Artists gather in Marshalltown to host Iowa Arts Council Fellows
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Local artists and community members from around the area played host to the Iowa Arts Council Fellows touring the state to share their own artistic pursuits on Monday evening at the Marshalltown Arts and Civic Center.
Each year, the Iowa Arts Council awards a fellowship to five artists practicing their craft within the state, and this year, Joe Tuggle Lacina, T.J. Dedeaux-Norris, D.J. Savarese, Jennifer Colville and Tim Olson were awarded $10,000 from the council for their work.
While some the spotlight was on the fellows during the evening, as Amber Danielson, Executive Director of the Marshall County Arts and Culture Alliance explained, the meet-up provided a chance for artists from a variety of disciplines to convene and make contact with one another in order to generally grow the arts in Marshalltown.
"I think it's really important for any profession that you surround yourself with like minded individuals, and so this is an opportunity for us to connect creative minds," she said. "We've already seen some collaborations come out of it... I think for us to truly be a creative hub, we need to have those artists seen and those artists need to feel like they belong here."
Iowa Arts Council Administrator David Schmitz echoed Danielson's sentiments, adding that much of the work they do for artists directly helps to build communities across the state.
"We see artists really as key to community development, to the future of all of our communities," Schmitz said. "We also see them as really, really essential to helping communities envision and solve and address some of their needs and challenges and making communities hospitable places for them to live and work is really important to the arts."
To round out the evening, guest keynote speaker and artist Awki Nji came before the group of creatives in an effort to reignite the passion for the arts some may have lost after the shutdown and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"[I] work with artists to help them refocus and regain a sense of purpose with what they do," Nji said. "I'm hoping that what I say will hopefully connect with most of them in the room, regardless of where they are in their artistic practice and in their journey. So really, it's a resetting. Why do you create and what are your goals?"
As Nji reported, she and others have seen a lot of artists lose their drive or passion for their work following the upheaval brought on by the pandemic.
"For a lot of artists, the way they created and the way they produced work, and provided it to an audience dramatically shifted," she said. "I think, for a lot of people, it was an opportunity for them to reflect inward, [asking] 'What is it that I'm really wanting to accomplish with my art and to what degree is it important?'"
In a post-pandemic environment, Nji says there's a growing enthusiasm centered around artists in relation to community building, and she herself has been filled with motivation throughout her day in Marshalltown.
"It's inspiring, even for me. It's been a day full of conversations and breakout sessions around how to build community through the arts, and what that looks like now, post-pandemic," Nji said. "I think people are particularly excited about what that looks like, about what the possibilities are."
For more information about the Iowa Arts Council and their yearly fellowship, see their website: iowaculture.gov/arts.
For more information about the Marshall County Arts and Culture Alliance, see their website: www.artsandculturealliance.org.
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Contact Nick Baur at 641-753-6611 or nbaur@timesrepublican.com.