Imagine having an artist-in-residence in your workplace who’s producing fine art for your lobby, working on the same 8-to-5 schedule as your employees.   Or, how about being able to go to the East Village or Valley Junction and buy a piece of art without having to pay state sales tax?

Try visualizing more public art by local artists popping up along the Des Moines River, as the Principal Riverwalk project unfolds.

Making art an everyday part of life in Greater Des Moines is a concept that’s gaining a lot of attention among business people, as the strategy of building a more vibrant arts community to attract and retain workers takes hold.

In late January the Greater Des Moines Partnership, acting on its Project Destiny task force recommendations, launched several initiatives to provide more support and funding for public art. Among those initiatives is the formation of a public arts committee to plan the installation of various types of art pieces along the Riverwalk and the East and West Gateways.

It’s one of the more formal approaches to supporting artists in Greater Des Moines. A number of more informal means of supporting emerging artists have been attempted over the yerars with varying degrees of success.

For Jim Russell, an artist who specializes in using metals to build custom jewelry, furniture and sculptures, the more attention the arts receive, the better.

“I make my living based on being an active artist in the community,” said Russell, who has operated a studio in the 316 Arts building at 316 S.W. Fifth St. since 1995. “From my perspective, anything that the Partnership or the city proposes to promote arts puts more people in my corner potentially.”

Being able to afford a public space in which to work and display their art is still a major hurdle for most emerging local artists, he said.

Russell is among the 20 artists or art-related small businesses occupying the 316 Arts building. In some instances, former tenants such as Sticks Inc. have moved out to fill larger galleries.

Having a building completely devoted to artists was the brainchild of 316 Arts’ owner, Davis Sanders, an architect and artist in his own right.

“I think it’s a valuable thing for everyone concerned,” Russell said. “There’s clearly a sharing of not only ideals but success as well. I know in my business I utilize the products of other artists in the building to facilitate what I do. The collective energy really enhances a cooperative effort for the building.”

Tracy Levine, executive director of the Metro Arts Alliance, said she likes some ideas she heard recently from former Austin, Texas, Mayor Kirk Watson, who spoke in Des Moines to the Downtown Community Alliance. Among the best ideas, she said, is establishing some tax-free zones in the city where artists could sell their wares without having to charge sales tax.

“I don’t think people realize how many artists there are in Des Moines, and what a boost that could be for the community,” she said.

Venues such as the Arts 316 building, the BMS Building and the Artists’ Emporium, which lasted for about seven years near Java Joes Coffeehouse downtown, are needed for artists to put their work on display and provide them an incubator of sorts, she said.

“I would like to see more opportunties for artists to exhibit their work in places where people go so they’re exposed to people’s pieces,” Levine said. “Principal has taken a lead role in that, by displaying art in their lobbies. They realize how much it means to their employees who work there. … I think it would be so cool for a company to have an artist in residence at their workplace.”

Carole Kavanaugh, co-owner of Kavanaugh Art Gallery in Valley Junction, said she tries to display work from newer local artists. Being located in Valley Junction for the past 14 years close to other galleries has been helpful to her as an owner, she said.   Generally, annual art shows haven’t been helpful to local artists, she said, because those events tend to emphasize regional or national artists, and their high entry fees put them out of range for many area artists.

Another gallery owner, Shannon Boswell, said having a local art critic is a need she’s heard from several artists. Boswell relocated her gallery, Absolute Art, in December to a bigger space in the East Village. Being near Sticks, her gallery often benefits from traffic from that popular business, and she’s hopeful more galleries will open in the East Village.

“I feel there’s an extremely strong arts community in Des Moines,” she said. “It’s not only artists, but also art appreciators.” A new group that’s formed, the East Village Arts Coalition, illustrates the level of interest in that district, she said.

Russell said the ideal situation would be to create an atmosphere that blends performing arts with the visual arts.

“I think ultimately the East Village concept has that going for it,” he said, given the available spaces there. “The idea of combining various elements of arts – would really be terrific if we could pull it off.”