years ago that he really started to enjoy and grow in his art. Within the last year, Lane has been able to reflect on past traumas and experiences, which can often be reflected in his work. Through this work, Lane hopes his art can open windows to help others with their own past traumas.
Artist Statement: As a twelve year old, downloading Instagram for the first time seemed like an exciting opportunity. Five years later, my views on social media are far from exciting. From a young age, the importance of likes and followers was forced into my brain and eventually became the only thing I was focused on. With each post, I gained more likes, fueling that need for approval. Before coming out, I wanted to be “good enough” online, and I feared rejection from others if I were to come out. I thought my entire life was based on my presence and popularity on social media. After coming out, my likes dropped, and eventually I started to realize how damaging my mindset had been. Portraying the ‘real’ me opened a new window of healing for me. I learned that you shouldn’t hold back or hide yourself for the approval of others.
Sasha Phillips – @sashablu_art
Sasha Phillips (They/Them) is a Disabled, Non-binary & Queer Artist living in Iowa. They were trained in traditional art mediums under Painter Dixie Schwisher and continued to pursue art on their own over the next 20 years. Specializing in Oil, Acrylic and Graphite they prefer a surrealist approach to art, exploring how nature, the macabre and the fantastic can tell stories about the human experiences of grief, joy and reinvention.
Artist Statement: I create art that blurs the lines between realism and surrealism, between the binary of life and decay. I use acrylic in this piece for its bold opaque pigment to heighten contrast and emphasize that the light of self knowledge and community cannot fully blot out the pressure of our socialization, systemic structures and internal doubts. Freedom is a process, a sometimes ugly, exhausting process, even within a supportive community, when safety isn’t a guarantee. Light is still light, but it can easily be snuffed out.
Piper Smith – @paintdbypiper
Piper Smith is a recent graduate of Iowa State with a Bachelor’s Degree in Performing Arts. She loves to utilize the arts, especially theatre, to contribute to her community and elicit positive change. She also loves painting and the ability it gives her to express herself. She is just getting started as a professional, so she hopes this exhibit can open new doors to her future.
Artist Statement: I feel that I am my most authentic self when I am able to interact with other trans people. It’s not that I can’t be authentic with people who aren’t trans, but there is something special about connecting with people who understand me on an even deeper level. Through my art, I can bridge that gap. Having a medium and also a platform with which to express myself allows me to tell the stories of my experience as a trans woman in a way that can better connect to those who aren’t trans. I believe the greatest struggle for cisgender people understanding trans folks is simply that the stories of trans people aren’t told enough. Even when they are told, it may not always be done by trans people themselves. When trans people aren’t granted ownership of their own stories, the narrative tends to shift into one that demonizes and lies about us. It is vital for us to tell our own stories for us to find that beloved connection, belonging, and authenticity.
I chose peppers for this piece not only because I think they’re delicious, but because they show us a wide array of beautiful colors, shapes, and sizes. Peppers are spicy, yet so are the connections I find with the people in my communities. Just as I am enamored with spicy peppers, I am with the spiciness of my own relationships.
Ashley Vance – @ashleyvance.studio
My work as a printmaker and mixed media artist focuses on issues of social justice and feminism, specifically. As a queer woman I use my experience to inform the work that I put into the world for purposes of awareness and validation.
Passionate about both art and issues of human rights, I combine these to bring awareness of different social justice topics and to validate the experiences of those that are “othered” in society. I use my education in printmaking and women’s and gender studies to create a line of connection and communication from the marginalized to the privileged to further inform those who do not understand, and to stand up for those who cannot stand for themselves. By using methods of printmaking, which is the medium of communication and mass production, I can spread my message to a much larger audience.
Artist Statement: I work with printmaking and mixed media in my work to spread messages of feminism and social justice. The processes I use are primarily print media based, where I use an image to create a printing substrate to create the ability to create multiples of one piece. With my work purposefully spreading messages to the masses, the ability to create multiples is vital to my process and my goals as an artist and activist. By photocopying and resizing my works to make them more accessible, I am furthering my goals of making art for the people; all people.
Events:
Out Exhibit Walking Tour: Thursday, September 8, 2022, 5:30-6:15 p.m.
Join Dr. Ruxandra Marcu, director of ISU’s Margaret Sloss Center for Women and Gender Equity, and Dr. Susan Harper, director of ISU’s Center for LGBTQIA+ Student Success, for a walking tour of the Out exhibit. Dr. Marcu and Dr. Harper will host the tour, offering their thoughts, reflections, and interpretations of the artwork with community members.
Anyone who wishes to join the tour can meet at the Octagon Center for the Arts at 5:30 p.m. Free and open to the public.
Out Virtual Artist Talk: Monday, September 26, 2022, 7:00 p.m. CST
Join juror aj castle and exhibit artists for an informal conversation about the artwork of Out. Register here to receive the Zoom link.

This exhibition is sponsored by the Octagon Center for the Arts, the Center for LGBTQIA+ Student Success, Margaret Sloss Center for Women and Gender Equity, Wheatsfield Cooperative, London Underground, Amy and Jason Popillion, The Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Iowa State University, Tara Fisher and Dave Svoboda, and Dawn Budd.

LAYERS OF REALITY: ANDREW CLARRIDGE AND MATTHEW TERRY
2022-10-08 - 2022-11-12 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Artist Statements
Andrew Clarridge

“My work is an endeavored process culminating out of experiences many or all of us have had in our lives. I like to focus on an array of issues such as technology and its psychological effects, enslavement, love, loss, death, renewal, enlightenment and empowerment. These are broad topics that have deep historic layers from which to sift through. The “layers” of inspiration are ambiguously related to the layers I build up in each piece. The digital work incorporates up to 50 layers or more of blending, mirroring, breaking apart, color correction etc. This work is derived from hand made pieces involving wildly vivid and bright colors, wood burned matrices and geometric form interplayed with organic counterparts. In both computer generated and hand-made pieces (sometimes both in one) the colors and forms are created to coexist with each other in a harmonious dance that often resonates with music I may be listening to at the same time.”

Matthew Terry
Life is expression; and from a young age Matthew has fully embraced this expression. Lost within his surroundings, at 16 he found photography, and through this medium he developed a way to connect with other individuals who also felt a similar level of detachment. By combining subjective perspective with universal appeal Matthew has found unique ways of questioning not only the identity of who we are, but also how we interact & relate to that which surrounds us. Whether he’s capturing a Landscape, Architecture, or the Human Form, his work challenges the relation of inherent truths & fiction that occur in our existence. Utilizing contrasting tones, and a distinctly deliberate perspective influenced by combining the conscious and subconscious as a means to question reality, Matthew showcases conceptual photos which evoke a level of detachment subtle enough for most people to connect with. It is through this connection that Matthew proves on a perceptual level just how related we actually are.
About the Artists
Andrew Clarridge is from Story City, and graduated with a BFA in 2009 from Iowa State University. Andrew has exhibited work with the artist group Paintpushers and also independently around central Iowa since 2010. Currently, Andrew creates work out of Mainframe Studios in Des Moines, and has an open studio where he demonstrates and discusses his work every first Friday of the month.

Matthew Terry is a Fine Art Photographer and graduate of the Academy of Art University, where he attained his BFA-Photography with a focus in Fine Art Photography in December of 2014. Currently located in the Davenport Iowa/Quad City area, Matthew picked up his first film camera in 2004 at age 16, and since has exhibited and sold work at galleries in Rome, San Francisco, and Minneapolis, among others. Additionally seeing work published both Nationally (Iowa, Vermont, New York, Atlanta) and Internationally (Italy, England). Growing up in the Midwest, he long felt alienated in both a physical and mental sense. Lost within his surroundings he found photography, and through this medium he found a way to connect with other individuals who also felt a similar level of detachment.
Recently featured in the Iowa 175th Anniversary edition of The Annals of Iowa and a featured guest at the 2021 Celebrate Iowa Gala, Matthew is a quickly emerging talent from the Eastern edge of Iowa attempting to change up the perception of what Midwestern/Iowa art has traditionally represented.
Exhibit Event
Layers of Reality Artist Talk with ISU Alum, Andrew Clarridge
Wednesday, November 2, 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Octagon Center for the Arts Community Gallery
Free and Open to the Public
Masks Required
Join artist Andrew Clarridge, an alum of ISU College of Design and a featured artist in the Octagon Center for the Arts’ Layers of Reality exhibit, for an artist talk on November 2nd. Andrew will talk about his exhibit artwork and artistic process, as well as answer questions from students and community members.

Layers of Reality: Andrew Clarridge and Matthew Terry is sponsored by the Department of Art and Visual Culture at Iowa State University and PhotoSynthesis.

WHAT'S THE BUZZ? [explorations in handmade paper]: Dawn Wohlford
2022-11-19 - 2022-12-24 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Artist Statement:
I could be the Poster Child for the slogan “Reuse, Reduce, Recycle.” Handmade paper is the basis for the majority of my artwork, but I often incorporate, weave or build using other found materials. I use old clothes, dead plants, shredded money, and items such as old doormats (made of natural fibers) to make paper pulp. I cast or incorporate pieces of rusty metal, vintage glass, bicycle inner tubes, leather and anything else that catches my eye. Pieces are often finished with pigment to achieve the appearance of metal.
My approach to art making is methodical. Each piece is carefully planned and goes through several time intensive processes before reaching its final state. Each stage informs and alters the finished piece. The finished piece aspires to be both a beautiful object and a thought provoking or humorous reflection.
Most recently, the plight of bees, as well as the construction of their hives (which is a form of papermaking) has captured my interest. Recent pieces reflect thoughts about the structure of beehives and how they are similar to human homes as not only a supposedly safe haven, but a place to work and create.
About the Artist:
Sculptural paper artist Dawn Wohlford discovered handmade paper during a National Art Educators conference in 1983, while she was a junior at Truman State University. She returned to college and read everything she could find about making paper, then began experimenting with handmade screens, an old blender and recycled paper, using her bathtub as a vat. Using these crude supplies, she was able to create art for her Senior Show and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. Still obsessed with creating art with paper pulp, she chose to attend Arizona State University to learn hands on from one of the authors whose book she had studied. With her new skills, she moved to Colorado and became an apprentice to Raymond Tomasso, an internationally known artist. She gave workshops in Vail and Leadville and produced 150 sheets of nearly identical denim papers for a limited-edition book, Strange Papers, that was assembled and bound in Germany. At the same time, she attended the University of Colorado and earned an MFA in sculpture in 1988. She moved back to her hometown in Iowa in 1998 and she became the Visual Arts Director for Quad City Arts, a nonprofit organization. She oversees two art galleries and a public sculpture program. Additionally, she serves on the Acquisitions Committee for the Figge Art Museum and teaches papermaking at Gilda’s Club. After caring for her home & family, she creates art in the wee hours of the night. She consistently exhibits her work in regional exhibitions.

[unTITled]: how a breast cancer survivor learned to say goodbye to her boobs
2023-01-05 - 2023-01-21 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
[UNTITLED]: how a breast cancer survivor learned to say goodbye to her boobs
Octagon Center for the Arts Community Gallery
Curated by Tiffany Antone and Vivian M. Cook
Note that, in order to protect our community — and especially high-risk members of our community, such as cancer patients — masks will be required in the gallery and during all events for this exhibit. Thank you!
Content warning: This exhibit (and accompanying performances) features some strong language and nudity, including photos from Tiffany’s mastectomy and radiation treatments.
January 5-21, 2023:

Exhibit on display in the Octagon Community Gallery

Co-curated with Tiffany Antone, who recently went through breast cancer and a double mastectomy, this exhibit will offer space for community, connection, and healing through conversations around breast cancer and breast removal. Tiffany, and a community of artists with shared experiences of breast cancer, will showcase visual, literary, and performance artwork, and the Octagon will invite community members to participate in interactive art-making opportunities. This exhibit will interrogate our cultural obsession with breasts, bring light to the sometimes fraught (and oft-times under-realized) connection we have to them, and give voice to the myriad complicated feelings that comes with letting them go.
From Co-Curator and Featured Artist, Tiffany Antone:
In fall of 2021 I had my first ever mammogram, which led to a breast cancer diagnosis and a double mastectomy. Facing down the time-crunch of having to decide very quickly whether I wanted to also have reconstructive surgery, I found myself confronting an internal stew of contradictions. I discovered that my relationship to my breasts was much more complex than I realized, and while having them removed was the correct health-wise course to take, reconciling myself to this new, now-altered, body has been a very tortuous experience. It is the complexity of this journey which left me yearning for ways to connect with others not only about breast cancer, but also about what breasts mean to them and what our breasts (or lack thereof) mean to the people around us.
Octagon Class Discounts!
During the run of this exhibit, breast cancer patients, previvors, and survivors will receive a 20% discount on the purchase of an art class at the Octagon. Register in- person or call the Octagon Shop (515-232-5331) between January 5 – 21 to receive the discount. (Youth art camps excluded.)
Saturday, January 7, 2023:

10:30-11:45 AM: Soulful Healing Yoga

Octagon Dance Studio

Join Melissa, founder of Soulful Healing Yoga, for a restorative yoga practice. This type of yoga is rooted in supporting the health of the body and the brain – rewiring functions of the nervous system – by enhancing the ability to reduce stress and process it; boosting the immune system; reducing muscle tension – imagine a sense of completely being able to let go! – and providing tools to learn how to relax and self-soothe. Each shape will be held in a supportive manner with no muscular strength required.
Combine this with yoga nidra, a “yogic sleep” in which the practitioner is in a state of consciousness between wake and sleep that allows for complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation. By allowing your physical body to fall into deep relaxation, you’ll withdraw from your senses and the world around to sink into greater inner awareness and in this meditative state.
This class will have seated and reclined positions, both on the floor. If you have a blanket, pillow or bolster, yoga mat, and blocks of your own, please bring them. If you do not have these items, no worries! Please let us know upon registration and they will be provided for you. If you prefer to do this class seated in a chair, please let us know as well.
This event is geared toward breast cancer patients, survivors, and previvors. However, anyone is welcome to join! No prior yoga experience is required. Please register (for free!) here by January 5th.

1:00-3:30 PM: Writing Through Cancer Meets [UNTITLED]: how a breast cancer survivor learned to say goodbye to her boobs

Octagon Community Gallery

Bring your notebook and pen, and invite your muse to write to writing prompts inspired by the Octagon exhibit, [UNTITLED]: how a breast cancer survivor learned to say goodbye to her boobs.
After introductions and creating a safe space, we will write together for timed intervals. After each session of writing, participants will have the opportunity to read their stories to the group, which is healing on many levels, and a self-care surprise.
This afternoon of writing is led by Ana McCracken, founder of the Ames Writers Collective. For the past year, Ana has led virtual Writing Circle Wednesdays for the William R. Bliss Cancer Resource Center. Writing Through Cancer Writing Circles are inspired by the Amherst Writers & Artists method, which believes that everyone is a writer.
RSVPs for this free event are not required, but preferred. Please email ana@ameswriterscollective.org for questions and to RSVP. Visit ameswriterscollective.org for more information about Writing Through Cancer writing circles.
Quotes from Writing Circle Wednesday Participants:
“I’ve come to regard Writing Circle Wednesdays as an integral part of my cancer treatment. As
much as I appreciate the efforts of my medical team and support from family and friends, I still
feel an “aloneness” in this journey. Writing Circle Wednesdays has proved a convenient
opportunity to air my worries, concerns, hopes and fears that only another cancer patient can
truly fathom. It is a safe space to share insights, tears, and laughter.” —NJ

“This has helped with chemo brain SO MUCH.” —KG

“Living with cancer is a lonely journey. Only those who have been or are on that same journey
truly understand the emotions, fears and challenges we face each day. I was hoping to gain some
insight into how others coped with their diagnosis. I not only gained that, but also came to
understand more fully my own reactions to my personal cancer story. This was a valuable
experience for me. I don’t feel quite as alone as I did.” —PP
Thursday, January 12, 2023:

7:00-8:30 PM: An [UNTITLED] Performance

Octagon Main Gallery
Join Tiffany, and a host of talented artists, as they share an uncensored look at their breast cancer experiences through poetry, short plays, narrative essays, and a dash of stand-up comedy. Told with humor, heart, and sincerity, this performance offers audiences an opportunity to connect more deeply to the artists’ journeys, and one another.
Image: “Heavy Lift” by Tiffany Antone.

Saturday, January 14, 2023:

1:00-2:30 PM: An [UNTITLED] Performance

Octagon Main Gallery
Join Tiffany, and a host of talented artists, as they share an uncensored look at their breast cancer experiences through poetry, short plays, narrative essays, and a dash of stand-up comedy. Told with humor, heart, and sincerity, this performance offers audiences an opportunity to connect more deeply to the artists’ journeys, and one another.
Image: “Heavy Lift” by Tiffany Antone.

3:00-5:00 PM: Make Your Own Boob Prints! Craft Day

Octagon Dance Studio
Before Tiffany’s mastectomy, she created an inkprint of her breasts, and she’s so glad she did! Tiffany’s inkprint is featured in the Octagon Community Gallery, and she invites community members to create their own breast-prints! This event will take place in the Octagon Dance Studio, with a private room available for individuals to actually create a print they can take home with them. Tiffany will provide guidance throughout the process!
Anyone who wants to create a breast-print is welcome to join!
We particularly want to invite breast cancer patients, survivors, and previvors to register for this event. All boobs are welcome, but please note that Tiffany tried this on her reconstructed boobs, and it was a little more challenging.
Please register (for free!) here by January 13th.
Image: Inkprint by Tiffany Antone
Questions about the exhibit? Email curator@octagonarts.org
Looking for some resources related to cancer screening and awareness?
Check out Iowa Cancer Consortium and the William R. Bliss Cancer Center.
Some additional helpful resources recommended to us:
American Cancer Society
LGBTQ+ Guide for Cancer Screening
An article from the American Cancer Society about racial disparities in breast cancer statistics
Thank you to our exhibit artists:
Tiffany Antone, Marla Andich, Summer Awad, Diana Burbano, Pamela Crouch, Hilde DeBruyne, Sharon Goldner, Carolyn Krueger, Kimberly Kruse, Amy McEntaffer, Molly McGuire, Karen Murphy, Connie Mutel, Angela J. Olney, Kelly Marie Schaefer, Rowen Schussheim-Anderson & Students at Augustana College
Art 253 Fiber Sculpture Class, Gaye Shannon-Burnett, Jill Sneed, India Snow-Watt, Mónica Toro Lebrón, Megan Wassom

Thank you to our exhibit photographers:
Kamaura Kim (ArtForce Iowa) and Alyson O’Hara
Thank you to our exhibit partners:
Ames Writers Collective, Iowa Cancer Consortium, NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Initiative, Soulful Healing Yoga, and William R. Bliss Cancer Center

Thank you to our exhibit funders:
City of Ames Commission on the Arts, Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities,* and Mary Greeley Medical Center.
The Octagon Center for the Arts is also supported by the Iowa Arts Council and Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.

*This program is supported by Humanities Iowa. The views and opinions expressed by this program do not necessarily reflect those of Humanities Iowa.

Snáithín Bainneanach/Feminine Fiber
2023-01-30 08:00 - 2023-02-25 17:00 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Snáithín Bainneanach/Feminine Fiber — Exhibition by Cynthia O’Hern
January 30th – February 25th 2023
A new fiber exhibition by Cynthia O’Hern will be exhibiting from January 30th to February 25th in the Community Gallery!

Cynthia O’Hern is a figurative fiber artist who utilizes the process of feltmaking to create figure and form by coaxing wool fibers into solid cloths of felted wool. She is drawn to the medium of felt for its tactile nature; its slow, conscious process; and its latent expressive potential.

Upcoming event dates:

January 30th – Exhibition opening day
February 2nd – 5:00pm Artist talk at the Community Gallery

Octagonal 2023: The All Media Show
2023-03-03 08:00 - 2023-04-08 17:00 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Octagonal: The All-Media Show is the annual, juried all-media exhibition at the Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames, Iowa. Originally titled the Clay and Paper Show, the exhibit opened in 1968 to provide an opportunity to the central Iowa arts community. Over the past 54 years, the exhibit morphed over the decades to become the Clay, Fiber, Paper, Glass, Metal, Wood Exhibit that has featured hundreds of artists from dozens of states. The newest version of the exhibit, Octagonal: The All-Media Show, launched in 2018 taking a note from the past while moving forward to continue to provide an exciting opportunity for artists across Iowa, the Midwest, and the nation. This exhibit features a regionally-recognized juror each year, attracts artists from across the United States, and provides significant cash awards.

CLICK HERE to visit the Octagonal Page

Exhibit Timeline

Applications Open: Dec 2, 2022
Applications Close: Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 pm
Notification of Jury Results: Jan 25, 2023
Artwork Delivery/Drop-off Deadline: Feb 18, 2023*
Exhibit Opening/Reception: March 3
Exhibit Closes: April 8
Artwork Pickup Dates: April 10 – 14, 2023
Artwork Ship Dates: April 17 – 21, 2023
*All artwork must be received by February 18, 2023. Dropoff only on weekdays (in-person)or via mail.

2023 Juror: Ash Hanson

Ash Hanson 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!
Click to visit Ash Hanson’s website

Below are the accepted artists for 2023. Congratulations!

Last Name
First Name
Title

Arp
Jordan
Heart of Gold

Arp
Jordan
Red, White, BOOM

Busby
Betty
Don’t Touch Me

Busby
Betty
In the Beginning

Cooper
Karen
Doing Fine.

Deam
Natalie
Skullwreck

DuVal Mihelich
Katie
How Do I Say Goodbye?

Freese
Robert
Original Social Post

Gauerke
Jennifer
Comfortmaker

Hardy
Michele
Circles #51

Hoyt
Summer
The Spring of Fortitude

Huffman
Angie
Saturday

Joffe-Bouska
Marcia
RIO DEL OLVIDO (river of forgetfulness)

Kruse
Jerene
Peaceful Shelter

Lemons
Jon
Blank Billboard

McKaig
Kelly
Orbits and Excavations: Nine-Patch Orbit

Park
Sangsook
An old diary memory (Brooch)

Petersen
Clinton
Red City

Pfeiffer
Jarred
Twin Columns

prior
Isaac
Blue Folds, Waves

Quinn
Jess
Symphony In Purple and Green

Reeves
Elizabeth
Consumption

Reinhart
Catherine
Inland Surveying

Reinhart
Catherine
Clan Curio

Rocca
Kimberlee
A Stone’s Throw

Roethler
Megan
Dining Room

Shea
Bradley
Over the Hills and Far Away

Simonsen
Richard
NAUTICA

Sorrell
Josh
Generate

staniforth
art
jungle

Wallace
Rob
Eye of the Tiger

Whalley
Tom
Twister

Whetstone
Mattea
Nutshell

Wilkinson
Alicia
Childhood Sky [healing pixel textile painting]

Wollert
Zach
Construct

Zhang
Dafang
Chinese Wisteria

To all artists who submitted art to Octagonal this year, we want to thank you for supporting the Octagon!

2023 Elementary/Middle/High School Annual Student Show
2023-04-17 - 2023-05-13 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
The Octagon Center for the Arts highlights artwork by local elementary, middle, and high school students annually.

GRADES K – 8 (Virtual):
SHOW DETAILS:

Google Form Submission Due: 5 pm, Saturday, April 1, 2023
Virtual Exhibit Opening: Monday, April 17, 2023
Art from Grades K – 8 will be displayed virtually.
Each elementary and middle school student may submit one piece to exhibit.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS:

All submitted artwork must be entered into the Google Form by April 1st at 5:00 pm to be included in the show.
All media will be accepted.
Photographic reproduction of entries may be used or copied by the Octagon Center for the Arts, without further agreement by the artists, for exhibition and/or publication (print or online). Artwork may not be credited in publications due to space limitations.

GRADES 9 – 12:
IMPORTANT DATES:

Show Opening in the Community Gallery: Monday, April 17, 2023
Reception: Thursday, April 20, 2023, 4:00-5:30pm in the Community Gallery. Our juror will announce high school awards and share comments on the show.
Show Closing in the Community Gallery: Saturday, May 13, 2023

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS:

If you are a 9-12 art instructor or homeschool parent and would like to enter your students’ work into the show, please email the Gallery Director to recieve a copy of the complete submission guidellines.
Eligible high schools or homeschool students must be located within 20 miles from Ames.

2023 EXHIBIT JUROR: SUSAN NORRIS

Susan Norris, an Ames artist, is a human magpie. Walk with her and you’ll witness her exclaim as she picks up a bit of rusty metal or a shard of plastic. Variety is the spice of Norris’ life from the colors, patterns and textures of her thrifted clothing and garden to the way she sets a table.
She is a scrappy collector and determined connector who can stitch Humpty-Dumpty back together again in a variety of imaginative ways. During the 2021 Ames Artist Studio tour folks asked, “How did you think of so many different ways to put things together?”
Norris is passionate about rescuing discarded objects, likening them to discarded people. The process of finding, sorting and grouping objects inspires ideas for expression through assemblage. Norris is currently experimenting with ways to combine her lifelong love of hand stitching and her newfound interest in mending with found object art.

QUESTIONS?
Contact: Casey Bridgham, Gallery Director
Address: 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA 50010
Phone: 515-232-5331
Email: exhibits@octagonarts.org

515 Week at the Octagon
2023-05-15 08:00 - 2023-05-19 17:00 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Monday, May 15th – Friday, May 19th, 2023
Click the above image for more information about this event!

Downtown Ames has a lot of fun scheduled each day from 5/15 – 5/19. On 5/16 and 5/17, help us add some fun color to our patio and paint on our fence and exterior walls!

The Shop will be open late Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for 515 Week!
Monday special 15% off discount on several artists in the Shop!
We invite anyone and everyone to get creative with our patio fence! Paint will be provided during the evening on Family Night (Tuesday) AND during the 5th Farmer’s Market (Wednesday)!

Party on the Patio - May 18th - Featuring Leo Bird
2023-05-18 17:00 - 20:00 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Thursday, May 18th
5 PM – 8 PM
Party on the Patio is every third Thursday of the month, May – September from 5 PM – 8 PM. Performers are scheduled to perform from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM unless otherwise noted. Drinks and light refreshments provided for a donation.
Thursday, May 18th Performer:
Leo Bird
Motivational + Comical Speaker
Performing: 6:30 PM – 7:00 PM

Leo’s website: https://leobirdstandsup.com/about-leo-bird/

The Words He Cannot Say
2023-05-22 10:00 - 2023-06-17 17:00 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
The Words He Cannot Say — Exhibition by Leo Bird
May 22nd – June 17th, 2023
A exhibition by Leo Bird
Exhibiting in the Community Gallery

This exhibition is a collection of works of Leo’s art accompanied by Leo’s writings.

About The Words He Cannot Say:

I, Leo Bird (b. 1991, Ames, Iowa) was diagnosed with autism when I was three years old and created the graphic memoir The Words He Cannot Say. In this memoir I show how I overcame alienation and bullying, succeeded in my job search, and learned from mistakes through the patient help of parents, teachers, and classmates.
From analyzing my past, I learned how I or someone else could have acted differently so the conflict could have had a better outcome. I write and draw to provide commentary on actions that my peers and I took in the past, without being influenced by any book, movie, author, or genre. My work is life becoming art instead of art imitating life. Some parts of The Words He Cannot Say were written objectively enough to allow subjective opinions. Audiences react to it in ways that surprise me and I learn from the audience. My stories inspire audiences to be kind, self aware, courageous, and adventurous and have debunked myths. The artist I draw like is Alex Katz, whom I had not heard of before artists had analyzed my art. I aim to use a color scheme that creates the maximum amount of contrast between adjacent colors using the minimum amount of color.
I got the idea for The Words He Cannot Say an interview in the summer between my junior and senior year of college in 2013. The interviewer suggested I could teach people about autism. I thought I could do that by using the true storytelling techniques I learned in my Writing Short Stories Class. When I shared my stories, I learned that nuerotypicals (people without autism) and even cats and dogs faced the same challenges fitting in as I did and found the topic interesting, so I shifted the focus of The Words He Cannot Say to fitting in, building talent and character and allowed The Words He Cannot Say to lose the autism theme. This discovery motivated me to write about my life.

Leo Bird’s Website: https://leobirdstandsup.com/about-leo-bird/

Upcoming event dates:

May 22nd – Exhibition Opening Day and Reception
June 17th – Exhibition Closes

Ames Art Walk - June 1st
2023-06-01 17:00 - 20:00 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
5 PM – 8 PM June 1st, 2023

Here’s who is coming to The Octagon during Ames Art Walk!

⏪ Nathan Moore
Ceramicist, Artist, Teacher
“Born in the Midwest, my journey as a ceramic artist started at a small liberal arts college nestled in the northeast corner of Iowa. There, I became increasingly interested in clay and its power to connect people to each other and art.”

Jordan Brooks ⏩
Multi-Disciplinary
Jordan Brooks (he/him) is a creator, educator, facilitator, and community builder. He is the founder and owner of KNWSLF (pronounced “know self”). Jordan blends creative expression and inquiry with community-centered and student-centered interventions to create developmentally engaging experiences.

⏪ Cyre Empire™
Mixed Media
Provocatively Afrocentric Mix Media

Nicole and Christ Nevels ⏩
Paintings and Mixed Media
Multiple textures and materials blooming with vibrant colors mixed with people-watching, movement and martial arts make each of Mixed Media Christian-artists Christ (pronounced Chris) and Nicole Nevels paintings, drawings, prints, altered books/cards and jewelry a rich, joyful experience with a life-giving message being conveyed.

⏪ Valerie Williams
Pottery
Valerie specializes in bowls that are functional and light, graceful and very usable. She never liked stoneware – too heavy, and she didn’t like the scratchy feeling of the fork on the matte glazes. So when Valerie started throwing clay, she knew she wanted thin walls on her pots and a very smooth glaze. But Valerie found an affinity for stoneware. She loves the malleability of the clay and the communication she feels with the material when she’s throwing.

Ashley Vance ⏩
Printmaking & Mixed Media
Ashley Fay Vance is a printmaker and mixed media artist from Knoxville, Iowa. In 2022, Ashley graduated with her BFA in integrated studio arts from Iowa State University, with a minor in women’s and gender studies. Ashley’s work focuses on issues regarding feminism and social justice and primarily comprises different types of print media. Ashley is interning for ceramics artist Caroline Freese and attending grad school for art therapy and counseling in the fall.

Party on the Patio - June 15th - Featuring Cyre Empire™
2023-06-15 17:00 - 20:00 | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Thursday, June 15th
5 PM – 8 PM
Party on the Patio is every third Thursday of the month, May – September from 5 PM – 8 PM. Performers are scheduled to perform from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM unless otherwise noted. Drinks and light refreshments provided for a donation.
Thursday, June 15th Performer:
Cyre Empire™
Hip Hop

Cyre bio –

My name is Cyre, I am a Designer, Podcaster, Music Artist, and more. I’m from the south-side of Chicago,IL. I am aspiring to become a torch of light for the youth, to show them anything is possible by planting seeds to blossom a better future for you and I.

Lito bio –

I am designer, rapper, songwriter, self taught music engineer from Libreville Gabon. Growing up I lived in both France and Gabon and traveled around the world with my parents which enriched my cultural background. I want to disrupt the status quo with my design and my music to inspire people to be who they are and not what the society is forcing them to be.
