Big Announcements for the New Year
Happy 2025! I wanted to start out the year by sharing some exciting updates.
This year has already been filled to the brim for me, and I can just tell it’s going to be a year of change and growth. I was recently awarded my first-ever arts grant, which has enabled me to take a big step I’ve wanted to take for a long time—leasing my own photo studio. I’ve officially moved into Studio #407 on the top floor of the Fitch Building in downtown Des Moines!
This studio will serve as the home for my personal creative projects and portrait sessions. It’s a dedicated space where I can focus, grow, and bring my ideas to life. I’ve worked out of temporary studios many times, but always renting by the hour or day, and never in a space that was truly my own, where I could let my ideas unfold over days or weeks to grow to their fullest potential. Having this kind of creative environment has been a dream for a long time, and I already have so many exciting plans in the works that I can’t wait to share with you!
Being in the Fitch Building and back downtown has been great so far–it’s filled with artists working across many mediums, and my studio neighbors are incredibly talented and interesting. I’m excited to share a space with such a vibrant community, and looking forward to open studio events where you can come tour the building and check everything out. I have huge windows with great south- and west-facing views, (sunset is PRIME), and being back in this neighborhood is giving me all kinds of nostalgic feelings and memories of when I lived downtown at Crane Artist Lofts. I’m LOVING being neighbors with Horizon Line Coffee again as well. Their care and joy for coffee is unmatched and they make the cold winter days much cozier when I’m in the studio.
To everyone who has supported me to this point, whether you’ve shared my work, bought a print, booked a session, or anything else: thank you. Your encouragement means the world to me. I want to give an extra special thank you to thank my partner, Nick, who not only helped me navigate the grant-writing process and encouraged me to take this step, but has also been a huge help hauling things up to my studio and getting the space set up and ready for visitors—it’s been wonderful to have his support (and ability to reach high places) during such a big transition. And to the National Endowment for the Arts and the Iowa Arts Council and Iowa Economic Development Authority: I’ve never applied for a grant before, this was my first one. And I got it! It means a lot to me that my work was reviewed and considered worthy of this support. I may or may not have shed a few tears when I got the award email!
I’m planning some fun ways to celebrate the studio opening, and I’d love for you to be part of it. Keep an eye out for announcements soon! I hope you’ll come visit me and see the new space! Get a sneak peek of the studio below (and a big hint at my first studio event, announcing soon!)
