dsmWeekly - August 27, 2025

By Hailey Evans

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” The Statue of Liberty's famous poem by Emma Lazarus provides the tagline for “Bienvenidos a Iowa,” an art exhibition slated for next month's First Friday open house on Sept. 5 at Mainframe Studios.

“If you are an immigrant, the Statue of Liberty has a strong meaning, psychologically and politically,” said local artist Miriam Alarcón Avila, who is co-curating the exhibit with fellow artist Seso Marentes. They chose the New York landmark as a theme because of what it represents to their communities.

"We are honoring all these generations of immigrants and that sacrifice they made to follow a dream,” Alarcón Avila said.

“Bienvenidos a Iowa” is the second Mainframe exhibition that Alarcón Avila and Marentes have curated with Colectivo Luchart, the statewide art collective they co-founded. The show features 37 Latino, Chicano and immigrant artists from around Iowa and is designed to honor the minority groups' heritage, identity and resilience and spotlight their contributions to the state. The exhibition will remain through Sept. 23 to celebrate Latino Heritage Month.

During the First Friday event, 5-8 p.m., visitors can see the artwork, watch performances by Danza Folklórica, participate in a hands-on art activity by the nonprofit group Art is Rad, and check out custom lowrider cars on display from Lizarde Hydraulics.

Marentes, who recently received a Governor's Arts Award from the Iowa Arts Council for preserving and sharing cultural heritage through the arts, emphasized how Latino representation in the arts can influence future generations of artists. “We are Latinos," he said. "We’re survivors."

He said the event is meant to showcase the possibilities of Latinos in the art world, especially for youth who might not otherwise see themselves as artists. “We can’t let Latino stories fall through the cracks,” he said.

The art collective, Colectivo Luchart, involves dozens of Latino artists and students across Iowa and was created to fill “a need and desire to find other artists of Latinx origin who are creating in the state of Iowa,” according to its website.

Alarcón Avila said the group's members help one another find opportunities, apply for grants, bridge language barriers and provide general support. As she put it, “Every space we gain, we share it.”

Enjoy a few late summer nights with the Des Moines Symphony at Water Works Park. (Photo: Des Moines Symphony)

BEST BET

Dance back to the '70s and '80s with the symphony

Love a throwback? Relive the music of your favorite decades with the Des Moines Symphony's free pops concerts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Lauridsen Amphitheater at Water Works Park.

Saturday: "Decades: Back to the 80s." Zip back to the 1980s with hit songs like Billy Joel’s "Tell Her About It," Madonna’s "Material Girl," Phil Collins’ "Sussudio," Kenny Loggins' "Footloose" and Elton John’s "I’m Still Standing." Bring a picnic blanket and enjoy the groovy, family-friendly performances.

Sunday: "Disco Divas: Back to the 70s." Celebrate the '70s with disco queens Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Patti LaBelle, Chaka Khan and Diana Ross, along with iconic groups like the Bee Gees and Earth, Wind & Fire.

Admission is free to both concerts, and food trucks will be on hand for meals and snacks. Bring lawn chairs or a picnic blanket, some bug spray and, obviously, your dance moves.

The Week Ahead

Taste of the Junction, Thursday through Saturday, Historic Valley Junction. The oldest neighborhood in West Des Moines hosts its annual free festival of people, culture, music and cuisine.

Yappy Hour, 5:30 p.m. Friday, Either/Or. Grab a drink and bring your pup to a dog-friendly happy hour. The Animal Rescue League will be selling Frosty Paws (ice cream for dogs) to help raise money for its year-round programs.

Fall Renaissance Faire, Saturday through Sept. 14, Sleepy Hollow. The freewheeling festival returns for three weekends of music, feasting and general merriment, joust in time for fall.

Home Run Derby X, 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Principal Park. Watch three speedy 30-minute games of 3-on-3 baseball featuring MLB standouts and elite female softball players.

Art Night, 6 p.m. Monday, Big Grove Brewery. Unleash your creativity with a hands-on art activity at the brewery. Whether you're a seasoned artist or just in it for the fun, all ages and skill levels are welcome.

Trophy time: The 10th anniversary Cloris Awards ceremony on Sunday at Hoyt Sherman Place celebrated 11 local theater companies that produced 41 shows during the 2024-2025 season. Julie Larson and Adam Haselhuhn (pictured) co-hosted the event, where the Des Moines Playhouse won Outstanding Musical for “Waitress,” Iowa Stage Theatre Co. won Outstanding Play for “Witch” and Timothy Rose and Michael Howland won the inaugural John Domini Passion & Purpose Awards for their ongoing support of local theater. Check out all the winners and nominees on Facebook. (Photo: Paul Joy)

Joyful noise: The Des Moines Metro Opera just wrapped up a record-breaking summer season, with 92% of seats sold and the highest subscription sales since 2009. Audiences traveled from 42 states and five countries to attend performances. Fundraising also hit an all-time high, and national acclaim poured in from the New York Times and Opera Today. Behind the scenes, DMMO invested $249,000 in warehouse renovations and welcomed nine new trustees to its board. Looking ahead, subscriptions for the 2026 season are already selling ahead of last year, with productions of “Tosca,” “King Roger” and “Of Mice and Men” slated for June 26 through July 19, 2026.

Friendly neighbors: “Wonder Week” continues through Friday in the Franklin Area in north central Des Moines. The project from Group Creatives and Invest DSM celebrates 20 new resident-created “Wonder Boxes” joining 20 existing installations in the Beaverdale and Waveland neighborhoods. Check out the Wonder Walk Map to find boxes are filled with books, toys, plants and quirky surprises. Throughout the week, neighbors will host creative activities like music, sidewalk chalking, picnics and even a costume stroll.

The project revives Mitchell's past life as an artist. In the early aughts, the Keokuk native (pictured) began showing his drawings, videos, installations and other artwork at prestigious galleries in New York, including Gavin Brown's Enterprise and Deitch Projects, and collaborating with artists such as Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller. Although Mitchell left his art career behind, he's bringing that experience with him to create "a dedicated space that lets art work be on its own, rather than in the context of a coffee shop," he said.

The new space, called Sideroom Gallery at Wake Up Iowa, will open its debut show, "Superposition," with a reception set for 6-8 p.m. Sept. 6. It’s dedicated to the uncanny, mixed-media artwork of Tyler Corbett, an Iowa City native who lives in Milwaukee.

To make the artwork, Corbett broke down books, photos and maps into tiny geometric shapes and then rebuilt them into solid geometric forms. That process is the basis of his inspiration.

"I start with an emotion I experience, like fear or isolation, and I attempt to visualize it as a tangible form, usually a sort of geometric object. Then I take the geometric object and subdivide it to an absurd level of complexity," he said. "I use pencils and paint to render the image as if it were an actual still life." He then layers it with more paint and glaze to deepen and enrich the work’s atmosphere.

Corbett and Mitchell first met about 30 years ago, when Corbett was in high school and Mitchell was an art student at the University of Iowa. They became friends and roommates and have remained in touch since.

"I knew Jarrett was looking to start an exhibition space and we connected the dots," Corbett said. "I rarely use social media to promote my work, which means the only way to see it is often in person. So it's important to me that I am able to show my work to an audience who may know me but doesn’t know my work."

Mitchell invited Corbett to present the gallery’s inaugural show not only because Mitchell was impressed with the artwork, but also because he wants the gallery to showcase the work of out-of-state artists who have connections to Iowa.

Elsewhere in the building, guests can see works from Mitchell's personal collection — including those by Deller, Matthew Barney, Chris Johanson, and Kevin Lips — on rotating display in the coffee shop. "I often say that Andy Warhol had a factory," Mitchell said. "And so do I."

Contributing writer Rachel Corbett, who is Tyler Corbett’s sister, grew up in Iowa City and now lives in New York, where she writes about arts and culture. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, the New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine, among others.