2025 – ‘It was a very good year’

DMMO’s “The Cunning Little Vixen” with Oyoram’s scenery

The year 2025 was a very good one for Des Moines’ art scene. The news poured sweet and clear. Oyoram, the French-Israeli genius who now headquarters in Sherman Hill, installed “TimePiece” on the north façe of the Fitch Building. Transforming itself 24 times a day, his 3D led clock dazzles the western Gateway like a star cluster guiding wise men to Des Moines while inspiring the question: If an international artist associated with luxury brands like Tiffany and the Louis Vuitton-Moet-Hennesy empire found his way here, are the city’s possibilities not legion? 

Our opera company might well have enjoyed its best year yet. Des Moines Metro Opera had its earliest ever sellouts in 2025 and expects to top their subscription sales record again next year. In the last two seasons, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Opera America and New Yorker sent their top opera critics to Indianola for the complete repertoire. All wrote complimentary reviews of the company. DMMO’s “American Apollo” won an Emmy for Judy Blank and team at Iowa PBS, the fifth for the DMMO-Iowa PBS partnership. 

Opera America detailed the ingenuity of DMMO costume designers Vita Tzykun and Robert Perdziola. Tzykun coped with inflated material costs by having most costumes made in her native Ukraine. Her work on “The Cunning Little Vixen” co-starred with Oyoram’s scenery in a production shown on Iowa PBS. We expect another Emmy next year. Finally, the International Opera Awards named DMMO among the world’s five best opera festivals, and the only U.S. one. Two DMMO artists were finalists for IOA’s Rising Star of the Year award: baritone Justin Austin and tenor Duke Kim.

DMSO with 100 voice chorus

All that attention was too much for The Des Moines Register. That paper, which has pretty much ignored DMMO since Eliot Nusbaum and Michael Morain left it, did a series of smear pieces about the opera company abusing its employees. The paper went back decades to find former employees with bones to pick. They did not quote current employees, nor any who returned to the company after their first season — although 80% do, amazingly in the vagabond world of opera. 

Des Moines Symphony grew its audiences, too, with Maestro Joe Giunta’s signature pairing of avant garde discoveries and beloved classics. Season highlights included a pops concert with Beck, a collaboration with Eighth Blackbird on Viet Cuong’s “Vital Signs,” and a blowout performance of “Carmina Burana” with a 100-voice chorus.

Des Moines Community Playhouse also grew its audience in a season highlighted by “Waitress” including an award-winning debut in the title role by Hannah Zepeda. Josue Barahona, a 2025 Des Moines North and Oak Studio graduate, followed his own guiding star to Nashville’s esteemed Blackbird Academy. Oh, and he opened for Gwen Stephani at the Target Center in Minneapolis. He remembered Iowa fondly in his YouTube and Apple Music lyric video hit “Corn Sweat.” 

December touts

Manuel Álvarez Bravo lived and chronicled a full century of Mexican history, from the Diaz dictatorship through the Revolution and the golden ages of Mexican art and cinema. The photographer’s exhibition “Collaborations” recalls his famous friendships and chameleon adaptability, at Des Moines Art Center (DMAC) through Jan. 18. 

Ana Mendieta was a Cuban refugee who grew up in Sioux City and flourished in Iowa City before her tragic “murder” by sculptor Carl Andre. He was somehow acquitted despite the motive of her divorcing him, her flying off a 34th story NYC balcony while in his company and his repeated lies to the police. Famous for blood, body and earth art, Mendieta’s made-in-Iowa film “Grass Breathing” plays at DMAC through Dec. 7.

Scott Charles Ross returns to Moberg Gallery Dec. 5 with “The Earth Talks,” a meditation on climate change and the beauty of the natural world. 

Bill Luchsinger and Karen Strohbeen, Iowa’s most popular artists, moved from Moberg to Liz Lidgett Gallery and Design. Lidgett also moved her gallery from East Village to the space on Ingersoll where Moberg used to be. Look for her gallery to produce monthly shows featuring Iowa artists. ♦