Went to the gallery to see a band play and it was an awesome venue for that. It felt intimate, like…read morea private convert. For $10 to see Making Movies from Kansas City was a steal. The band is amazing. They played a mix of rock, classic salsa, covers of 80's musoc and instruments from Panama, Venezuela and Mexico. Their eclectic sounds in a setting filled with various art styles was a perfect mix. Got there early and enjoyed the current displays while I waited for the show to start. There were seats and high tables, with a small bar set up in the back. When the crowd started dancing they moved chairs out of the way to make space but it didn't take away from the show. Overall, it is a gem that creates varied ambiance depending on the event and offers a unique experience every time.

Rented the venue for a 40th Birthday Party after hours. Very reasonable price and communication…read morewith Ryan and Bob was impeccable every time I called or had a question. My guests were very impressed with the space and staff. It very comfortably held 50 guests with enough space for bar, DJ, dance floor, food and lots of room to mingle around and look at the art. The artwork at the time was by Chuck Hipsher and went perfectly with the theme of the party. I am looking for any and every reason to go back for another party! It was the best. Thanks guys!

This house is very well maintained and taken care of, the attic is very small and very creepy…read more There were plenty of pictures on the wall and axe makings on the walls in certain areas of the house. The tour of the house was definitely nice and I recommend it to people who are very interested or adventurous.

We booked an overnight stay at the Villisca Axe Murder House with a group of coworker friends,…read morewhich was super odd to begin with. But with all its ups and downs, we had a ton of fun overall. We were to meet our guide at the museum in town, but arrived a little early and had a bit of time to look around at the exhibits. The museum had a lot of items from the period when the murders took place - things like old Coke and Pepsi bottles, but none of which were used in any of the murders so we just took a passing glance. We came upon a bucket of old shingle scraps from the original murder house (free for the taking) so that was an interesting piece of the history. We did not take any of these shingle chips, lest we bring something more than memories home with us. Once we met our guide, she was to take us around the area and to the cemetery where the victims are buried, and then to the Axe Murder House where we would spend the night. Since we had a big group and she drove a small Sedan, she just said to follow her in our car and she would point out her window at a few things along the way and then tell us what the pointed-at things meant when we arrived at the cemetery. However, she also had a cigarette she ashed out the window so we weren't sure what was pointing and what was ashing. Just to be clear, I'm not complaining about this - it was hilarious. Our guide imparted to us that she had heard weed-whacking sounds at the cemetery earlier that week, but when she looked around, there was no weed-whacking landscaper to be seen. Needless to say, we were on the lookout for this phantom weed whacker the rest of the experience. We arrived at the main event, and got a quick tour of the barn, cellar, and the house. Inside the house there were a few historical pieces from the Moore family (the victims) such as some clothing laid out on the beds and photos on the walls. Once we were on our own, we ventured into the cellar first. After looking around a bit, a mouse or maybe a stick touched my friend's foot and she screamed, which caused us all to scream. When we found out it was just a mouse/stick, we told her to save her screams for actual ghosts or supernatural sightings. We next went to check out the barn a little closer, and saw that there were some semi-unflattering paintings of the victim's on the wall, along with a previous visitor's warning: "Sh*t went down!" We strolled around the rest of the grounds, which included an outhouse, a little gazebo style pair of benches, and a few other outbuildings. One thing to note here is that this house is not in the middle of nowhere out in a cornfield where you feel isolated and instantly eery - it's in the middle of a neighborhood with neighbors' yards all around, including playsets and bicycles, etc. If you can ignore those, the grounds do feel a little creepy as you walk through them. After our little stroll of the surrounding area, we headed into the house. We sort of just waited around for nightfall and chatted a bit about what we thought we might see once it got dark. We had Casey's Pizza and wine coolers, so we were having a good time while we waited, don't worry. Once night fell, we did walk around the house a little more (with flashlights) to see if any spooky things happened now that it was dark. We did hear a slight tapping/humming noise, but when we went to investigate, it ended up being the old window air conditioner. At this point, we thought we may need to delve deeper to get these spirits to haunt us. Luckily, one of my coworkers brought a crystal which we used to ask the spirits questions (yes or no questions). We decided the crystal swinging one way meant yes and the other way being no. I feel that was kind of arbitrary since we made up the rules of the answering format, but we did get it swinging a little bit to get some possible answers out of those dang ghosts. My other coworker brought an EVP reader and we asked the spirits a few questions (but we didn't get to hear the recordings until the next week, and there were a few little spooky things there, if you increased the volume a ton and could hear a muffled voice kind of saying a few of our names). A handful in our group were getting tired and did not want to sleep in the house, so they headed to their van at this point to hit the hay. The true ghost hunters (me and a few others) stayed up the rest of the night so we didn't miss anything spooky that may pop up. We didn't see anything creepy beyond a wasp's nest in the attic and a suspicious doll we found in one of the bedrooms. The morning came, and even though we didn't have any specific haunting experiences, we did have a ton of fun and did freak each other out a few times, so it was all in all a pretty good time. I would recommend this experience if you have a good group to go with, and a light spirit to not take it too seriously and expect to see Ghostbusters-like apparitions (who knows, maybe YOU will!)

The Octagon Center of the Arts has since moved down the block a few spots. I recently wandered into…read morethe shop and the adjacent gallery that was featuring a sign history of Ames. Great Stuff.

I really love this place! Cool art store/gallery/space to rent!…read more I have enjoyed concerts, classes, and art shows here! The rooms are beautiful and big enough for a nice crew to be in, but not huge enough to make things not feel intimate! The store is full of hand made, art stuff! Like Prints, one of a kind things, local art, jewelry, kitchen items, books, dvd's, cd's you name it! If it's art they probably have it! Perfect store for gift shopping for the unique someone who has everything...

Nice, intimate space. Good lighting, focused on the pieces. I enjoyed the variety of art…read moreavailable. Appreciated the game provided to highlight the artist's home state, allowed me and my friend to spend more time talking about different artists and the pieces. During events, it would be nice to have small high top ables for drinks, snacks and papers. Liz and her assistant were attentive and engaging while we browsed.

what a fun little art gallery. lots of great art from great artists. it's a small venue, but plenty…read moreof beauty to look at. my mom and I went and throughly enjoyed it. many different mediums were used.

This may not seem amazing, but that's because you haven't been here: Iowa Quilt Museum. The store…read morefront doesn't do it justice to the professionally curated museum (see the link to their website to see what I'm writing about: https://www.iowaquiltmuseum.org/). They have an incredible display of quilts. But their more than hanging blankets. Each quilt has a story, a meaning and a style of workmanship of its own. Coming from an active do-it-yourselfer perspective, I can really appreciate the planning and detailed construction that is required to build these masterpieces. There are hours and hours of mastery that goes into each quilt, there are truly amazing works of art. The staff here is knowledgeable and friendly. And if by chance the quilting bug bites, there is always Ben Franklin's a few doors away that help you get started.

The Iowa Quilt Museum is a wonderful addition to the Winterset community! The exhibit changes 4…read moretimes per year & always has a spectacular collection of quilts to view. Quilts are beautifully and elegantly displayed. Each quilt is accompanied by information around the date of creation, history, style, and stitching. I always learn a lot about quilting and history by reviewing these. It's been amazing to see some quilted that are more than a hundred years old and intricately hand-stitched and hand quilted. Upstairs is a bed-turning display of several more quilts & a volunteer will review these quilts with you & you may even get to participate in the turning! The museum is housed in the old J.C. Penney's building which has been beautifully restored. The lighting is fantastic for showing off the beauty of the quilts. There is a lobby area where a few gifts and souvenirs can be purchased. This museum can be enjoyed by all ages and genders & by anyone who can appreciate the hard work and artistic talents that go into each of these quilts.

This is the place to get your art framed. I have been going to KAG for over 15 years--and Lewis,…read morethe framer, is the best. He's very helpful and always steers me in the right direction even if I'm being stubborn about a frame or a mat. He has pushed me to be more experimental and that's a good thing. And truly, this gallery is also full of incredible artwork--originals and prints and sculpture. They also have a bunch of amazing Dr. Suess artwork. Great place. Dan Kavanaugh is a gem. I'll never go anywhere else for framing.

Very nice art gallery in Valley Junction area. Staff was super nice and helpful and they have a…read morewide range of fine art! Think everything from Dr Suess prints to religious art. They also do custom framing! This store is packed to the gills with stuff so make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to look around!

From Our Hands is located on the corner of 4th and Locust in the East Village. It is owned by Ann…read moreHarmon and features a wide variety of artisan crafts at reasonable prices (especially by California Standards). I found a piece that I liked and ended up not buying it because I couldn't figure out how to get it in my suitcase and with the wedding coming up, was mindful of trying to minimize these kinds of purchases. But I'll be back next summer to try again! I was also in Raygun recently and their magazine discussed their recent expansion and how they were maybe coveting the From Our Hands space. Don't do it Ann!

Nice little arty gift store in the East Village! Hard to…read moredescribe all the things they have here! Quite the selection of hand crafted, local, mom type stuff! I dig it! Perfect for gifts and treats for that someone in your life who likes to put something crafty and arty in and outside of their home! Staff is very nice and will help you get what you need! Since this is mostly local art type stuff, the collection changes frequently and they have different items for different seasons! Stop in and see if you can find something for mom here!

I have seen so many amazing shows here. This All Ages venue definitely has a solid community behind…read moreit.

The Olson-Larson Gallerie is a beautiful art gallery in the Historic Valley Junction area. I love…read morethat they have a rotating works of art that both push the boundaries and also just look beautiful! This past time they had both screen printed collages and wonderful Acrylic paintings by artist featured in other places like the Smithsonian. So it's high quality stuff. The one bummer thing about this gallery is sometimes it's in shambles for instance this last time I had to make a joke about this plastic that was just sitting on the floor in the main gallery.. I was like is that a New Contemporary sculpture or did somebody just forget to take out the garbage! Either way the staff is super nice and the pieces speak for themselves!

From the owner: We are a contemporary art gallery and custom frame shop representing the finest artists in the…read moreMidwest. Visit us for a unique art experience.