Mission Monday: Waubonsie State Park Artist in Residence

Our mission at Golden Hills RC&D is to collaboratively develop and lead community, conservation, and cultural initiatives to improve our quality of life in rural western Iowa. Our "official" territory from our original organizational bylaws is an eight-county region in the southwestern portion of Iowa (Cass, Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Montgomery, Page, Pottawattamie, and Shelby). In 2023, we added four more counties (Audubon, Carroll, Crawford, and Monona). Several projects extend beyond these 12 counties into more than 20 counties (learn more about where we work). ​

Our goals are to develop industries in local communities that utilize local resources; ensure healthy natural resources that meet the needs of agriculture, industry, private use, and recreational facilities; promote and enhance art, culture and historic resources in rural communities; collaborate with local governments and organizations on projects that benefit the environment; and work on projects that fill gaps in community services to benefit people of southwest Iowa.

We accomplish these goals by focusing our work in five program areas: outdoor recreation and tourism, land stewardship, water resources, local foods, and arts and culture. Today's Mission Monday focus is Arts & Culture.

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Since 2018, Golden Hills has worked with Waubonsie State Park and ​Friends of Waubonsie State Park to host Iowa's first State Park Artist Residency program. This program is modeled after similar artist residencies at national parks and state parks outside of Iowa and was the first of its kind at an Iowa state park. Following Waubonsie State Park’s Artist in Residence program’s successful inaugural year, the Iowa DNR launched their “20 Artists, 20 Parks”, a similar program with faculty and graduate students from Iowa State University. This year, the Waubonsie State Park Artist in Residence program will award one residency that will take place from June 14th to 28th. Artists may work in a variety of media.

​The program was designed to allow artists a respite from their typical distractions so that they could intensively focus on their work in the quiet seclusion of Waubonsie State Park, while finding inspiration in the beauty of their natural surroundings.  In exchange for the facility use during the residency, participants are required to perform public engagement either in person or through social media and to donate one piece of art to the park at the conclusion of their stay.

Waubonsie State Park is a 2,000-acre preserve in the scenic and unique Loess Hills landform. The park offers many miles of hiking, equestrian, and bike trails through woodlands, prairies, and oak savanna. Waubonsie is located on the Loess Hills National Scenic Byway™ near Hamburg, IA, about an hour’s drive from Omaha and Lincoln, two hours from Kansas City, and two and a half hours from Des Moines.  ​

Golden Hills RC&D, Waubonsie State Park, and Friends of Waubonsie State Park are excited to announce the opening of the latest round of an innovative artist in residence program at Waubonsie State Park. This is the fifth season that the park will host artists for the program, which was the first of its kind in the state.  Artists will receive living and studio space in the park, with time to focus on their work and seek inspiration from the southern Loess Hills.

Applications are being accepted from Feburary 20th through March 31st.  Artists will be selected through a competitive application process and notified by May 1st. The program is open to artists of multiple disciplines and from any location.  For more details about the timeline and how to apply, visit www.goldenhillsrcd.org/artist-in-residence.  

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