Nest Gallery Opens on Walnut Street
The Downtown Community Alliance (DCA) is pleased to welcome Nest Gallery to Downtown Des Moines (DSM). Nest Gallery is located on the first floor in the U.S. Bank Building at 520 Walnut Street and will offer artwork exclusively by artist James Ellwanger. It will also serve as a central hub for Ellwanger’s ‘Spectrum on Walnut’, a proposed retail lighting display for Walnut Street.
To celebrate its opening, Nest Gallery will host an Open House on Friday, April 4, 2014, from 4 to 7 p.m. lobby of the U.S. Bank at 520 Walnut Street. During the open house, new digital prints by Ellwanger will be featured. Nest Gallery will officially open on Monday, April 7, 2014. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Ellwanger’s gallery returns to Walnut Street after an eleven-year hiatus. From 2001 to 2003, his Gallery Number II occupied the same space in the U.S. Bank Building. “I was one of the last businesses to leave Walnut Street, when I transitioned away from wall pieces to large-scale outdoor works and am very proud to be one of the first businesses to return,” Ellwanger says.
The DCA, City of Des Moines, Operation Downtown and local property owners are working together to revitalize Walnut Street. Construction on the streetscape is set to begin on Walnut Street between Fifth and Seventh Streets in June 2014. The intent is to design and operate the new Walnut Street in a manner that would attract retail, restaurant, and entertainment uses to its main-floor storefronts and begin a new revitalization effort in the Downtown Core.
James Ellwanger has been an Iowa-based artist for fifteen years. A sample of his local works include the 27’ limestone and stainless steel sculpture Shattering Silence (Iowa Judicial Branch Building, State Capitol Grounds), The Seam (Principle Park main entry), a full-scale replica of the Statue of Liberty Crown, Liberty Crown (Exile Brewery, 15th Street and Walnut Street), Protecting Balance (Kruidenier Law Firm), Groundbreaking (Knapp Properties, 50th and Westown Parkway, West Des Moines), six Acrylic wall installations honoring the Iowa courts’ civil rights history and Shattering Silence’s maquette (Iowa State Historical Museum, Monument Hall), Sanctuary and Learning to Stand Steel (Homesteaders Life Insurance, West Des Moines),as well as many pieces installed in private collections nationwide.
About the Greater Des Moines Partnership
The Greater Des Moines Partnership is the economic and community development organization that serves Greater Des Moines (DSM), Iowa. Together with 23 Affiliate Chambers of Commerce, more than 6,100 Regional Business Members and more than 330 Investors, The Partnership drives economic growth with one voice, one mission and as one region. Through innovation, strategic planning and global collaboration, The Partnership grows opportunity, helps create jobs and promotes DSM as the best place to build a business, a career and a future. Learn more at DSMpartnership.com.