Ames Region: A Haven for Artistry

Nathan Lambrecht

A hub for the arts, the Ames, Greater Boone and Story County region boasts a trove of murals, notable museums, public art and sculptures, galleries and artist studios, and music and performance venues. It’s a place where creativity reigns, and people can’t get enough. In fact, artists of all mediums are drawn to reside in the region because the arts are highly accessible and supported by the community. Here’s a look at the arts in Ames and in the surrounding communities.

Weaving a Melody 

Olivia Valentine, an associate professor of art and visual culture at Iowa State University, has found Ames to be an excellent breeding ground for new ideas, something that encourages artists of all skills to work there. 

“The resources of ISU provide some excellent fodder for creative work,” she says. “I especially appreciate the art on campus collection that provides the entire campus with work from throughout the lifetime of the campus, including new projects being created. The campus museums always have engaging exhibitions that I visit regularly with my classes, especially the Christian Petersen Art Museum. The broader Ames community also offers an excellent creative community with studios and galleries around town.” 

One of Valentine’s most recent projects, which she began in 2016, finds the repeated patterns and connections between weaving and music. The work, titled Between Systems and Grounds, is a collaboration with Paula Matthusen, a composer and professor of music at Wesleyan University. The piece incorporates Valentine sitting at a loom, hand-weaving intricately designed cloth, while Matthusen is inspired to make electronic musical interpretations of the loom’s movements. 

Valentine says Between Systems and Grounds has had some of its strongest support in Ames. 

“One of our first public performances was at Reliable Street (now the Lockwood Cafe) in 2017,” she says. “Additionally, many community members in Ames were very supportive of our project.” 

Ageless Art 

Mary Riney has spent her life creating art and teaching others how to express themselves artistically. Riney moved to Ames six years ago from the Denver area, where she taught art at local colleges throughout her career. She also showed her own artwork at numerous local galleries. At the age of 84, she hasn’t slowed down – she’s now teaching her fellow residents at Windsor Oaks, a retirement community, how to paint. 

“I have several paintings up at Windsor Oaks, and people started asking if I’d do a painting class for them. We met and started doing watercolors about once a week,” she says. “Creativity is addictive. They bring their own materials and subject matter, and we just have a lot of fun with it.” 

Riney’s move to Ames has offered her a new opportunity to paint her own work and share her talent with others. Riney says that it’s been rewarding teaching her contemporaries and letting them find the courage to find their own artistic style and voice. 

“I’m very dedicated to helping people bring out their own creativity,” she says. “I don’t want them to paint like me, I want them to paint like themselves.” 

Jennifer Drinkwater

It’s All Good 

Ames artist Jennifer Drinkwater creates original paintings about what’s good in a community based on conversations she has with folks around the country. Drinkwater is an assistant professor with a joint appointment between the Department of Art and Visual Culture and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. 

“That basically means I spend half my time driving around Iowa talking to people about how they can use art for community development, because in rural communities, resources for the arts are few and far between,” she says. “I kept hearing interesting stories about how people – against all odds – are doing really cool things in their small towns. We want to deliberately leverage the assets in communities. If you focus on the positive aspects of what’s going right, that creates an upward spiral and makes the community stronger.” 

Drinkwater has taken the stories she’s heard in these communities and turned them into a series of paintings called the What’s Good Project. She gleans inspiration from driving or walking around town with locals and listening to their stories. In part, she credits her move to Ames as being what has made her project possible. 

“Ames has been a really nice surprise. I always tell my students, you could move to a bigger city, but you’re a cog in the wheel of the art system. When you move into these smaller communities, you have more power in shaping what that community looks like.” 

Nathan Lambrecht

Great Places to Get Creative

Here are a few places where you can let your creative juices flow. 

Octagon Center for the Arts: Housed in a 108-year-old building that is a work of art itself, the Octagon Center for the Arts welcomes more than 30,000 people annually through rotating exhibits, the Octagon Art Festival, a retail gallery shop, and art classes and outreach. Speaking of classes, the center provides options for people of all ages to be creative. Think a ceramic surface design and handbuilding class for those 16 and up; a draw, paint, make class for those ages 6 to 9; and even an art exploration class for those 18 months through 3 years.

For those who like to work at their own pace, the center offers virtual classes and art kits. These kits include things like the activity/project, supplies, a short video tutorial and written information (when needed). The center also has annual artist and individual and family memberships, which offer a 10% discount on classes, among other perks. 

Ana McCracken

Ames Writers Collective: Ana McCracken, a writer who received her Master of Fine Arts from Iowa State University, founded the Ames Writers Collective in 2021 with the mission of creating healthy communities through the art of writing. Since its start, the nonprofit has provided writing programs for cancer patients and survivors, adolescents, and those ages 50 and older.

The Ames Writers Collective organizes events and get-togethers such as young poet contests, author spotlights, Writing Through Cancer Writing Circles, an annual Swift Literary Festival that occurs every September during the Octagon Art Festival, and Open Writes held on Zoom. During the Open Writes sessions, participants gather online to share what they are working on and their successes and write for 90 minutes. The collective also offers ways for people to volunteer, from hosting an open-mic night and forming a writers’ group to staffing author events and working the Swift Literary Festival. 

Board & Brush Creative Studio: Located near Iowa State University’s campus on Lincoln Way is Board & Brush Creative Studio, which takes DIY to the next level. The studio offers plenty of classes for the public to practice their artistic skills, especially those related to woodworking. Students can learn to sand, distress, stain, paint and stencil raw wood in order to create a custom-made piece for their home. Creations are nearly endless when it comes to studio workshops.

Some of Board & Brush’s personalized wood projects include signs, trays, coat racks and boxes, while its specialty workshops include things like doormats, porch planters, backyard games and benches. Plus, the studio offers a little bit of something for everyone – bridal showers, bachelorette parties, private corporate events, children and teen parties, and even virtual workshops. 

– Kevin Litwin contributed to this article.