Public Art Foundation says $200,000 city investment helped leverage $5 million for 15 new installations including airport works

The Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation told the Des Moines City Council on Oct. 12 that the city’s $200,000 annual appropriation helped the nonprofit leverage roughly $5 million in public-art projects, producing 15 planned installations to be completed by 2027.

"With that annual investment, we have been able to leverage over the course of the last year and a half about $5,000,000 worth of new public art projects or 15 new installations that will be in place throughout the course of the next 3 years," said Dr. Alexa McCarthy, executive director of the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation.

The foundation framed the funding as seed money used to attract corporate and private donors and to underwrite projects across the city. The most substantial effort described was a multi-artist program tied to the new Des Moines International Airport terminal: the foundation said five exterior or non-secure-side sites — plus one work that crosses secure and…