Des Moines’ time has come
September is a self-contradiction. It is our ninth month, yet named as if the seventh. It marks the end of summer and the beginning of the end of all things [...]
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Posted September 03, 2025in Art News
Posted August 06, 2025in Art News
A tale of two companies
Des Moines supported the arts in record numbers this July, and not just for free stuff like Fourth of July Pops and various street festivals. We came about a new [...]
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Posted July 02, 2025in Art News
Firelei Báez delivers ‘the money shot’
The late Des Moines artist Don Dunagan liked to say, “Artists are somewhat cool, but art thieves get the hot girls.” He had a point. I asked my Internet Movie [...]
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Posted June 04, 2025in Art News
The original grand dames of Des Moines culture
One hundred years ago, Elsa Neumann, Gertrude Shloss and Elizabeth Cowles — the original grand dames of Des Moines culture — created Civic Music Association of Des Moines (CMADM) and [...]
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Posted April 30, 2025in Art News
‘Wherever this is’
“I’m about to give you all of my money, And all I’m askin’ in return, honey Is to give me my propers” – Aretha Franklin Des Moines gets little respect [...]
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Posted April 02, 2025in Art News
German domination — this time, it’s all good
The world edged a little closer to discovering what art is, thanks to the German court system. At least, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice determined what art isn’t — that [...]
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Posted March 05, 2025in Art News
Old masters and new worlds, with lawyers
This year got off to a slow start for art markets. Christie’s Old Masters sale, considered a bellwether for art markets in general, produced better numbers than last year but [...]
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Posted February 05, 2025in Art News
All is not as it seems
This month’s art news is filled with dreams, confusions and deceptions with lawyers going to court to argue that fake art is the same as the real thing it imitates. [...]
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Posted January 01, 2025in Art News
Jeff Fleming’s unbearable lightness of being
Jeff Fleming will kick off the 2025 cultural year in Des Moines Jan. 10 with an exhibition of all new works based on old family photos. Fleming paints ghosts and [...]
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Posted December 04, 2024in Art News
2024 – when diversity, equality and inclusion trumped everything else
Jim Duncan will further reckon the year in Des Moines arts in his The Daily Umbrella column the last two weeks of the year. It’s free to subscribe, and no [...]
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