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Iowa Lakeside Lab Artist-in-Residence Program
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    • All Artists
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    • Public Art & Ecology
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Iowa Lakeside Lab Artist-in-Residence Program

“Artists and scientists are both asking questions about the world, they’re just doing it in different ways”

  • Trust the Process
    by MakaylaCarlson
    The Last weeek I found myself attending as many field trips as I could. I thoroughly enjoyed going to Pilot Knob state park with the Aquatic Ecology class. Finding the Sundew once again brought great joy to my heart, but a little bittersweet …

    Read more “Trust the Process”

  • The Pallid Sturgeon, Reflections on Endangerment, Life, and Looking a little Closer..
    by MakaylaCarlson
    The third week I found myself diving in a little deeper into ecology and science. I joined the aquatic ecology class when they ventured to Vermillion, SD to the Fishery to visit the Endangered Pallid Sturgeons. It was a very moving experience to …

    Read more “The Pallid Sturgeon, Reflections on Endangerment, Life, and Looking a little Closer..”

  • Prairies, Common Threads
    by MakaylaCarlson
    During the second week, I found myself walking the prairie quite a bit. I seen a viceroy butterfly, common buckeye butterflies, bog orchids, and many dragonflies. The diversity of native flowers is absolutely special at Lakeside. I also spent time more time with …

    Read more “Prairies, Common Threads”

  • Awakening into a Dream
    by MakaylaCarlson
    It brought great joy to me to be able to return to Lakeside Labs. The evening I arrived I already sat down and did a little sketch of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, which in the morning I encountered the first one I had …

    Read more “Awakening into a Dream”

  • Drinking from the Source
    by Alicia Marvan
    My project while in residency at Lakeside began with the intention to represent Lake Okoboji. In particular, I was interested in portraying its unique bathymetry (the contours of the lake under water). I was thrilled to find several bathymetric maps of the lake …

    Read more “Drinking from the Source”

  • In search of a Sun Eating Creature
    by Nicole Banowetz and Devin Reilly
    We arrived at Lakeside in search of a microscopic organism to recreate as an inflatable sculpture.  We were unsure what lived in Okobogi Lake, but knew there were many amazing micro animals, zooplankton, and phytoplankton. We began our search in the library and …

    Read more “In search of a Sun Eating Creature”

  • Space to Embed Myself into Minds and Curiosity
    by Miguel Novelo
    Space to embed myself into minds and curiosity. I found myself at Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, where I engaged with plenty of brilliant minds from Americorps and faculty from Iowa State and the University of Iowa. I also had great conversations with Zach Poff, the …

    Read more “Space to Embed Myself into Minds and Curiosity”

  • Untethered
    by Kristin M Roach
    Lakeside Lab Report Artist-in-Residence July 1 – July 12, 2024 Kristin M Roach 12 days   One cannot speak of Iowa Lakeside Lab without mentioning the incredible community housed there. The residency was a wonderful experience in itself—12 days in the studio, untethered …

    Read more “Untethered”

  • Audible Ecosystem: Sonifying the Invisible
    by Andrew Shea
    What’s the sound of temperature? How about humidity, radiation, and pressure, among the many ecological forces we experience but don’t hear? I considered questions like these as I collected environmental data using a device called the Arable Mark, which monitors weather, plants, soil, …

    Read more “Audible Ecosystem: Sonifying the Invisible”

  • Lakeside Lab Ecotones
    by Zach Poff
    I arrived at Lakeside Lab with a bag of recording equipment and a desire to reflect on the “underheard” sounds of the campus: sonic details that go un-noticed by us but might reveal the lives of our non-human neighbors. The result was this …

    Read more “Lakeside Lab Ecotones”

  • Testing the Waters
    by Parts Per Million Collective
    We started Parts Per Million Collective to change our understanding of art and art making. We feel art can and should begin to take a more active role in the climate crisis. To us, this means creating works to directly benefit the environment. …

    Read more “Testing the Waters”

  • Prairie textures, prairie time
    by Sara Suarez
    My art practice centers on film, video and photography, and in my time at Lakeside Lab I focused on making photo/video work studying the surrounding prairie landscapes and environment. And so I spent a lot of time venturing into expanses of prairie near …

    Read more “Prairie textures, prairie time”

  • Johnny DiBlasi’s Transcoded Ecologies
    by Johnny DiBlasi
    I am writing this as a reflection back on my AiR at Lakeside Lab Iowa, Lake Okoboji. As an artist, researcher, and educator, the Lakeside Lab AiR gave me a very rare gift for two weeks – the gift of time. During this …

    Read more “Johnny DiBlasi’s Transcoded Ecologies”

  • Lyndsay Audra Nissen: InterNatural Oddities Museum
    by Lyndsay A Nissen
  • Experiments and surprises
    by Mirzam Perez
    I love experiments and surprises and thrive on these in my artistic practice. I use unframed raw canvas, taffeta, and satin to create large mixed media landscapes. I layer highly-pigmented color “soups” on the fabric and trace cast shadows from my immediate natural …

    Read more “Experiments and surprises”

  • My drive to art
    by Mirzam Perez
    As a true Gemini, I’ve had quite a few occupations. I’ve been an ice cream store clerk, business operations manager, entrepreneur, HR specialist, advertising guru, administrative assistant, housekeeper, social worker, post-secondary student, instructor, professor, mother, and life partner.  And yes, I’ve been an …

    Read more “My drive to art”

  • An Ethic for All Realms
    by Isabel Beavers
    I sat on an old wooden picnic table, framed by the hanging boughs of an oak tree, the glistening blue lake hazy in the heat of summer. Birds sang many songs, harmonized by the chirping of grasshoppers, crickets, buzzing flies, the distant groan …

    Read more “An Ethic for All Realms”

  • The Monday Project
    by SharonStewart
    Chapter 1? Here I sit with a plan to write and maybe make space for my brain to work the way I hope it can. It’s been a year since I was at Lakeside Lab Artist Residency. It was a life changing experience. …

    Read more “The Monday Project”

  • Dissolving – a research project
    by JuliaOrqueraBianco
    There’s value in Science. As humans, we are well-practiced in gathering data and putting it into categories, to make sense of a world we are merely getting to know. Science helped us moving “forward” as a species, creating technology that makes my artist …

    Read more “Dissolving – a research project”

  • Public Art & Ecology Results
    by SpaceSaloon
    Imagine Iowa Great Lakes and the Iowa Lakeside Lab hosted a series of public events produced as a result of the inaugural Public Art and Ecology Residency. For the 2021 Summer, the artist collective Space Saloon spent three months in Northwest Iowa, observing …

    Read more “Public Art & Ecology Results”

  • Wonder Practice
    by AdrianWood
    Scientists and artists practice imagining better, more meaningful, more integrated futures. There are many forces that threaten this practice: existentialism; injustice; denial; scarcity. These threatening forces can be investigated in balance with the practice of imagination when the art-science partnership is most effective. …

    Read more “Wonder Practice”

  • Reflections on our time at Lakeside Lab
    by WildPrairieWinds
    Introduction By Kim Cassisa Since returning home after living at Lakeside Lab for two weeks this summer, I have struggled to answer the question I get from friends and coworkers – “what was it like?” My experience at Lakeside fell somewhere between summer …

    Read more “Reflections on our time at Lakeside Lab”

  • I have hidden fifteen cassette tapes across Lakeside Lab’s campus
    by ClayGonzalez
    In recent years, I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with field recordings of American folk music. I got a job transcribing songs recorded by musicologists, all over early twentieth century America. The recordings are grainy, noisey, difficult to make out, and often …

    Read more “I have hidden fifteen cassette tapes across Lakeside Lab’s campus”

  • An Inspiring Experience
    by CaleeCecconi
    This experience inspired me! I will be forever grateful for the two weeks I spent making and being outdoors at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory. I wish I was there at a different time since the pandemic made it a little hard to socialize …

    Read more “An Inspiring Experience”

  • Nature as a Creative Reset
    by CaleeCecconi
    Hello again, Iowa … … it’s been a minute! Although I now reside in the Twin Cities, I spent most of my life (outdoors!) in Iowa. I grew up in eastern Iowa, spending most summers floating the Maquoketa River, feeding ducks at Iowa …

    Read more “Nature as a Creative Reset”

  • Public Art & Ecology Event Dates Announced
    by SpaceSaloon
    Imagine Iowa Great Lakes and the Iowa Lakeside Lab invite you to a series of public events produced as a result of the inaugural Public Art and Ecology Residency. Come experience data collected from around the lakes presented in new and interactive ways. …

    Read more “Public Art & Ecology Event Dates Announced”

  • non-infallible physics
    by Omar de Kok-Mercado
    This report was written after the residency period 12-26-2020 -to- 1-15-2021. Photos denoted with an asterisk* are by Robb Klassen an L.A.-based photographer and friend of the artist. After having spent the greater part of three days unfurling bits and pieces of my …

    Read more “non-infallible physics”

  • 2021 Public Art & Ecology Residency Artists Selected
    by director
    Imagine Iowa Great Lakes and the Iowa Lakeside Lab are excited to announce the all-new Public Art & Ecology Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program which invites artists to apply for an eight-twelve week residency. Lakeside Lab is a biological field station and nature preserve located …

    Read more “2021 Public Art & Ecology Residency Artists Selected”

  • New Funded Public Art Residency at Iowa Lakeside Lab
    by director
    For Immediate Release Wednesday, October 7, 2020 Iowa Lakeside Lab, Imagine Iowa Great Lakes Launch New Artist in Residence Program Milford, Iowa – Iowa Lakeside Laboratory and Imagine Iowa Great Lakes today launched a new Public Art & Ecology Artist in Residence (AIR) …

    Read more “New Funded Public Art Residency at Iowa Lakeside Lab”

  • Thoughts of a landscape – are you still there
    by AmbaKlapwijk
    Thoughts of a landscape are you still there Everything about the summer sky is spectacular, showy, theatrical. The starts in the evening, the moons at midnight, the rays of the morning sun – they all shine with special brilliance. In summer, the waters …

    Read more “Thoughts of a landscape – are you still there”

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ARTISTS

2026

Maya McCollum
Bidisha Das
Isabelle Hayeur
David E. Peterson
Ivy Fu
Sheila Novak
Merate Barakat

2025

The EcoTheatre Lab
Makayla Carlson 2025
Alexander Hanson

2024

Andrew Shea
Alicia Marván
Zach Poff
Miguel Novelo
Nicole Banowetz and Devin Reilly
Kristin M Roach

2023

Mirzam Pérez
Isabel Beavers
Kayla Shomar-Corbett
Parts Per Million Collective
Lyndsay Nissen
Sara Suárez
Johnny DiBlasi

2022

Zahra Jewanjeee
Julia O. Bianco
Mariceliz Pagán Gómez
Sharon Stewart
Dayna Kriz
Austin Stewart

2021

Omar de Kok-Mercado
J. Clay Gonzalez
Wild Prairie Winds
Adrian Wood
Roundhouse Platform
Public Art & Ecology AIRs – Space Saloon
Calee Cecconi

2019

Wen Yu
Jess Holz
Naomi Friend
Makayla Carlson
Jeremy Eichenbaum
Amba Klapwijk

2018

Jenie Gao
Jenna Bonistalli
Christine Carr
Ellen Hanauer
Robert Jinkins
Richelle Gribble
Hannah Fisher

2017

Quin Kennedy
Mary Claire Becker
Eric “Oz” Andren
Kassha Lisinksi
Kelsey Reckling
Brian Schorn

2016

Jen Liu
Corey Smith
Scott Dickson
Cynthia Brinich-Langlois
Joseph Mougel
Mark Lee Koven

2015

Alex Braidwood
Amanda Breitbach
Rachel Kauff
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