10 cool things to see at the Des Moines Arts Festival

There aren’t many festivals that feature $15,000 glass wind sculptures alongside two-minute salsa dance lessons next to freshly grilled crabcakes located just around the corner from an attendee-made mural suspended 30 feet above the street.

In fact, there might be just one festival that has all that and more: the Des Moines Arts Festival.

Almost 200 artists and their work have invaded the Western Gateway neighborhood for this year's festival, which opened Friday. Over the weekend, an estimated 250,000 art fans are expected to peruse the wares, grab a bite to eat and take a load off while listening to local acts and nationally known bands such as the Gin Blossoms and Grand Funk Railroad.

From the moment last year’s festival closed to Friday morning just before opening, the festival's board and volunteers have been working to ensure a successful 2016 show. On Friday during lunch hour, the grounds were packed, and many artists reported better-than-expected first-day sales.

“I honestly haven’t seen the festival this busy on a Friday before,” said Liz Adelman, the festival's spokeswoman. “It was packed during the lunch hour, and I think that is because we are always trying to make the festival bigger and better, and people just seem excited to experience art and entertainment.”

But with so much going on, the festival can feel a bit unconquerable. And three days may seem like a lot of time, but it goes in a flash, I promise.

I took a couple of laps through the grounds to track down 10 cool things to see at this year’s festival. Here’s my list:

1. Chat with an artist you’ve passed before

Just outside the family zone, you’ll see Andrew Carson’s towering, colorful glass-and-mechanical wind sculptures. The giant pieces come from a melding of Carson’s training in illustration and his years spent working at a bike shop. And, he added with a smile, a lifetime reading Dr. Seuss.

Carson has been at the festival 17 years, and he looks forward to seeing regulars each year, he said.

“This morning, a customer walked by and said, 'I have been passing by your pieces since I was a kid and I’ve just bought a house and I want one of these for my yard,'” Carson said. “That's just so cool. You make connections all over the country when you do these festivals, and sometimes you leave a little piece of you behind.”

2. Jump on a public art tour

DART will be offering 40-minute guided tours of downtown Des Moines’ public art installations. The tour will crisscross its way between downtown pieces, featuring the backstories behind 14 pieces of public art. Pick up the shuttle at 12th and High streets.

3. Take a salsa lesson

In the creative family zone near 15th Street and Grand Avenue, Salsa Des Moines is offering free lessons to anyone who wants to learn. On Friday afternoon, local campers learned how to step and shake their groove thangs.

Anyone can salsa, artist director Amanda Howell assured me.

“Have you seen those videos of the 8-year-olds doing intricate salsa choreography? Once you know the basics, the possibilities are infinite,” she said.

And dancing is as much an art form as painting: “For me, it is the best way to express myself creatively," said Bertha Brubaker, the group’s former executive director. "I really become myself on the dance floor. And, remember, you don’t have to follow what you are taught, you can make each step your own. Lose yourself in the music."

4. Step into a piece of art

You’ll spot artist Joachim Knill’s booth from a mile away: It’s a shipping container.

And every single part of the container, including the paintings, which feature stuffed animal toys painted into European Renaissance scenes, is part of Knill’s carefully constructed story.

The container is emblazoned with notes and markings from the various fake “kingdoms, military authorities and revolutions” that have stolen the portrait room inside. Now, dropped onto the street, the shipping container is totally out of its element.

“The whole idea is, as the pieces sell, they are taken out of their content, put in a new one, and in doing so, a new culture emerges,” Knill said. “It is a commentary on how pieces of art can be snatched from their original context, and that story is lost, but I don’t look on that as all negative, because the piece becomes part of a new story.

"And really, art and other things mixing and moving and changing is how all new cultures are created.”

5. Bite into some fancy foods

The art festival has some of the most upscale grab ‘n’ go items one can imagine — from Island Noodles to tacos to Italian sausage to Buca-wiches, which are hollowed-out hoagie buns packed with delicious fillings (and a RAGBRAI favorite, I am told).

We stopped by the aptly named International Foods, where a heaping pile of seafood was boiling and crabcakes were being freshly grilled. Yum!

6. Support a nascent artist

Stop by the Des Moines Art Center’s "Nurturing a Student’s Vision: K-12 Student Art Exhibition" and check out 437 pieces from students across central Iowa.

“I think the exhibit helps show the importance of art in the community and in schools,” said Tracy Duran, who works at the Des Moines Art Center. “It allows young people to access the Art Fest in a new way, and we hope it nurtures their creativity.

“We’ve already had a couple people ask us to buy some of the pieces,” she added.

But, unfortunately, they aren’t for sale. After Art Fest, the work will live in the Central Library until August, when the kids will take them back to their rightful place on the fridge.

7. Instead of buying a painting, make one yourself

Erin Baker and the crew from Pinot's Palette have been offering canvases and their tent-studio space to festivalgoers for three summers, and they love it, Baker said, because kids get to “unleash their inner artist.”

“We have instructions for how to paint certain pictures, but we encourage people to do their own thing,” she said. “The kids who come in are just so creative, and the best part is, they're always so proud to show us what they’ve made when they finish.”

8. Cool off at the Interrobang Film Festival

For cinephiles and those who can’t stand one more minute of heat, the Interrobang Film Festival is the place to be.

Located just inside the Central Library, the festival features juried short film screenings that include foreign films, documentaries, art pieces and locally made works. Three or four films are bundled together in short film selections screenings.

“This year, we’ve structured it so that the collected screenings feature a bunch of different films,” said Interrobang producer Kristian Day. “We’ll put a foreign film with a documentary and an art film. It’s our way of introducing a lot of different types of films to our audiences, and they seem to like it.”

9. Buy from emerging artists

On 13th Street is a giant tent housing Iowa’s emerging artists who are up-and-coming visual artists. These young people apply to be included in the fest as professional artists do, and are juried by the same professional jury members.

“My favorite part of the festival is, look at the emerging artists,” said artist Martha Celerin of Bloomington, Ind. “Those are the people who are on the cutting edge. They are creating their aesthetic, and that always inspires me and pushes me in new directions."

10. Get inspired by talking with an artist

Bryan Newswander has driven from Sioux City to the fest with his family for three years, and he always leaves with a new outlook on the world.

“You can see and feel the creativity all around you," he said. "I always ask the artists how they get inspired, and it is so exciting and, well, inspiring, to see where their inspiration comes from."