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The Des Moines Arts Festival^® was presented with the prestigious Encore Award at the seventh-annual Bravo Greater Des Moines Awards Gala on Saturday at Hy-Vee Hall.

“This is an incredible honor, especially given that this recognition comes from Bravo, an organization that I have such a tremendous amount of respect for,” Stephen King, Des Moines Arts Festival Executive Director told the estimated 1,100 guests in attendance. “Thank you to Bravo and to the Encore Award committee. We are proud of this recognition and will continue to work toward emulating everything it stands for.”

The Encore Award recognizes Bravo-funded organizations focusing on arts and culture in Greater Des Moines that have demonstrated going above and beyond the normal, procedural course of programming during the 2010 and/or 2011 calendar years. The Encore Award acknowledges an organization with programming incorporating one, two or three of the following elements:

Sustainable
- Built-in funding with positive financial impact;
- Long-term, sustained benefits to organization and community;
- Responsible use of natural resources with minimal maintenance.

Entrepreneurial
- Extending beyond the organization’s core mission;
- Profit-center, generating incremental funding;
- Element of risk with a business/management focus.

Innovative
- Out-of-the-box thinking including revolutionary, functional changes in processes and producing positive changes;
- Increase organization’s value and/or productivity;
- Built upon previous successes.

King also expressed his gratitude for the Festival’s sponsors who “provide us the funding and partnership to execute outside the box and provide the freedom to explore new and creative ideas.”

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DES MOINES, Iowa – Five members of the local and national arts community will serve as jurors this week for the juried art fair of the 2012 Des Moines Arts Festival^®, presented by The Des Moines Register. David Bryce, Laura Burkhalter, Chris Dahlquist, Jerry Allen Gilmore and Peter Goché will view the work of all 1,085 applicants and make final decisions on those professional and student artists who will be invited to participate in the Festival on June 22-24, 2012, in downtown Des Moines’ Western Gateway Park.

Bryce and Dahlquist were invited to be part of the five-person panel because they were Merit Award winners at the 2011 Festival and are automatically invited to return as a result. These two will jury the entire field of applicants with the full panel this week. The remaining three jurors will also return in June to adjudicate those exhibiting to determine awards.

“I tend to look for work within each genre that is innovative and speaks of our current cultural context,” Goché, a two-time juror said. “I am equally concerned with artists who presented evidence of having mastered a particular method of making.”

The Festival invites applying artists to view their images as part of the projected ZAPPlication system on Wednesday evening at the Greater Des Moines Partnership building. The entire jury process will take place over three days beginning on Wednesday, Nov. 16. During this time, the five-person jury will view and score 6,510 artist images. Selected artists for next year’s Festival will be announced on Dec. 3.

“Viewing 6,000 plus images is somewhat of a thrill in terms of what is seen and in terms of endurance,” Goché said. “The selection process is fairly rapid in the first round. Each subsequent round tends to be more difficult as we narrow the field of participants.”

David Bryce has been a featured artist in numerous galleries and exhibitions, including the Brooklyn Museum Community Gallery, Nassau County Museum of Fine Arts, the New York Museum, and the Museum of Art (Munson-Williams Proctor Institute). He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, and subsequently completed his MFA at the Queens College of the City University of New York. Bryce currently resides in the Berkshires in Mass. with his wife and their two children.

Laura Burkhalter has been on the Des Moines Art Center's curatorial staff since 1999, serving as Curatorial Assistant until 2004, Assistant Curator from 2004-2009, and Associate Curator since then. Her exhibitions include Meet the New You, World Histories, Surface Value, and various incarnations of Iowa Artists. Burkhalter has also served as the Art Center's Docent Educator since 2005. She graduated from the University of Iowa in 1997 with a B.A. in English and Art History, and is a native of Des Moines. 

Chris Dahlquist learned to use a camera and the darkroom as she was learning to ride a bicycle and write in cursive. She has held a camera in her hands ever since. Dahlquist spent the early part of her career in commercial photography, film, and teaching kids photo basics. Since 1998, she has participated in top national juried art festivals from Miami to Seattle. Her photographic mixed media has won many awards, is in hundreds of private collections, and is in many corporate & municipal collections, including Winter Park, Fla., Pacific University, H&R Block and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Dahlquist was a merit award winner in photography at the 2011 Des Moines Arts Festival.

Jerry Allen Gilmore has built a unique and impressive career over the past 30 years both as an artist and arts administrator including a combined fourteen years in Director and Curatorial practice at MARS Art-space, Phoenix, Ariz., the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, Fort Collins, Colo., the CU Art Galleries, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, Colo., and most recently, Visual Arts Director/Curator at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Arvada, Colo. He earned a BFA in fiber and painting, a minor in both art history and creative writing/poetry from Western Washington University, and an MFA in painting and drawing from Washington State University. Upon relocation to Saint Paul, Minn., Gilmore has continued his curatorial projects, artist portfolio reviews and jurying for both regional and national art institutions. He was a merit award winner in ceramics at the 2011 Des Moines Arts Festival.

Peter Goché is an installation artist based in Ames, Iowa, who is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design at Iowa State University. Goché holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from Iowa State. He taught in the Department of Art at Drake University before joining the faculty at ISU, where he coordinates and teaches design studios exploring architecture in relation to culture, landscapes and fabrication. For the last decade, he has produced research assemblies specific to the ritualized landscape of Iowa. He is co-investigator/author of Guidelines for Spatial Regeneration in Iowa funded by the 2007 AIA Board of Knowledge Committee. Goché has presented his design-work and scholarship at many conferences and cultural institutions in North America.

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DES MOINES, Iowa – The Des Moines Arts Festival^®, presented by The Des Moines Register, was honored with 19 Pinnacle Awards, including the prestigious Bronze Grand Pinnacle, at the International Festival and Events Association’s Annual Convention in Fort Worth, Texas.

Each year, the IFEA recognizes outstanding accomplishments and top quality creative, promotional, operational and community outreach programs and materials produced by festivals and events around the world with the Haas & Wilkerson Pinnacle Awards Competition. All entries are judged by recognized professionals in the areas of graphic design, promotions and public relations; broadcast, print and online media; and special event planning and management.

“We are so excited to be able to showcase the Festival and Des Moines on an international stage,” Stephen King, Des Moines Arts Festival^® Executive Director said. “To be recognized among so many other events from around the world is quite an honor for everyone involved with the Festival. This success would not be possible without the tremendous sponsor, community and volunteer support we have in Des Moines.”

The Grand Pinnacle recognizes overall event excellence including promotional & marketing campaign, media outreach, merchandise program, sponsor program, volunteer program, community outreach programs and website/multi-media programs.

The Festival received six Gold Pinnacle Awards for Best Community Outreach Program for the Prairie Meadows Community Outreach Program, Best Environmental Program for the Green Arts Program sponsored by Hy-Vee, Best Hat, Best Overall Merchandise Program, Best T-Shirt Design (One-Eyed Red) and Best Overall Sponsorship Program.

Six Silver Pinnacle Awards were given for Best Commemorative Poster for Mist by Michael Kuseske, Best Single Display Newspaper Advertisement, Best Outdoor Billboard, Best Sponsor Solicitation Package, Best Sponsor Follow-Up Report and Best Press/Media Kit.

Seven Bronze Pinnacle Awards were received for Best Children’s Programming, Best Event Website, Best Newspaper Insert/Supplement, Best Ad Series, Best Street Banner and Best New Merchandise.

The 2012 Des Moines Arts Festival^® is on June 22-24 in downtown Des Moines’ Western Gateway Park.

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