Meet the 2026 Emerging Artists
This program is intended to support young artists in Iowa who aspire to go professional.
Participating artists are 18-26 years old with a permanent Iowa residence who have never participated in a juried art show/festival. Each artist will receive a 1:1 advisory session with our staff to help them prepare for Art-a-Fest (and hopefully future juried art shows!). Tent space and display props will also be provided by Art-a-Fest and the CHARLES CITY ARTS CENTER for use during the event. These young artists will be judged in their own category during Art-a-Fest, and one lucky participant will win a complimentary spot to participate at next year's Art-a-Fest.
Newton, IA
Newton, IA
Newton, IA
Newton, IA
Gigi Koppen
Newton, IA
My name is Gigi Koppen. I am an acrylic artist who loves to capture moments in nature.
Des Moines, IA
Des Moines, IA
Des Moines, IA
Des Moines, IA
Jeremia Gardiner
Des Moines, IA
Jeremia Gardiner is an Iowa-based visual artist whose work explores endurance, presence, and the quiet forces that shape the natural world. Through restrained black-and-white photographs, he investigates the relationship between physical form and emotional experience, creating images that exist between landscape, abstraction, and portraiture.
His current body of work, Geometry of Silence, focuses on stones as records of pressure, balance, erosion, and time. By removing scale and location, the photographs invite reflection on the forces that shape them—echoing the way the land and lives are formed over time.
Wilton, IA
Wilton, IA
Wilton, IA
Wilton, IA