Invigorating the Arts in Clinton.

As part of my continuing work on the Iowa Great Places projects in town, Tuesday night I sat in on a reorganization meeting for the River Cities America Arts Council. The RCAAC has been around for many years. They were responsible for putting on the Arts Alive festivals back in the day. Recently they have mostly been an non-profit of convenience for special events, e.g. the sesquicentennial and RAGBRAI.

The vision is to turn the group back into a full-time organization promoting the visual, performing and popular arts in the Gateway Region. What does that mean? Well, here are some of the projects that have come up in conversations with community members.

• Working to implement the Great Places Sculpture Garden.


• Allowing students and community artists to submit ideas for and paint the winning ideas for painting traffic signal boxes. This turns the drab, silver growths on light poles and street corners into works of art. This is from an idea in Brisbane, Australia


• Adding a juried art show to the Art In The Park Festival.


• Writing grants to support and increase teaching of visual and performing arts in schools.


• Introducing a program to record performances of the local theater, ballet, symphonies and other arts groups for later video or audio podcasting for shut-ins.


• Establishing an Arts To The Elderly program that would allow rotating artwork to be displayed in elderly care facilities, and allow for hands-on art programs for residents and the elderly.


• Establishing a One Percent for Arts policy in regional cities where one percent of all new industrial, commercial and residentail real estate development would be set aside for public art either as part of the new project or put into a public kitty. This program is very successful in both large and small cities.

Can you think of others? The next meeting of the RCAAC will be on Monday, October 30 at 7:00 p.m. at the Chamber of Commerce. If you or your organization are interested in contributing to any of the above or have ideas of your own, you are invited. This meeting will elect a new Board of Directors and establish membership policies. The organization will keep membership dues minimal in order to encourage participation. If you are interested or have further questions, please contact Liz Allen, Great Places Intern at the Chamber, 563.242.5702.