For the past couple of years, I’ve been asked to donate artwork to the nonprofit organization Women Aware of Siouxland and agreed. Specifically, my donations have been entered into the silent auction held during their Annual Women of Excellence Awards & Banquet. This year’s event is on March 22, 2024, and I donated two ceramic pieces to their cause… so if you’re in the audience, keep an eye out to see if either strike your fancy!
volunteering
Sioux City Art Center Board of Trustees Renewal
I was appointed to the Sioux City Art Center’s Board of Trustees in January 2021, and subsequently elected and reelected as President of the Board of Trustees in 2022 and 2023. City board appointments are for two-year terms, so my term was ending in December 2023. The Sioux City Art Center’s director and board asked me to seek to renew my appointment in October 2023, so I reapplied and waited for City Council to deliberate. They sent out my renewal letter and certificate recently!
Morningside University's Into the Streets 2022
I once again volunteered with Morningside students at our annual Into the Streets event yesterday! This year, my group went to the retirement home Countryside Health Care Center where we chatted with residents, assembled puzzles, painted nails, and put up autumn decorations.
President (Chair) of the Sioux City Art Center Board of Trustees
In our most recent meeting, I was nominated and elected as the new President (Chair) of the Sioux City Art Center Board of Trustees. I look forward to serving our community in this role!
Volunteering with Art Club for Morningside's Into the Streets 2021!
Morningside’s 15th annual Into the Streets event took place today; we had over 800 Morningside students, faculty, and staff volunteer with non-profit organizations across the region! I volunteered with Art Club students, and we brainstormed display changes and restored the Lila Mae's House Break the Silence exhibit, which raises awareness about sex trafficking.
Storm Drain Decoration in My Painting I Class!
Timed for Earth Day and in collaboration with the Sioux City Environmental Advisory Board and the Morningside Sustainability Committee, my ART 225 Painting I class took on an extra-credit project to decorate two campus storm drains with goals of raising awareness (what goes into the storm drains comes right back out again without mediation into a local creek that feeds into Bacon Creek which feeds into the Missouri River) and beautification.
The first storm drain we painted on Earth Day itself, and there was a bunch of press interested in documenting it! We had crews from Morningside’s Marketing Department, the city of Sioux City, local ABC News affiliate KCAU 9, and the Sioux City Journal documenting our work, which was pretty fun.
Here’s a group photo of the completed piece, which is directly in front of the Morningside community gardens! The paint we used will hopefully hold up for a while, but when it eventually flakes off, it is biodegradable and should not contribute to the problem of storm drain pollution.
A second group of ART 225 Painting I students and I painted a second site which is located across from our new agricultural greenhouse the following Tuesday. The weather was colder than we’d have liked, but we persevered! Note that some chalk blueprints are still visible in the photo but will be rinsed away with the next rain.