Des Moines Performing Arts offers new virtual performances Thursday, January 28, 2021 10:50 AM Des Moines Performing Arts announced it will offer three new virtual performances as part of its popular Wellmark Family Series. According to a news release, the performances will be interactive and will encourage families to learn together from the safety of their homes. They were developed over the past 10 months in response to the needs of families to have art-based interactions during the pandemic, officials said. “Quarantine has tested us all, especially families with young children,” Des Moines Performing Arts Education Manager Karoline Myers said in the release. “The Wellmark Family Series has always been about providing opportunities for families to spend quality time together and to create lasting memories. The performances include:
The Gazette
Orchestra Iowa will be receiving $175,000 and the Iowa Children’s Museum in Coralville will be getting $114,000 in one-time state grants aimed at assisting arts and cultural organizations and artists hit hard by the pandemic.
The $7 million in grants, announced this week, comes from the $1.25 billion Iowa received from the federal Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
The awards, which averaged just over $25,000, went to 267 cultural organizations and 152 artists in the state.
The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs received 550 grant requests, totaling $36 million, by the Dec. 11 deadline set for the wards. The Iowa Arts & Culture Recovery Program was announced Dec. 2.
To be eligible, applicants must have been offering programs to the public since March 2019. The department said Veronica O’Hern, the Iowa Arts Council’s grant services and artist program manager, will answer application questions via email at veronica.ohern@iowa.gov.
At Hoyt Sherman Place, the historic, 1,252-seat theater in Des Moines Sherman Hill neighborhood, Executive Director Robert Warren was wasting no time seeking a share of the assistance, which can range from $1,500 to $250,000, depending on the amount lost to coronavirus-related disruptions.
The new center for arts and education at Hoyt Sherman Place Monday, Oct. 5, 2020.
Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register