Ogling art in Iowa's
most eclectic community
As I have on the first Friday of the last several months, I headed east on the Iowa Highway 5 bypass, hopped on Iowa Highway 163 and then east on U.S. Highway 34 to Fairfield. When I arrived, the sidewalks of this not-quite-10,000-population city were teeming with people. No parking spaces could be found for several blocks off the square, so I eased the car into my "secret" spot behind Fairfield Ledger newspaper office, where I parked for five and one-half years.
In the past, nailing down the cause of the bustling business district was as easy as looking at the community calendar to determine if it was the chamber of commerce or soil and water conservation district that was holding its annual meeting at the Elks Club. Both events draw huge crowds, but the attraction is a buffet meal with three or four kinds of meat that turn to rubber during a tediously long awards program. The people who attend these events do very little strolling. The only time they're seen on the sidewalk is walking to and from their vehicles.
These people were different. They stood on street corners and in huddles in front of art galleries. They represented all walks of life in this most diverse of Iowa small towns. My heart swelled with pride for my adopted hometown, which not only had seized an economic development opportunity, but also provided a forum for the diverse population to get to know one another better.
The event that brought people out of their houses and from around the state was Fairfield's 1st Fridays Art Walk, a monthly showcase of the work of the city's eclectic community of artists. During the years I worked in Fairfield, I felt the town was losing out on a great opportunity to use artists as an economic development engine. Stacey Hurlin, founder of Fairfield's ArtLifeSociety, the organization that sponsors the Art Walks, says that during the first five Art Walk events, the 202 artists who exhibited their work made 158 sales averaging $240 and picked up 12 commissions. Patrons of the arts spent about $38,150 in Fairfield during the first five events. Attendance at the first five Art Walks ranged from 200 to as many as 750. The gallery events have spawned dance, theater and music performances. They've showcased art from various cultures, including Cuba, the Middle East, Indonesia, the Pacific and South Pacific region, Japan, India and the Mediterranean.
Fairfield is able to do this because it has inventoried the strengths and talents of its citizens, both formally through Mayor Ed Malloy's strategic planning commission and informally through the artists' community in Fairfield. Malloy brings experience gained through serving on Gov. Tom Vilsack's 2010 Strategic Planning Council and the resulting non-profit group, Iowans for a Better Future, to the planning process. That's a model any rural town in Iowa can - and should - adopt.
The ability of rural Iowa communities to stem a population and economic drain to the state's larger urban centers is limited only by the collective imagination of their residents.Beth Dalbey is managing editor of the Des Moines Business Record. E-mail her at bethdalbey@bpcdm.com.
This article comes from THE DES MOINES REGISTER
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