In its inaugural year, the Big Field Fund (BFF) has announced awards totalling $61,134 to 11 grantees, all Iowa artists or collectives living within an 80 mile radius of Iowa City. Big Field Fund grants support research and development towards and the public realization of connective, collaborative, and/or experimental artist-led projects that fulfill one or more of the following focus areas:

• projects that manifest new and inventive models to present/nurture/deploy visuals arts in Iowa
• projects that support under-resourced artists and creative communities
• projects that engage with vulnerable or underutilized resources, structures, systems, or
  ecologies
• projects that would likely not otherwise be eligible for financial support due to their
  multidisciplinary, ephemeral, or risk-taking nature

Of the 11 grants awarded, 6 are project grants and 5 are research/development grants. Big Field Fund is a Regional Regranting Program supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and administered by Iowa City arts organization Public Space One (PS1).

In addition to the Big Field Fund, in 2024 PS1 has shown the work of over 350 artists, programmed 49 workshops, and hosted over 500 events in its Iowa City spaces, which include gallery and performances space, community-access studios, libraries, and gardens. Thanks to the generosity of the Warhol Foundation, Big Field Fund effectively doubles PS1’s annual financial support of artists.

This year’s Big Field Fund jury comprised four artists and cultural workers – Jane Gilmor (Cedar Rapids, IA), Jill Wells (Des Moines, IA), alea adigweme (Providence, RI/Los Angeles, CA), and Connie Yu (Philadelphia, PA) – bringing a diversity of experience and expertise to the selection process. Gilmor said: “I was so impressed with the number and quality of innovative collaborations proposed…and the broad range of disciplines represented.”

Research/Development Grantees

J.A. Engman and Cheryl Weatherford
Visual Spectrums will explore how people might engage with the visual arts after a loss of vision. Writer Jocelyn Engman and visual arts and materials artist Cheryl Weatherford will conduct research through dialogues and interviews with local artists and arts enthusiasts of varying visual capabilities. By investigating and amplifying the diversity of ocular experience and perception, Engman and Weatherford will strive to create a small visual arts exhibit that facilitates a more accessible and inclusive engagement.

 

Thalassa Raasch
With aims to develop an experimental score, Thalassa Raasch will research the etymology of “siren,” visit choirs and singing communities in and around Iowa City, and host conversations with womxn about the intersectional legacy of femme voices in expressions of resistance and joy. Along with ten diverse womxn singers, one to represent each decade of life, Raasch will initiate collaborations to create both an ephemeral and responsive live performance and an immersive multi-channel audio-video installation. Siren will investigate what it means to sound an emergency, using the power of voice as an instrument of change.

 

Hope Tucker
Hope Tucker will design and fabricate low-energy, weatherproof, self-contained systems for future public video displays as she studies the legacies of “forever chemicals,” addressing water contamination and the impact on local communities. REMINDER seeks to expand possibilities within the format of short-form moving image while engaging the public in the creation and exhibition of a non-industrial and experimental approach to filmmaking. The project aims to draw multiple generations of Iowans into a dialogue about clean water as a basic human right.

 

Lovar Davis Kidd
Interdisciplinary performer, choreographer, and abstract artist Lovar Davis Kidd (L.D.) will lead The Sound of Movement, a series of community workshops in Cedar Rapids that explore the intersection of spoken word, visual arts, music, and movement technology. This innovative project will introduce participants to wearable MIDI technology, empowering them to create sound through embodied movement. Through these immersive experiences, artists and community members will generate dynamic, collaborative mini-performances that amplify their creative voices and strengthen cultural connections.

The Sound of Movement will prioritize accessibility by offering workshops and performances designed to engage diverse audiences and participants, including under-resourced artists. The project will foster skill development, enhance artistic collaboration, and provide new avenues for creative expression, ultimately enriching the cultural landscape of Cedar Rapids.

 

Tamsie Ringler
Taking place on the banks of the Mississippi River in Dubuque, Iowa, the Dubuque Rendezvous: A Mississippi River Art and Climate Meetup will be a multi-disciplinary event fusing art, performance, and inclusive dialogue to envision a future of interconnectedness and collaborative engagement to address climate crisis. Tamsie Ringler will complete groundwork for a week-long festival, securing community partnerships, inviting participants from the arts, sciences, and humanities, building a forum to share perspectives and practices to support the Mississippi River system and its communities. To gain insight into physical limits, geographical barriers, and resource scarcity, Ringler will also walk from Madison, WI to Dubuque, IA.

 

Project Grantees

 

Revitalizadores de Papel
Cedar Rapids-based artist Narciso Meneses Elizalde will collaborate with Colectivo Jäitsibi to facilitate workshops supporting the revitalization of Indigenous amate paper production for ritual and craft purposes in the Otomi-Tepehua Highlands, Mexico, and share such process with eastern Iowans through presentations given by some of the participants, along with the rest of the world through a video documentary.

 

 

Katherine Eid Wild
From My Father’s Table is an intimate performance art experience that blends live storytelling, documentary-style film, and a shared meal to explore the deep connection between food and memory. The project offers a glimpse into the old world, where food is more than sustenance—it is a vessel for love and intergenerational transmission. The performance culminates in a communal act: kafta, a traditional Lebanese dish, freshly grilled and wrapped in bread, is served to the audience, inviting all to not only witness but participate in the narrative and reflect on the tastes, smells, and rituals that connect us to one another.

 

Elizabeth McTernan and the Meandering River Group
Meandering River is an interdisciplinary collaboration to create an iterative, site-specific multimedia performance illuminating intricate ecological networks between people, water, and infrastructure around the Iowa River passing through Iowa City. The core group includes visual artists, musicians, dancers, scholars, ecofeminists, and hydroscientists with a shared vision of shifting how the public interacts with the river in the short- and long-term.

 

Nicholas Cladis
The Eastern Iowa Fiber and Dye Cooperative aims to encourage a communal, local approach to plant-based fiber and dye production and give paper, book, and textile artists a physical and spiritual resource for their work. In 2025, they will pilot a collaborative fiber and dye garden that distributes its harvest to co-op artists and provides public workshops and programming to the community. Nicholas Cladis will be working with Lilah Ward and Anna Geyer to see the co-op to fruition.

 

 

Philip Rabalais and Auden Lincoln-Vogel
Philip Rabalais and Auden Lincoln-Vogel will complete production of, conduct community outreach around, and screen their hybrid fiction/documentary film The Tower of Invincibility. The film comprises vignettes that reflect the politics, pathos, and humor of Rabalais’ unusual hometown of Fairfield, Iowa. Their organic and non-traditional working method incorporates improvisation, collaboration, work with non-actors and emerging filmmakers, and community input with the aim of creating films that are of and for their communities.

 

Allison Rowe and Nancy Nowacek of Working Group
In Just Crushing, politically themed cars annihilate one another, transposing American political discourse into a spectacle of destruction. Allison Rowe and Nancy Nowacek will lead a diverse group of eastern Iowa teens in translating their thoughts about social issues into politically-inspired art cars, which will then compete in a civic-themed demolition derby at the Muscatine County Fair. Documentation of the project will become a multi-channel video work for exhibition.