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June 2024 by Jae Jitsu
A good place to spend some time at on a weekend.
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June 2024 by Ashley Sinnorai
• free admission!
• plenty of parking
• BEAUTIFUL architecture!
I enjoyed my time here at the Des Moines Art Center. This museum had a wide variety of pieces and I was happy to do a walk through. Afterwards, my group and I followed the trails to a beautiful rose garden and went to the pond.
*no food or drink allowed, but they hold it at the front.
*photos allowed, but NO flash!
*fun gift shop at the entrance!!
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June 2024 by ME A
A true DM treasure with so many wonderful rotating, world class exhibits (Matisse!!) and permanent items (Rodin!!) housed in a gorgeous space on beautiful grounds. Don’t miss the shop with unique gift ideas. We visit every year when we are in town to see family.
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June 2024 by Josh Rudolph
The atmosphere was nice and it was nice to do something for free. The art was enjoyable. Most of staff were hovering making you feel like you have no space. One staff member was vocal and yelled at my wife for getting close to a glass enclosed art piece with a piece of paper. He was very rude and was out of line . She was just pointing out the piece to my daughter and clearly could not see that she wasn’t even close and again was in glass. This long grey haired member made the experience very unenjoyable . Important for staff to protect pieces but not to be overbearing and rude.
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June 2024 by Antoinette Bell
If you love art and love to view them with your kids this is not a place to go!!
Unless you want to be followed and evil glared at by the staff members then this is your place ! Otherwise this is not a kid friendly place whatsoever.
Now there were two lady staff members who were down to earth very helpful and even friendly and talked about art and 1 guy staff who was decent. Every other staff member either completely ignored our presence or evil glared as we entered the room or just followed us. Fake halfway smirks very unwelcoming, Who in their right minds can enjoy art this way!?
My kids are school aged and well behaved and had excitement to see art.
If you have your artwork here and want kids to embrace art find a new place.
Horrible horrible horrible and not welcoming!!
There way of saying to kids for them to not touch anything is “ make sure you mom doesn’t touch anything okay ?” Just weird. Couldn’t even view pieces without feeling uncomfortable with staff watching our every move! I will go to mainframe studios to see real art and who is welcoming for kids !
This place sucks !! 0 stars if I could .
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May 2024 by Peter Jursik
Made up of the work of 3 outstanding architects: Eliel Saarinen, IM Pei, and Richard Meier. Though most of Saarinen’s galleries have been covered in sheetrock, the main lobby, one hallway gallery, and the Education Wing remain pretty much as he designed them. The understated sophistication of those spaces alone are worth the price of admission (from my perspective).
Read other reviews to learn about the Pei and Meier additions.
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May 2024 by elena smith
Me and my Boyfriend ( we are 18) went to the Art Center for just a date and to do something. We were welcomed in by a Mean Woman and she was trying to make me feel bad for taking pictures when they literally allow pictures here. She was trying to mock me and be like “are you going to have outfit changes or something ?” and i was like no i’m just taking pictures. Then every room we went to we were being watched like a hawk and followed around. Keep in mind we didn’t stand closer than 6 feet to the art pieces because we were so uncomfortable and felt terrified. So in conclusion this place hates kids and young adults!
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April 2024 by Bill Gulling
Fun place to vista
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April 2024 by SC
Have not been moved as of late. Exhibits have not been overly impressive. Events occur - but for a sizable fee.
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March 2024 by Kaitlyn Dryer
I really appreciate getting to visit this museum whenever I'm in Des Moines. It's always meaningful; both the regular collection and featured exhibits are thought-provoking. I hope there will be a way to restore the outdoor art installation around the pond--its a walking path that connects you between worlds, exploring the edges of our experience.
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March 2024 by Nick Ash
Good Atmosphere
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February 2024 by Micaela Lees
We were excited to go with some friends and their kids after our kids studied some of the artists this school year. The collection was ok (some of the pieces were kind of disturbing), but some of the docents were really rude to us and treated our children like they were not welcome. One lady stayed within 2 ft of our group and corrected our children several times for absolutely nothing. The kids were so obedient and did a great job, but were clearly not welcome. Another lady got worked up every time our group entered a room she was in. She seemed unhappy we didn't have a reservation? None are required. This made the visit very stressful and unpleasant. There were some very kind employees too, one even went out of her way to compliment the children, but the overall tenor of the employees was anxious skepticism. We will not be back.
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February 2024 by Alex Moore
I really enjoyed my time visiting here
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February 2024 by Zach H.
Great place to check out if you're in the Des Moines area. I believe the parking and entrance was free. A lot of cool stuff to look at and indulge in as well. I really liked the egg illusion thing that was outside.
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February 2024 by Brook Burgess
Oh my goodness if you have kids do NOT GO! I have well behaved kids, they had a day off of school and we thought it would be a nice time to walk around and check out the new exhibit, I was wrong! First of all, I had a a toddler who stayed in the stroller the whole time and my older kids all walked basically with their hands in their pockets looking at the art. After literally having to get someone to open the door for the handicap/stroller side which took a whole 15 minutes we were immediately followed like a hawk by an older woman, she creeped me out so much that I had to turn around and ask “why are you following us?” She replied “I am security here” and I asked her again, “what did she want?” Oh I’m sorry, do you think my kids are going to steal the art off of the walls? What an absolute joke! At this point the excitement that my children’s had for THE ART is fading but we continue to walk on only to have the same thing happen by some older gentlemen that proceeded to bark at my oldest to step back and almost even touch him, I had to intercept and tell him to back off. It was absolutely ridiculous. My children never want to go back again, I wrote an email but upon reading the other reviews that look like mine, I can see this is a problem that the Art Center does not care about! Shouldn’t we be giving our youth a more joyful experience in the arts? They are the ones that are going to be around when your old grouchy workers are deceased.
