Des Moines Arts Festival® Announces 2024 Invited Artists

(Des Moines, IA) – The Des Moines Arts Festival® presented by Nationwide has released the list of the 195 professional visual artists invited to exhibit in the Juried Art Fair at the Festival, June 28 – 30, 2024 in downtown Des Moines’ Western Gateway Park.

The Festival’s invitation list has artists from 32 states and two countries, Ghana & Portugal. In comparison to the previous year, the list includes 119 (61%) artists who were not at the 2023 Festival; 25 of these were first-time applicants. The full list of invited artists can be found at desmoinesartsfestival.org/juriedartfair. A gallery of images can be seen at desmoinesartsfestival.org/24artistgallery.

“Our jury process truly celebrates the quality and uniqueness of the artists’ work. It is the reason why the Des Moines Arts Festival is considered one of the best in the country,” said Stephen King, Des Moines Arts Festival’s Executive Director. “Each jury is different and you can see that reflected in each Festival.”

Artists were selected last month through a rigorous jury process led by two peer jurors, Marina Terauds and Thomas Tyers, and jurors Amber Danielson, Lawrence W. Oliverson, and David Schmitz. Over three days, the Jury participated in a Blind Jury process. Through this, they were only privy to images of the artwork with associated pricing, booth images, and an artist statement. No other information was provided to the Jury. The Jurors previewed more than 5,000 images in a variety of mediums submitted by a pool of 895 applicants. The Jury used a 1 – 7 scoring system for the first round, followed by rounds of voting, eventually narrowing down, and composing the final show for 2024.

In addition to the professional visual artists, the jury compiled a list of emerging artists to exhibit as part of the Emerging Iowa Artistand Emerging Artist program presented by Principal. Since 2003, the Emerging Iowa Artist program has offered a unique opportunity for visual artists who are Iowa residents and currently enrolled in an institution of higher education to display their talents at one of the nation’s most decorated arts festivals. The Emerging Artist program offers the opportunity for individuals making a new career in outdoor arts festival at any stage of their life.