On a spring day, a mix of local volunteers were working alongside a professional crew, hammering away and drilling down reclaimed lumber produced at the old Clinton sawmill — turning the scraps into something new.
Clinton was once a thriving industrial town, but the loss of manufacturing jobs has reduced the river town’s population by more than 6,000 people since 1990. With the loss of its industrial base, the city also lost a core part of its identity.
That’s where a pair of artists come in.
Artist Gabi Torres was born and raised in Clinton. After traveling and living outside of her community for several years, she ended up back in eastern Iowa.
“[I] was super excited to be home, and just was a little bit distressed about how people were talking about the town that they lived in, and thinking, Gosh, that's so lousy, right?” Torres said. “That doesn't make you feel good about yourself if you talk about the town you live in in those terms.”
Torres wanted locals to take pride in their town — to move past the industrial loss and feel like there were special things happening in Clinton. That's what started her mission to bring public art to Clinton.
In 2016, she created an “art forest” called The Grove.
I think in a lot of rural communities, people don't expect to have world-class artists come and do murals, but anything is possible.Gabi Torres
"The art forest was essentially a little pocket park that was overgrown. It wasn't getting the attention it needed. It wasn't being utilized by the community in any way,” Torres said.
In the pocket park, she set up 10 large pieces of framed art for visitors to peruse as they moved through the space.
“It just became this sort of place of respite and an experience that kind of took you out of your regular existence and broke up the routine.”
Following its success, Torres founded the annual Paint it Back mural festival. It started with painting vacant buildings, and now there are professional murals splashed from the riverfront to downtown.
"I think in a lot of rural communities, people don't expect to have world-class artists come and do murals, but anything is possible," Torres said.
Giant trolls come lumbering through
Ari Lewerenz said that through following Torres’ art, and her friendship with Torres, she started to see her vision. Lewerenz is originally from Columbia, and said she is a Clintonian by choice. She's been investing in the community since she arrived 15 years ago. Lewerenz joined the board at the Sawmill Museum, and currently serves as the board president. There, she's inspired by the town’s lumber history. Looking around, she thought the land next to the museum, right along the river, was perfect for a big statement art piece.
So she wrote to Danish artist Thomas Dambo, a sculptor who creates massive trolls out of recycled material. This year, Lewerenz put Clinton on the map, convincing Dambo that the small town was a worthy home to bring three unique trolls in his world-renowned style.
“People want to come to [visit] Clinton because of some big sculptures or some big monumental statements; but then they're going to stay because of Clinton,” Lewerenz said. “They're going to stay because they saw their murals at Paint it Back. They're going to stay because there's going to be nice restaurants around and they're going to start meeting our people.”
Installing the trolls took a lot of local volunteer work, and Lewernz found that Clinton residents were happy to pitch in for something positive in the community.
“I think once you have a goal and a clear set of steps to get to it and you can explain it to people, there's some folks that are going to come out,” she said.
Torres said these initiatives are about more than aesthetics.
“This is a community, a place where things happen, where boldness happens, where you can have ideas and those ideas can become a reality. And I think that is why this work is so important, why these things matter so deeply.”
To hear this conversation listen to Unsettled, hosted by Charity Nebbe.
