Community Corner

Iowa City Downtown District Unveils First in Series of Colorful Bench Designs

The benches in downtown Iowa City are about to get more interesting.


Giant book sculptures? Owl balloons? Benches with eyes?

Something tells me Lewis Carroll would approve of the way Iowa City's downtown is going.

The Iowa City Downtown District has kicked off its "BenchMarks" program, where it has invited local artists to decorate more than 100 benches in the downtown area. The goal of the program is to "bring together Iowa City’s diverse community through street art," according to a downtown district press release.

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This week the organization showed off the first batch of these benches (photos displayed above). According to the release, the BenchMarks project will feature public painting demonstrations during four of the major festivals located in the Downtown District: the Iowa Arts Festival (June 1 – 3), the Iowa City Jazz Festival (June 29 – July 1), Sand in the City (August 10 – 12) and Northside Oktoberfest (October 6).


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