our Team
Teva Dawson
DIrector
Teva Dawson began her career path of invention by designing her own major in Environmental Education from Drake University which led to the creation of Des Moines’s first Community Garden Program. Recently she spearheaded Greater Des Moines’ first Water Trails and Greenways Plan. Teva invested 15 years in central Iowa implementing civic engagement and integrated planning with cities and through regional government collaboration around the themes of parks and recreation, transportation systems, resiliency planning and heath in all policies.
MEGAN SCHNEIDER
Megan Schneider is a non-profit professional with a focus on grant writing and management, community engagement, strategic partnerships. Her work relies heavily on written word as a tool for connection, fundraising, and communication of complex issues in digestible and approachable format. She is passionate about celebrating the great things communities have to offer and creating more inclusive and accessible spaces for everyone.
ALEX BRAIDWOOD
Alex Braidwood is a sound artist, media designer, and educator who maintains a practice exploring issues of sustainability at the intersection of art and science. He has exhibited art, led workshops, lectured on his work, and performed live at a variety of events and venues throughout the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Alex is currently Director of the Artist-in-Residence program at Iowa Lakeside Lab biological field research station, Associate Professor in the College of Design and faculty in the Human-Computer Interaction program at IowaState University. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Midwest Society for AcousticEcology and the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.
RYAN HANSER, APR
Ryan Hanser brings 25 years of public relations experience to Group, including service to governments yielding award-winning projects that influence behavior. His work—especially counsel and strategy for travel and tourism clients—has been nationally recognized, and he has chaired the word of mouth practice group across his firm’s global offices. He is accredited in the practice of public relations by the Public Relations Society of America. Outside the office, Ryan’s volunteerism focuses on art, recreation and natural resources.
Emily Kessinger
Emily Kessinger has 10+ years of experience in business communications, marketing, and art advisory services. Emily worked in the art world of Chicago for nonprofits, the auction industry and private collectors before moving to Des Moines in 2016. In 2017, Emily opened Yellow Door Gallery, which she ran until2020. Emily has a BA in English and an MBA in Organizational Development/Marketing from the University of Denver (DU). She joined the Group Creatives team in 2021.
RACHEL BUSE
Rachel Buse is a sculptor working in soft materials that can sometimes be played with. Buse has lived in Des Moines since 2008 and is originally from Lincoln, Nebraska. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. In 2015, the Iowa Arts Council awarded Buse an Iowa Artist Fellowship. She’s been an artist in residency at the Children’s Museum in Pittsburgh, Grin City in Grinnell, and Art Farm in Nebraska. Temporary installations by Buse have taken over a bedroom, a library, a factory, a farmers’ market, and a music festival. Her projects range from community-based interaction to wearable works. Buse looks for opportunities to exaggerate shapes and settings with bold, squishy, large-scale surprises.
PUBLIC ART VALUES
Group Creative Services vision of Public Art
While beautifying our shared spaces, public art goes beyond murals, monuments and memorials, offers more than decoration or information, should not be simply a new version of projects seen elsewhere.
Public art contributes to place-making, opens a process of seeing anew, shifts the ground beneath our feet, generating transformations in experience and perception.
Public art creates a sense of connection to place, of belonging, of community, of service, generates new forms of dialogue; a recognition of something shared, perhaps hard to define, often challenges by raising questions that may remain unresolved.
How does this look in practice?
As a professional practice, public art has become more complex, process-oriented, collaborative, and experimental. Artists of all disciplines wish to engage and enhance our communities in new ways, creatively addressing a community’s needs as identified by its citizens and stakeholders such as the environment, community health, cultural diversity, youth development, and attracting tourists.
Public artwork facilitates the advancement of civic goals by describing concepts, expressing community interests, providing distinct and novel character, and/or offering greater understanding and discussion around the art’s site and its utility. For example, artwork located near the site of new stormwater infrastructure might facilitate an understanding of watershed management as environmental stewardship and its importance for flood control. Art can engage with its site such that “the medium is the message.”
As the field of public art rapidly expands, many cities scramble to update and improve the way they plan and manage their public art programs while finding new ways to maximize their investment in public art, to the benefit of their economy, their culture, and their community. Group Creative Services exists to facilitate this transformation.