By Frankie (Amy) Felegy for Arts Midwest.
Broadcast version by Mark Moran for Iowa News Service reporting for the Arts Midwest-Public News Service Collaboration
Inside a two-story, century-old brick fortress, sun shines through stained glass artworks.
Music serenades down the hall; a koi pond will soon reflect a kaleidoscope of oranges and whites. Magic happens here.
But it isn't a fairytale-this is Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Eastern Iowa Arts Academy-a nonprofit offering accessible arts education-recently purchased this historic Arthur Elementary school, which was meant to be demolished.
"It's like a whole new place ... You can unwind. You can be creative. You can be exactly who you want to be here. It's a safe place," says Heather Wagner, the organization's executive director.
The building's plans include a hallway gallery, open studio spaces, and a community room with a food pantry, clothing closet, and mental health support. Folks can rent out instruments; there's a sensory room, and a kitchen and gym rental.
Students can sign up for band practice, create in the community maker's space, or record tracks at the studio.
Music as Healing
One of those students, Zoe Wolrab, is a high school senior involved in three rock bands through the academy. She sings and plays bass guitar, covering artists from Carol King to Toto.
"When I was 14, I was kind of struggling a lot, just focusing in school and wanting to go to school in the first place. And I was also struggling a lot mentally," Wolrab says.
So their mom suggested getting involved with music. Joining after-school sessions at Eastern Iowa Arts Academy perhaps saved their life, says Wolrab.
"Music is what I want in my life now. This kind of helped me find my career path in the first place. I just want to keep doing this forever."
The academy is open to students of all ages and abilities, who pay full or partial memberships up to $190 or so a year. By the next three years, organizers plan to have full ADA-accessible programming.
It's for everybody-by everybody.
"The whole community coming together is working ... on making this the arts hub for this area," Wagner says.
Meeting a Creative Need
When bringing folks back to the academy's previous building after pandemic restrictions, the problem was clear: The demand was just too high.
"They came back in droves," Wagner says of the students. "The need for expression in the arts was huge."
Classes started racking up waiting lists and students wanted more private instrument lessons. The academy was running out of room. With the help of a cohort grant through the Iowa Arts Council, the team secured the school for $260K.
The building, though largely untouched save some painting, has transformed into an arts refuge. Wagner says people can come just as they are: There's no need to put on a mask, empty your wallets, or be uncomfortable.
She just wants people to feel restored, much like the building's newfound purpose.
"Art can do what it's supposed to do. People can kind of bury themselves in the art," Wagner says. "You can just heal. And that's what it's all about."
Frankie (Amy) Felegy wrote this story for Arts Midwest.
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By Jonathan Feakins for Arts Midwest.
Broadcast version by Judith Ruiz-Branch for Illinois News Connection reporting for the Arts Midwest-Public News Service Collaboration
"It's a bit of a grandma-core hobby," Tierney Brosius admits.
But whether at her children's soccer tournaments or organizing an "Entomoloknitting Circle" at the Entomological Society of America's annual conference, Dr. Brosius has found that insect-themed needlecraft can serve not just as an artistic outlet, but as an organic, social means of science communication.
"I love insects in fashion; they're often used [for] being pretty, but also scary," she explains. "And I think that fashion designers often reach to insects because of that duality. There's tension there."
For the past decade, Dr. Brosius has hung her hat-and a growing collection of bespoke, hand-knitted vests-as a professor of biology at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. But she's also built a budding reputation as the entomological fashion maven under the moniker, "Dr. Beetle."
Her Instagram account documents sartorial projects that include a vest festooned with Salt Creek tiger beetles (the subject of Brosius's PhD), or a cocoon-style coat that commemorates 2024's double cicada brood.
Her artistic outreach, however, extends beyond the closet. Inside Augustana's Hanson Hall of Science, a 40 foot-long wall now hosts a vibrant, larger-than-life "Beetles of Illinois Identification Mural." Every species pictured-in all of their exoskeleton-ed wonder-were collected by Dr. Brosius and her undergraduates over the course of a single field season.
Wendy DesChene, an artist and professor at Auburn University in Alabama, collaborated with Dr. Brosius to create the mural. She met "Dr. Beetle" years ago while touring Augustana with PlantBot Genetics, a "satirical biotech company." As their friendship grew, including on-brand gift exchanges (Brosius once knitted her a pair of moth mittens), DesChene proposed working together to make a mural a reality.
"As an artist, it's hard to find scientists who don't belittle arts, or don't think of us as a true partnership," DesChene says. "I really wanted to work with somebody who I know as a peer, and who treats me and what I bring to the table as equal."
Dr. Brosius, meanwhile, had no such hang-ups. "I think that's why I interact with artists that deal with insects," she says. "They invite people to be curious. And that fear and hesitation can unfold into this sense of wonder: 'Oh my gosh, I never knew.' Even a drain fly, right? The silliest little thing ... but if you really get up close, they're like little teddy bears with wings."
The professor is especially fond of watching these transformations happen in real-time, in the class she teaches for non-majors. These are students who often enroll in the hopes of simply snagging a required biology credit, but who leave with a newfound love for nature's more chitinous creepy-crawlies. A few have gone so far as to become professional entomologists themselves.
"And I think that's what's so great about insects," she says, "because it's a great analogy for life: you can be a little tense and fearful, and it's probably because you don't know enough about it. Once you start to peel back the layers, that fear can fall away. And you're left with appreciation and love."
Jonathan Feakins wrote this story for Arts Midwest.
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By Frankie (Amy) Felegy for Arts Midwest.
Broadcast version by Mike Moen for Minnesota News Connection reporting for the Arts Midwest-Public News Service Collaboration
Scene: It's December 2023. Reggie Holmes, 72, faces the audience at a choir concert. She's been singing since she was a baby, but things have changed.
"I turned around to apologize to the guy behind me. I said, 'I just want to sing, but it will sound really bad,'" Holmes says.
"My voice was lovely, but Parkinson's stole that from me."
In the past couple of years, she's somewhat reclaimed that voice-in large part thanks to Parkinsong Choir in rural Washburn, Wisconsin. Last year, it sprouted from a network of choral groups across the Midwest (and world) for folks with dementia and their caretakers.
Eyleen Braaten is the executive director of that parent network: Giving Voice, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In it, she sings with her dad, who has dementia.
"[It] is an opportunity to have a human-centered approach to creating programs that really bring wellbeing to people that are often told that they don't have too much to give," Braaten says of Giving Voice, which offers free toolkits for communities looking to start their own choirs.
Getting your song on is proven to boost memory and overall health, especially in cases of dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Polls show music (even just listening) is especially remedial with older adults. Music is social. Active. Even scientific.
It's something Stephanie Johnson knows well. In 2009, the board-certified music therapist founded Music Speaks and has worked with clients struggling with communication, memory, learning, early development, mental health ... the list goes on.
"If the brain is not operating in a way that it used to, due to a physical traumatic injury or a stroke or Parkinson's or dementia, we can incorporate music and help pull the information from a healthy part of that brain back into processing, whether it be speech or motor or cognition," Johnson says. She's helped nonverbal clients sing, even when speech remains difficult.
Think of the alphabet, she says: Would you have been able to memorize those 26 letters, in order, without that kindergarten-famous alphabet song?
Johnson's team of music therapists works across the Midwest and beyond, adjusting song tempo and dynamics to meet client needs. But folks without this care access, a local choir, or even a diagnosis can still reap musical benefits.
Anyone can queue up a beat (may we suggest our Essential Midwest playlist?) and let the brainwaves work their magic.
"Most often, the western world thinks of music as a song or a genre or an artist," Johnson says. But what about music as healing? As identity, recovery?
Singing, especially with Parkinsong Choir, is a source of joy, friendship, and belonging for Holmes: "My voice is not what it used to be . . . It's still kind of harsh and I have a vibrato you wouldn't believe," she says, laughing.
"But I can sing. And it's beautiful."
Frankie (Amy) Felegy wrote this story for Arts Midwest.
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A Pennsylvania literacy organization is commemorating the Juneteenth holiday by highlighting the history and contributions of Black people in the United States through literacy and artistic freedom.
Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati, founder of the African American Children's Book Project, said books are vital to communities of color. She explained that before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, it was against the law in some states for enslaved people and freed Black people to be educated.
"The Emancipation Proclamation not only freed enslaved people, but it also gave Black people the opportunity to freely be able to read, write and spell," she explained.
In 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill making Juneteenth a national holiday, which means federal and some local offices are closed, as well as banks and the U.S. Postal Service.
President Donald Trump has made rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion practices a major part of his platform. He has also expressed an interest in ending the Juneteenth holiday, but has not taken any action.
Lloyd-Sgambati said her group promotes books by and about Black authors to preserve Black history, adding that families play a key role in keeping that history alive, especially as schools cut back on cultural and DEI programs.
"If they're not teaching Black history in the schools, then it's your obligation," she continued. "Just like you nourish your children with food, the proper food, with clothing, it is important that you nourish your children with books - because if you can read, you can succeed."
Lloyd-Sgambati added that the American Library Association conference, set for later this month in Philadelphia, brings together global library leaders to share bold ideas and shape the future of libraries. She's producing two panels, one focused on children, the other for adults. More details are online on the ALA website.
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