Next week’s annual Southwest Iowa Art Tour stops include Red Oak, Essex, Villisca and Malvern

The Southwest Iowa Art Tour is gearing up for its ninth year connecting rural communities through art. This year’s event will take place Sept. 16-18.
In 2014, a group of southwest Iowa artists came together to pull off a regional event to connect their rural communities – a self-guided ‘Art Tour’ that would showcase their artworks, studios, galleries, and hometowns. The first year included nine participating communities and 30 artists. The success of the Southwest Iowa Art Tour has grown the ninth annual event to 11 communities, 16 Gathering Places, and more than 70 local artists.
This self-guided tour allows participants to begin and end where they would like, come and go from location to location at their leisure, and explore diverse art forms – including fiber art, sculpture, pottery, painting, metal works, jewelry, glassware and much more from over 70 artists.
The 16 unique stops this year include all of last year’s locations plus an additional stop in rural Malvern.
Gathering Places will be located in the following Southwest Iowa towns: Avoca, rural Clarinda, Council Bluffs, rural Essex, Glenwood, Harlan, Macedonia, Malvern, rural Malvern, Neola, Red Oak and Villisca. The event will be held on its traditional third Saturday and Sunday in September, with an additional Friday “Sneak Peek” at select locations.
Modification of the Southwest Iowa Art Tour into a three-day event has allowed the public time to hit all 16 Gathering Places over the weekend.
This year’s Friday “Sneak Peek” hours are from 4 to 7 p.m. at 10 of the 16 locations. This will provide attendees with the additional opportunity to explore the Gathering Places in Clarinda, Essex, Macedonia, Malvern, Neola and Villisca a little early – whether you can’t make it the other days or just need additional time to visit all locations over the weekend.
Langille Studios southwest of Malvern will also be having live music by Hector Anchondo for the Sneak Peek, so you can make them your last stop for Friday evening. Avoca, Council Bluffs, Glenwood, Harlan and Red Oak’s Gathering Places will join the tour on Saturday morning; the hours for all locations are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.  
The Southwest Iowa Art Tour is coordinated by Golden Hills RC&D of Oakland and the collaborative efforts of local participating artists. Funding for coordination of this event, which is free to the public, comes in part from local sponsorships.
This year, partnering supporters at the $1,000 plus level are Houghton State Bank of Red Oak and the Pottawattamie Countywide Tourism Promotion Committee. The $350 sponsors for 2022 include Malvern Bank, CB Skin Secrets of Council Bluffs, and Dave Carbaugh State Farm of Red Oak. They have more than 20 local businesses and organizations as sponsors for the 9th Annual Southwest Iowa Art Tour.
The Southwest Iowa Art Tour began with the intent to not only bring awareness of the arts and artists in rural southwest Iowa, but also to help support economic reinvestment in small towns through the arts.
For more information be sure to check the “Southwest Iowa Art Tour” Facebook page (with individual Facebook Events for each Gathering Place) and visit the website: swiarttour.com, or contact Becca at rebecca.castle@goldenhillsrcd.org.