This month marks the one year anniversary of the CIAA being headquartered at Hope United Methodist Church. Pictured are attendees from last Saturday’s Children’s Open Art Studio. The Althaus children, left to right: Cohen, 7, Kaia, 5 and Avi, 4.

The Central Iowa Art Association (CIAA) offers free and low cost arts and crafts opportunities for children, teens and adults. It’s a mission the local organization has had since its founding. In 1944, three women, Allene Gordon, Edna Wise and Helen Lentz, began exploring the idea of art classes being offered in Marshalltown. The ladies formed The Creative Group. Later rebranded as the CIAA, its Art Center opened in January 1958 at the Fisher Community Center and remained there until August 2020, being displaced after the derecho.

In 2022, the CIAA moved into Heinz Hall on the campus of the Iowa Veterans Home, but due to damage in the building, had to vacate in March 2025.

Its leaders, Linda and Robert Moore, worked to secure a new venue for the classes. In April and May 2025, New City Church opened its doors to the CIAA. But due to space constraints, the CIAA again relocated. Last June, it found a new home in the lower level of Hope United Methodist Church, 2203 S. Third Ave. The organization marks one year of collaborating with the church, a partnership both parties say has been mutually beneficial.

“About two years ago, we had Head Start in our basement at the church. We were sad to hear that they were getting ready to find a new place, and so our leadership team at the church spent some time in prayer, figuring out how are we going to be able to use this space, and we really believe God answered our prayer when conversations began with the Moores and other leaders in the art association,” said the church’s pastor Dani Musselman.

She added that the leadership team set a goal to view the building as “God’s building.” A rent-free arrangement was reached.

“Kate Hoover works with the CIAA and she also comes to church here, so she was a part of the conversations of getting the CIAA to come find a new home here. I think it’s worked really well. Seamless,” Musselman said.

The church updated the bathrooms, and the Moores moved in tables, chairs and cabinets, carving out a niche.

A Free Children’s Open Art Studio is held there the first three Saturdays of each month from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Parents are asked to stay with their children (or be accompanied by a teen), as the studio time is not intended as a drop off activity.

“We get preschool to middle school age kids,” Robert said.

Linda added that it’s not unusual for families to bring babies and small children.

Paper, paint, beads, tape, glue, string, cotton balls, wooden sticks and more are available to participants.

“It’s something to do — another activity for them. They do whatever. There’s no set thing we gotta do. No pressure. Especially during the summer it’s trying to find as many activities as we can. Having this on the weekends is nice,” said Gavin Althaus, who brings his kids to the Children’s Open Art Studio.

Second Sunday Art Classes, which began in April, are geared toward teens and adults.

“We’ve just started collaborating with Fizz & Fiction. They’re saving that second Sunday for us, after they close, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. so we can schedule activities there,” Linda said.

The July 12 event will be 3-D jewelry and 3-D art with acrylics to enhance canvas. It will cost $25, for ages 12 and up. Full details and registration will be on the Fizz & Fiction Facebook page a couple of weeks before the event, the Moores noted. It will run from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The CIAA owns an impressive ceramics collection, currently in storage. The goal is to publically display some of these pieces in the community. Three of the more popular items from the collection are representative of the Funk Art Movement: “Showerhead” by Robert Arneson, “Patched Satchel” by Marilyn Levine and “Mad Doctor’s Experiment” by Clayton Bailey.

Robert, who is president of the CIAA board, said he’s dedicated to keeping the organization going, but notes it hasn’t been easy.

“We would like to bring some community members together to hold an open discussion about the future of the CIAA,” he said. “We want to get some ideas and strengthen the board. A couple people in the community are quite vocal: they love what we’ve been doing.”

Linda said watching attendees get caught up in the creative process brings her joy. Pieces made by participants are proudly displayed in the glass cases in the studio.

“It feels like finally we have life again here in the basement of the church, where, for a year, we didn’t have a preschool, we didn’t have the art association, and so it’s now a space where creativity can live both with the central Iowa arts folks, but also with a youth group that comes and uses the space on Wednesday nights,” Musselman said. “I think this church in particular, Hope United Methodist Church, we believe God is a creative God, so to be a place where creativity can happen for all ages feels like a faithful act. It feels like it’s part of discipleship.”

For more information, CIAA may be reached at: centraliowaart@gmail.com.