These photos are from the Welcome Back to Walnut Street event in Des Moines, that I attended recently. This event is an effort of the Downtown Community Alliance with help from Mickey Davis, project manager at Des Moines Social Club, to introduce the public to the redevelopment efforts within Walnut street. There were pop-up shops, food trucks, live music, a pop-up gallery that I was happy to be a part of (my display is the third image from the top), and a collaborative art making space featuring local artist Jon Pearson and his work. I was really intrigued by this idea of collaborative art. Basically, the artist put up signs around this slightly enclosed space off to the side of the street the invited the public to participate in art making. There were various panels set up inside the space with a variety of media spread out on a table for public use. It was interesting to see how others interacted with these panels. My boyfriend even contributed to a couple panels, and it was a lot of fun seeing the work transform in front of your eyes from various contributions. I really love the idea of collaboration and this just hit the spot. It is a fantastic idea, and I hope it happens again and more often.
Oh, and of course we had some amazing tacos from the Taco Loco truck.
If you are in or around the Des Moines area, you should try to make it to one of these events! It's amazing how much this city is growing and changing.
Additional Welcome Back to Walnut Street events will be held on Walnut Street from 11:00 AM – 2:00PM on the following dates:
July 19, between Sixth and Seventh streets
Aug. 16, between Seventh and Eighth streets
Sept. 13, between Fifth and Sixth streets
PS China pictures will come soon. There are just so many to go through! Hold tight.
What do you think of public collaborative art? Would you contribute?
