Inside Iowa State

June 8, 2006

Pavilion at Des Moines festival will feature ISU arts, humanities

by Anne Krapfl

Iowa State's participation at the 2006 Des Moines Arts Festival later this month will feature a pavilion that showcases the university's arts and humanities and emphasizes the connections among them. Through images and live performances, festival-goers will experience art, poetry, design, textiles, music, landscape design, architecture and dance from campus.

The ninth Des Moines Arts Festival will be held June 23-25.

The 20-by-20, pass-through pavilion was designed this spring by architecture faculty member Jason Griffiths and is being constructed of wood and fiberboard this month by his students in a graduate design-build seminar. Lisa Fontaine, faculty member in art and design, led the effort to create a simple line icon for each participating department or unit, for example, a person in motion for the theater arts, and a tree against a horizon for landscape architecture. These icons are used repeatedly and interwoven on the shell of the pavilion to represent connections among the arts.

Inside the structure on several screens will be image shows, some with text, others with audio, that feature Iowa State programs.

"It's quite a unique structure," said Ingrid Lilligren, a coordinator of the exhibit. "It will definitely convey the idea that at this university of science and technology we have a very lively arts and humanities component."

Lilligren, associate professor of art and design, also currently is serving as associate director of the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities.

"A university is measured by the strength of its units in total; the arts and humanities are significantly important for an education that strives for excellence," she said.

Units to be featured in the pavilion include the center; University Museums; the ISU dance, music, and textiles and clothing programs; and the departments of English, art and design, landscape architecture, architecture, and community and regional planning.

Funding for the exhibit will come from the president's and provost's offices, the College of Design, the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities, the art and design department and the College of Design Art Club (a student organization).

Student artists

Eight Iowa State students were selected for the Emerging Iowa Artist Program, a component of the festival open to any Iowa resident enrolled in a college or university. The exhibitor fee is waived for them; the intent is to encourage them to stay and work in Iowa. Look for these Iowa Staters at the fair: Jonathan Castro (ceramics), Matt Conradt (painting), Blair Ghrist (ceramics, metals), Danelle Hibma (metals), Justin Klocke (metals), Johanna McMurray (ceramics), Ramona Muse (painting) and Carrie Rosman (metals). Several others are on the waiting list, Lilligren said.

Move to western downtown

The arts festival has a new location this year, in the Western Gateway Park area of downtown (bordered by Grand Avenue and Walnut Street between 13th and 10th streets). The Iowa State pavilion will be along 12th Street, on the lawn south of the Pappajohn Education Center.

Festival hours are 4-10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Schedule

Schedule of performances.

"It's quite a unique structure. It will definitely convey the idea that at this university of science and technology we have a very lively arts and humanities component."

Ingrid Lilligren, associate professor of art and design and a coordinator of the exhibit