CEDAR FALLS — Growing up the daughter of a poet and an artist, Amelia Blue Gotera was given the space to pursue creative work. Still, she long believed that a career as an educator was the only way to make a living in the arts.

But then she found the University of Northern Iowa’s Public Art Incubator, where she mastered skills over several years to truly make a living as an artist — everything from how to use software, to 3D-model a sculpture before beginning, to working with local governments to bring public art to life.

The Cedar Falls native, now 33, graduated in May from UNI with a bachelor’s of fine arts in sculpture. Already, opportunities abound for Gotera. Her proposal was selected to make a sculpture for Cedar Valley Pride. She plans to stay busy while exploring master’s degree programs.

As a queer woman of color in the arts, Gotera said things can feel off-limits, but the incubator has given her the confidence and qualifications to make art a career. She’s hopeful so many opportunities will come her way some day that she can be selective.

The beauty of public art, Gotera said, is that it’s accessible. It becomes a nostalgic part of an environment, an opportunity to “present my point of view, feel seen and help others feel seen.”

“It’s a powerful thing to leave a mark on a space,” Gotera said.

On a recent Wednesday, Gotera looked at ease as she held a propane tank and a torch, using it to melt wax to restore a Cedar Rapids sculpture — Ann Royer’s “Between Friends.”

The piece normally is situated at the corner of Third Street and Third Avenue SE, outside the Hibu building in downtown Cedar Rapids. It depicts two figures with their backs to one another atop a trapezoidal box. They are configured in a way that makes them look like dancers doing an interpretive dance.

The sculpture is made of cast bronze and bronze sheet, a dark green with brown undertones. It is mounted to a painted concrete pedestal. Some of the protective wax coating eroded since the sculpture was installed in 1992.

To restore the sculpture, students removed dirt and debris by hand. They also had to restore the protective archival wax coating, first melting wax in a heated bowl, brushing it onto the sculpture and then blasting it with a torch to cover the large surface. The wax helps protect the art from dirt and dust.

Holding the torch as she admired the progress made on the sculpture, Gotera paused: “It looks so vibrant.”

Cedar Rapids is one of several Iowa communities that have turned to the Public Art Incubator for assistance with their art collections. The program runs out of UNI’s Kamerick Art Building, giving students real-world experience working with artists and community leaders to fabricate sculptures that are placed in public spaces such as parks and libraries.

Since the first project was completed through the program in 2011, Public Art Incubator Coordinator Dan Perry said students have worked on more than 65 public art pieces, ranging from Special Olympics cauldrons for the national games to hot air balloon sculptures that will be displayed in Indianola, known for its annual balloon festival.

“It’s showing them at a young age they can contribute to their communities in a real way,” Perry said.

Public art ‘helps define a place’

Demand has grown for public art conservation in Iowa, Perry said, as the worsening climate crisis takes a toll on the condition of art displayed outdoors.

More communities are taking an interest in preserving the pieces they have or adding new ones. Public art becomes landmarks within a community, Perry said, creating a sense of place that helps people connect the piece to a specific city. Art pieces can start conversations, make people think and tell a community’s story.

“I think public art is invaluable to us as a culture,” Perry said. “It helps define a place.”

Communities often get connected to the UNI program through the Iowa Arts Council, which supports communities and their local arts needs by helping identify resources such as nonprofits or universities and colleges.

Council Director David Schmitz said since he stepped into the role in 2020, he has noticed a trend of public art moving into the mainstream in small rural communities and larger metro areas alike. More cities are using it to draw tourists and build an identity.

In particular, Schmitz said cities are looking for help to maintain existing public art work, find qualified artists and work with them through the design and fabrication process or to secure funding for public art.

“A lot of communities are really looking to develop a strong identity and within that show their younger people and residents that they’re investing in the character of the community,” Schmitz said.

Art helps students feel ‘free’

The Public Art Incubator program restored another Cedar Rapids sculpture this year, “Ascent” by Robert Ellison, normally displayed in Chandler Park, and added a drainage hole because it was damaged in part from collecting water. The 25-foot steel “Ricochet” sculpture in Jones Park was restored last summer after it was damaged by flooding.

“It shows strength in rebuilding,” Perry said of the city’s investment in art restoration.

Sarah Byrd, 20, a senior from Springfield, Ill., is looking to become an art therapist. She had a hard time her junior year and felt alone at times, but decided she didn’t want others to be. Byrd initially was focused on painting, but her newfound sculpture experience has piqued her interest in incorporating other items like Play-Doh and building blocks into her future work.

In a predominantly white field and university, Byrd said the incubator makes her feel “free to be me.” Byrd hopes to show other minority artists they can do it, too.

Despite being relative newcomers to the program, UNI junior Stacia Iverson, 18, of Webster City, and Byrd both recently worked to restore “Song Sung Blue,” a guitar sculpture on the promenade by the RiverLoop Amphitheatre in downtown Waterloo, after it sustained wind damage in a storm.

“Art should be in the community culture,” Byrd said. “ … It’s like I’m giving back.”

Iverson said the program has given her the opportunity to put her studies into practice as a studio art major with an emphasis in sculpture. She is interested in working for another incubator or being a professional sculptor, so the program gives her hands-on experience beyond what’s taught in class.

“It’s intimate and personal here,” Iverson said.

Partnerships helping Cedar Rapids expand art

Working with UNI is not the only partnership the city of Cedar Rapids has pursued in recent years to expand public art.

Shea Hembrey, the 2023-24 Grant Wood Fellow in Painting & Drawing at the University of Iowa, created temporary art installations in Eastern Iowa including Cedar Rapids’ Ellis, Bever and Manhattan parks in partnership with the city this spring. He is continuing the project outside of Iowa.

In the state, he has worked in locations throughout a 40-mile corridor, stretching from a private farm in Riverside to a park in Hills, as well as on the UI campus, next to the Swisher Public Library and at Indian Creek Nature Center.

The Arkansas native learned information that disturbed him: Two-thirds of North American songbirds are at risk of extinction largely due to habitat loss fueled by the climate crisis, according to a study from the National Audubon Society.

After learning of the threat songbirds face, Hembrey also learned Purdue University engineers a few years ago developed a new ultra-white paint that reflects about 98 percent of sunlight. White solar reflective paint is being used in India to cool slums, where many suffer from extreme heat, according to the BBC. The paint blocks the worst of the heat from penetrating buildings and lowers indoor temperatures while the climate crisis pushes temperatures higher.

Together, these findings made Hembrey think: “What can I do as an artist where paint does something to improve the environment?” Hembrey looks to improve plant growth using natural pigments to create patterns that represent bird plumage, creating art that calls attention to the risk songbirds face and the importance of native species.

Hembrey has long been a bird person. He got his first chickens at age 5, bred migratory waterfowl and sold them to zoos as a teenager and thought for a long time that he’d become an ornithologist — until he decided to pursue art.

The increase in public art, particularly murals, comes as Cedar Rapids in 2022 adopted a public art plan with a goal to not only boost public art in Cedar Rapids, but to forge more partnerships with a variety of arts organizations. Through that effort, Community Services Coordinator Stephanie Schrader said the city Public Art Commission learned about the UI’s Arts Share Program to explore a partnership.

“The songbird project is a fun temporary project that expands art to places around our community that maybe don't have art right now,” Schrader said.

Paint is made from pigments pulled from the earth and will be given back into the soil to improve the landscape. Hembrey said he makes his own paint powder pigments. For instance, he might take red clay from the ground for a red tone and use blood meal — dried blood used to feed animals and as a fertilizer — to give his paintings some warmth. He won’t use a wide range of colors to match many birds’ darker tones.

After the pigment dissolves, Hembrey is planting trees, bushes and grasses that support the corresponding bird species. Plantings are underway now that the installations are no longer visible in Cedar Rapids.

City ReLeaf Program Manager Carole Teator said the four trees planted at each installation represent a native bird that can be supported by the tree planted.

In Iowa, Teator said oaks can support 400 to 500 species of caterpillars, which birds need to feed their young. A pair of chickadees require an estimated 6,000 to 9,000 insects and caterpillars for the 16 days while their young are in the nest.

“We need a lot of caterpillars if we want to bring back the birds,” Teator said.

Hembrey said he often thinks about what he can do to make what often seems like an intangible, insurmountable climate threat more tangible.

“I'm always thinking of projects like this that could also just be out in the world to actually do some good or make a call to action to the general public to think about what they can do,” Hembrey said.