A physically-distant art walk comes to life
When quarantine began, Christopher Chiavetta, a graduate student in integrated visual arts and recipient of support from the Integrated Studio Arts Excellence Fund, started spending more time in his backyard, processing the circumstances by sculpting a series of small mounds of material. He planned to showcase them as “termini,” or boundary stones, in his front yard.
So, when the call went out to artists to brainstorm activities for the annual Art Week event in Des Moines, Chiavetta struck up a conversation with Rachel Buse, who runs the event, about the potential for a city-wide initiative that could be organized, promoted and exhibited entirely on social media. From this conversation came the idea for DSM Emerald City – an opportunity for cooperative and shared action during Art Week, held June 19–26. The initiative invited residents of Des Moines to design a yardwork installation with materials on hand at home and provide people driving, walking and biking through neighborhoods with visual surprises at a safe social distance.
The community responded to the DSM Emerald City event with a range of front-yard projects, from lifelong art professionals to first-time makers. Examples included an installation of vacuum cleaners that seemed to be dancing; a large front-yard artificial beach, complete with palm trees and innertubes dreamt up by a 13- and 11-year-old; and two video projection collaborations, which involved artists from as far away as Turkey. Another memorable yard was in Beaverdale, where a resident offered her spacious front yard – plotted on the event’s map as Emerald City Park – to those visiting the art-yards to stop and rest, play or picnic.
“My hope is that DSM Emerald City has inspired some new connections to the people around us and closer consideration of the spaces we occupy,” Chiavetta said. “Above all it is a way to connect to people in the community through public art. It has started conversations and initiated new introductions, and it has been a way for people to use their voices, their yards and their art to get their message out there. It has made daily walks and bike rides more interesting for many and has given parents and children something fun to work on over the summer. It’s also been a great way to bring art to those who are only experiencing it online. The event was a wonderful gesture and reminder that the larger project is more than just art and its display; it is the city itself and how it is shaped through our actions.”