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About Bravo

Bravo Greater Des Moines is the region’s arts council, providing significant funding and support to nonprofit cultural organizations and programs that are essential to a vibrant community.

A Brief History

WHY BRAVO MATTERS

Investing in the arts means investing in the community and its priorities. There is no civic or strategic initiative that is not impacted and improved by incorporating arts, culture, and heritage. From economic development to education to housing to mental health, the arts touch every regional priority in essential ways.

See the Impact

Mission

Bravo Greater Des Moines leverages community resources to maximize impact of arts, culture, and heritage to advance regional priorities.

Vision

Arts, culture, and heritage elevate and enrich a vibrant Greater Des Moines.

Values

Bravo embraces the following organizational values to promote and support the cultural community of Greater Des Moines:

Collaborative – Bravo collaborates with all community partners to define and achieve long-term success for arts, culture, and heritage.

Inclusive – Bravo values diversity, and we promote a culture of equity and inclusion.

Accountable – Bravo acts with integrity and transparency, allocating resources responsibly and as good stewards of public funds.

Regional – Bravo is engaged where we can have the most impact on regional priorities.

Opportunistic – Bravo consistently delivers on core functions while remaining nimble enough to respond strategically to regional priorities.

Passionate – Bravo stakeholders are all passionate about arts, culture, and heritage and the benefits Bravo brings to Greater Des Moines.

A HISTORY OF BRAVO

Bravo was formed in 2004 after central Iowa business and civic leaders recognized that quality of life – driven by arts and culture – would play a significant role in the region’s future success. Through a visionary public-private collaboration, Bravo Greater Des Moines was created to make high impact investments on behalf of the region. Still funded almost entirely with hotel/motel tax revenue contributed by local government partners, Bravo provides leadership to the community and invests in arts and culture organizations, programs and initiatives that enhance quality of life and drive economic impact.

2003

PROJECT DESTINY

Project Destiny launched to advance regional collaboration among Greater Des Moines businesses and communities to enhance arts, culture, and quality of life. A main pillar of Project Destiny was the creation of an organization dedicated to elevating arts, culture and heritage (the momentum behind Bravo).
2004

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Reliable, sustainable funding was needed to support ongoing investment in arts and culture. Recognizing this, nine communities said “yes” to allocating a portion of hotel/motel taxes to the newly-formed Bravo Greater Des Moines, created as a regional organization and formed to served the greater good.
2006

BRAVO AWARDS GALA

The first annual Bravo Awards Gala was held at the Val Air Ballroom. Jacqueline and Myron Blank were recognized with the Bravo Award honoring a company, individual or family that has made a significant contribution to arts and culture in central Iowa.
2006

INVESTMENT BEGINS

Grantmaking was at the heart of Bravo’s purpose and by 2006, enough funds had been accumulated to begin making investments. $1.3 million was awarded to 38 organizations to support operating costs.
2008

CONNECTING KIDS AND CULTURE

In 2008, the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines and Bravo Greater Des Moines partnered to create Connecting Kids and Culture (CKC). CKC provided funding directly to schools and districts to support experiences in the classroom, field trips, and transportation costs, with the sole purpose of increasing access to arts and culture for elementary school students. The program was entirely funded with funding from the Principal Charity Classic, and ran through the 2020-2021 school year.
2010

PARTNER EXPANSION

12 communities are now investing in Bravo.
2014

PERPETUAL SUPPORT

Agreements with partner communities become perpetual, further demonstrating the value the public sector sees in a thriving creative economy.
2016

PARTNER EXPANSION

There are now 17 communities in Greater Des Moines investing hotel-motel tax revenue in Bravo.
2017

REGIONAL CULTURAL ASSESSMENT

Bravo Greater Des Moines and Drake University announced the findings of the Regional Cultural Assessment, a 15-month initiative to identify opportunities to fully align arts and culture to regional priorities and further leverage the sector as an essential driver of economic development and quality of life.
2019

$4 MILLION INVESTED

Nearly $4 million was invested in 68 arts, culture and heritage nonprofit organizations in Greater Des Moines this year.
2020

THE COVID-19 CRISIS

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a crisis forcing the arts and cultural sector to effectively shut its doors, Bravo maintained its commitment to cultural partners and the community and continued to provide reliable, flexible funding.
2022

BECOMES THE REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL

The Bravo Board of Directors approves a new strategic plan that firmly commits Bravo to an expanded role in leveraging public resources to advance regional priorities. Bravo formally becomes Greater Des Moines’ Arts Council. Thanks to seed funding from the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, Bravo starts Passport to Culture (PTC) in Spring 2022. PTC, a program mirrored after Connecting Kids and Culture, provides funding to Greater Des Moines schools and districts to promote arts and culture experiences for students kindergarten through fifth grade.
2023

$55+ MILLION INVESTED

Bravo investments surpass $55 million in grants to more than 100 arts, culture and heritage nonprofits of Greater Des Moines since 2006.
2024

20 YEARS OF IMPACT

Bravo Greater Des Moines celebrates its 20th Anniversary.

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

Hotel/motel tax investments from 17 Greater Des Moines communities make 100% of Bravo’s work possible.

  • Altoona
  • Ankeny
  • Bondurant
  • Carlisle
  • Clive
  • Des Moines
  • Grimes
  • Indianola
  • Johnston
  • Norwalk
  • Pleasant Hill
  • Polk City
  • Polk County
  • Urbandale
  • Waukee
  • West Des Moines
  • Windsor Heights

Government Partners

FY25 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

  • Emily Abbas*
  • Robert Brownell
  • Bryan Burkhardt
  • Lauren Campbell
  • Shannon Cofield
  • Tej Dhawan
  • Chad Driscoll*
  • Kurt Gibson (Vice Chair)
  • Ross Grooters
  • Phillip Hall
  • Matthew Harris*
  • Scott Haugh
  • Cheryl Heid
  • Susan Judkins
  • Ardis Kelley
  • Michelle Bolton King
  • Bob Kling
  • Ed Kuhl
  • Liz Lidgett*
  • Greg Lin
  • Blaire Massa*
  • Mike McCoy (Immediate Past Chair)
  • Matthew McKinney (Chair)
  • Michael Morain
  • Kim Perez
  • Jeff Perry
  • Anna Pierce
  • Todd Ross (Treasurer)
  • Blake Rozendaal
  • Kuuku Saah*
  • Mike Simonson
  • Angie Stepsis*
  • Julie Stewart
  • Mark True
  • Mandy Vogel
  • Sally Dix* (Secretary, ex-officio)
  • *Executive Committee

Upcoming Board Meetings

Bravo Greater Des Moines Executive Committee
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 at 7:30 am

Bravo Greater Des Moines Board of Directors
Wednesday, June 12, 2025 at 7:30 am

Please email for agenda information.

Bravo Staff

Jesse Coleman
Jesse Coleman

Community Investment Specialist

Sally Dix
Sally Dix

President

Megan Hanson
Megan Hanson

Communications and Project Support Specialist

Amy Saylor
Amy Saylor

Director of Operations