Written by Liz Lidgett
Photo by Duane Tinkey
For Ian Miller, everything changed last June. That’s when he curated an exhibit, called “Shove It,” at the Polk County Heritage Gallery that benefited the Des Moines Regional Skate Park.
“It was the first time that I had created a show that was civic-minded,” explains the 32-year-old Miller. “It opened my eyes to the effects art can have on a community and how it can create change.”
With that insight and a drive to make a difference, Miller began looking at charitable causes that interested him and pairing them with local artists and photographers. That led to “Confliction,” a photo exhibit and video installation he curated last fall at the old Polk County Jail downtown. The show featured powerful and poignant photographs of children of incarcerated parents taken by dsm contributing photographer Ben Easter and an evocative video by Des Moines videographer Jacob Moyer. The show benefited local nonprofit groups dedicated to helping kids who have parents in prison, including Visiting Mom, Forever Books for Kids/The Ashcraft Project, and What Did I Do/Empowering Children of Incarcerated Parents.
The exhibit “helped me focus and define the goal going forward,” Miller says. “I want to work directly with organizations and institutions that have a supreme purpose.”
Miller is driven by “a sense of duty—an overwhelming sense,” says Jolene Pfaff, who worked with Miller on “Confliction” and who cofounded the What Did I Do group. “He’s a creative genius.”
“He is a grounded person, present and calm,” Easter adds. “He helped execute the show with such ease and grace. He inspires me as a person.”
While art is a philosophy for Miller, it’s also a trade. “Born and bred in Des Moines, happily,” Miller grew up with creative parents. His father was a sign painter, and his mother created fine decorative papers and custom fabrics. Starting at age 14, Miller worked at the Iowa State Fair, selling artwork he created with an airbrush.
Miller eventually moved to Los Angeles, working a variety of jobs in the film industry while pursuing his passion for art. In 2009, he returned to Des Moines and opened Thee Eye art studio and showroom in the East Village. He wanted a space where he could show and sell the abstract, Venetian-inspired leather masquerade masks he and Los Angeles-based artist Satyrus Jeering created. The gallery also provided space for other artists to show their work. Last year, Miller closed Thee Eye’s East Village location and now operates out of a 3,500-square-foot warehouse on Thomas Beck Road.
Miller is beginning to broaden his reach using art as a social catalyst. He is working on a children’s book, called “The Nitch,” that he helped design and that Jeering wrote. Miller hopes the project eventually will provide a way to create mentoring possibilities for underprivileged youths and foster their creative growth. The work, which will be published sometime this year, is written in poetic prose and is meant for children of all ages.
Miller “loves Des Moines and thinks anything is possible here,” Pfaff says. “He thinks, ‘Why not?’ In Des Moines, if you have an idea, you can take it as far as you want to.”
