The What's Good Project

fine print

Iowa, take note. Everybody, take note.

Minnesota has consistently been the vanguard of investing locally and regionally in art and artists. And it's paying off.

Heck, I know several folks who are leaving Iowa to move to Minnesota because of the better QoL for artists.

A question that has come up is why Jefferson? How’d I get hooked up with that town?

I first visited Jefferson (pop. 4182) in 2015, right after I started working in community arts for Iowa State University Extension Community and Economic Development. The beauty of that job is getting invited to visit with folks across Iowa, and talk shop about what they’ve got going on.

Deb McGinn and I became fast friends. And if you don’t know Deb, you should. At that point, she was a few years into her role as leader-visionary-champion extraordinaire of the Tower View Team (more about that in a future post, but suffice it to say that Jefferson has both a very, very large bell tower and some crazy cool art that you can only see from said bell tower). She had gotten the ball rolling for the transformation of one of Jefferson’s downtown alleyways and was beginning the Ring Out for Art Sculpture competition.

(As an aside, I will say that, in my experience, recently retired folks --particularly retired women-- are the heroes initiating, championing, and making happen much of the community and public art projects in rural Iowa towns. They are, more often than not, the movers and shakers, and they do not mess around.)

Time passes. Deb and I keep in touch via email, state-wide art events, and visits. Jefferson continues to explode with cultural awesomeness because of the amazing people who live there, and the “yes, and” attitude they all share. In 2025, itty bitty Jefferson wins handily the Great American Main Street Award for all of the US, and let the record show that their community art projects drove some of this national recognition.

And then last summer, I convinced Deb to let me bring a gaggle of ISU students from my Public Art/Public Space course to Jefferson so they could see the rural arts genius in action. Around the same time, Deb and the rest of Jefferson Matters (thanks Matt and Kristin) invited me to interview their community and create a series of paintings about all the incredible things in Jefferson. They didn’t have to ask me twice.

📷️ : Kristin Russell VP of Jefferson Matters Board of Directors, Deb McGinn Chairwoman of Tower View Team, and me (JD)

In honor of the 23rd annual Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi, I thought I'd wax poetic for a spell.

Music, and the blues in particular, is as a good place as any to begin Clarksdale. The best place, probably, since the blues began jazz, began rock' n 'roll, began any semblance of decent American music. (I'll leave country music for somebody else to blather about - not my thing, sorry).

And Clarksdale began Son House, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Charley Patton, John Lee Ho**er, Sam Cooke, James “Supa Chikan” Johnson, Big Jack Johnson, Watermelon Slim, Charlie Musselwhite, the Staple Singers, Anthony "Big A" Sherrod, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, and Jimbo Mathus.

One could argue, pretty convincingly, that Clarksdale began Led Zepplin, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and ZZ Top. Clarksdale began Sinners. The musical flow chart from Clarksdale could choke a horse.

Souls were sold to the devil in Clarksdale. Records made. Legends born. Musicians gather here. Have always gathered here. And when that happens, other creative folks tend to follow, and things get colorful.

🖼️ : Red's, acrylic on wood, 24" x 24", 2026. SOLD.

PS - this sold quick! I'm ordering a few prints for some collectors. If you are interested, let me know.