EDMUNDSON ART FOUNDATION INC
4700 Grand Ave, Des Moines, IA 50312 www.desmoinesartcenter.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: The Des Moines Art Center engages diverse local, national, and international audiences with the art of today through its museum and school, adding to the cultural record through collections and programs. The Des Moines Art Center believes in the power of art to inspire personal, political, and social transformation. We commit to exhibit and explore thought-provoking modern and contemporary art. We connect people and art by offering opportunities for feeling, imagining, dreaming, and creating. We promote curiosity and embrace critical and empathetic thinking with a spirit of openness. We strive to be a welcoming and equitable cultural resource. This effort to ensure access to art for everyone has been a core tenet of the museum since its founding. Admission is always free for all.

Collections, exhibitions and works of art - Over 300 works of art from the permanent collections are always on display. Examples of our masterpiece-quality works include Claude Monet, Brice Marden, John Singer-Sargent, Francis Bacon, Frank Stella, Cecily Brown, Phillip Guston, Jean Arp, Andy Goldsworthy, Constanin Brancusi, Louise Bourgeois, and Alberto Giacometti. In addition, twelve special exhibitions were presented in 2017. These exhibitions contributed to the dialogues surrounding contemporary art and included Alchemy: Transformations in Gold; Ruptures; and Drawing in Space. We highlighted our permanent collections in smaller shows, such as When the Dog Bites, When the Bee Stings; Wild Life; Giacometti; Studies, Drafts, Sketches; Planetarium; I, Too, am America; Fink/Winogrand; and the Irrational and the Marvelous. Responding to our home state, we presented the Iowa Artist, Yun Shin. We published two major catalogs and several smaller brochures to accompany these projects in addition to a video series highlighting the work in Drawing in Space. Artworks entering the permanent collections came from all corners of the world, showcasing the diversity of our holdings and fulfilling our desire for multiple audiences to "see themselves" in the museum. In 2017, we acquired important works of art through gift and purchase byby Glenn Brown, Elie Nadelman, Rachel Sussman (site specific), Jorge Mendez Blake, the Propeller Group, Wangechi Mutu, Catherine Opie, Sandro Chia, Amy Cutler, Jason Garcia, Yue Minjun, Georg Baselitz, Peter Doig, Grayson Perry, Cornelia Parker, Francesco Clemente, and Grant Wood, among others. Countries represented by these acquisitions include Kenya, Japan, Italy, Spain, Mexico, South Africa, Great Britain, China, Germany, and Vietnam. Open to visitors since September 2009, the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park features artwork by 28 of the world's most celebrated artists. Related education programs reached thousands of children and adults.

Education - The Art Center's public and educational programs are committed to connecting people and art by offering opportunities for feeling, imagining, dreaming. Furthermore, we aim to promote curiosity and embrace critical and empathetic thinking with a spirit of openness, striving to be a welcoming and equitable cultural resource. Our efforts include operating a public art school, engaging in partnerships with more than 30 social and human service organizations, offering on- and off-site school enrichment curricula, creating opportunities for child-centered learning and family engagement, leading guided visits of the museum and Pappajohn Sculpture Park, and hosting varied public events that foster continued learning. Three terms of classes and workshops including animation, ceramics, drawing, jewelry making, painting, photography and more are offered annually and served approximately 3,100 students (children, adults, and families) in 2017. Of those students, approximately 4% (or 130 people) received scholarships. Our art access programs, comprised of six areas of focus, served more than 1,800 youth and adults from under served communities. The areas of focus include curriculum around art and literacy, gender specific issues, multiculturalism, school enrichment, confidence and strength building, and mentor/mentee programs. A few examples of school programming includes teaching the art curriculum for a local private school's seventh and eighth grade students, hosting more than 650 elementary-aged students from five rural school districts in a full day's worth of activities in the museum and art studios, and reaching hundreds of teens through a program called "High School Days" and curriculum for our "Teen and Clay Academies." Entirely Kids is initiative of classes, events, and museum materials encouraging cultural experiences for children and families. The tours and docent programs play an incredibly important role in serving our community, reaching more than 19,000 visitors, of which 5,700 fourth grade students from Des Moines and seven surrounding school districts participate without the burden of transportation costs. Docents receive both preparatory and sustained training around developing skills as facilitator, a listener, and a guide, and strategies for leading visitors in their own learning. Our public programming speaks directly to serving adult learners. In 2017 events ranged from lectures, gallery talks, and film screenings to yoga in the galleries, a collaboration of dance and visual art that took place in our featured exhibition "Ruptures," and two intensive seminars with visiting artists and self-selecting individuals. More than 2,700 people attended these programs.

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