Sculptures Rise in Iowa, Distract From City's Woes

A Des Moines venture capitalist and his wife have donated a reported $40 million worth of large public sculptures for a sculpture park, part of a significant redevelopment effort by the city.

1 minute read

November 1, 2009, 9:00 AM PST

By Tim Halbur

"It is the latest major project in a broad redevelopment, started in 1991, of Des Moines's downtown, which used to bustle during weekdays with insurance and government workers but fell quiet soon after 5 p.m. That has been gradually changing over the past few years, especially with the opening of a new public library, a science center and an events center, as well as a burst of commercial and residential development.

While the recession has slowed the makeover, the sculpture park is providing a cheerful, even optimistic, counterpoint to the economic gloom, as well as to the destruction across Iowa by floods and tornadoes in 2008."

FULL STORY: Cure for Urban Blight: Plant Lots of Sculpture

Friday, October 30, 2009 in The New York Times

Community / Economic Development Iowa Redevelopment Public Art

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