Edmundson Art Foundation Inc

Programs: Collections, exhibitions and works of art - over 300 works of art from the permanent collections are always on display. Examples of our masterpiece-quality works include claude monet, brice marden, john singer-sargent, francis bacon, frank stella, cecily brown, phillip guston, jean arp, andy goldsworthy, constanin brancusi, louise bourgeois, and alberto giacometti. In addition, fifteen special exhibitions were presented in 2016. These exhibitions contributed to the dialogues surrounding contemporary art and included arts & letters; glenn brown; and vivian maier: through a critical lens. We highlighted our permanent collections in smaller shows, such as selfie: self portraits from the permanent collections; cy twombly: natural histories; and whose streets. Responding to our home state, we presented iowa artists: alex braidwood and iowa artists: jordan weber, and we offered a full season of our "single channel" video series. We published two major catalogs and several smaller brochures to accompany these projects. Artworks entering the permanent collections came from all corners of the world, showcasing the diversity of our holdings and fulfilling our desire for multiple audiences to "see themselves" in the museum. In 2016, we acquired important works of art through gift and purchase by glenn brown, laurel nakadate, danh vo, mark bradford, rene magritte, marlene dumas, sandro chia, alice aycock, dmitri baltermants, yasuo kuniyoshi, and grant wood, among others. Countries represented by these acquisitions include japan, italy, south africa, great britain, belgium, russia, france, germany, and vietnam. Open to visitors since september 2009, the john and mary pappajohn sculpture park features artwork by 28 of the world's most celebrated artists. Related education programs reached thousands of children and adults.

education - our education and art access programs are diverse and comprehensive, including a public art school, tours, programs for at-risk youth, and lectures. Three terms of classes and workshops are offered to members and the general public each year; approximately 3,000 students (children, adults, and families) took classes ranging from drawing, painting, photography, art history, ceramics, jewelry making, and more. Approximately 6% of the students received scholarships. In 2016, the tours program served approximately 19,000 students from pre-kindergarten through college, including all fourth graders in des moines public schools as well as eight surrounding school districts. Additionally, more than 2,000 thousand adults toured the art center and/or sculpture park. Tours are led by volunteer docents who participate in both comprehensive initial and continuing education training. The student tours population includes many "at-risk" children as approximately half of des moines' public school students are defined as such. Our art access programs, comprised of six areas of focus served 1,427 at-risk students. The areas of focus included art and literacy, diverse communities, school enrollment, arts and healing, mentor programs, and gender issues. Finally, our lecture and gallery dialogue series speaks directly to serving adult learners. Speakers vary from our curatorial experts, to regional scholars, to internationally acclaimed artists. More than 2,300 people attended speakers' programs in 2016.