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New Winter Light Experience This February Downtown

New software helps Downtown engage with visitors and community

Downtown introduces concierge shopping for the holiday

Better Bathrooms Wraps Up

Downtown Tours

New Downtown Nightlife Employee Recognition Program: IC STARS

The Great Iowa City Mural Hunt

Mi Casa, Your Casa 2.0 arrives in Iowa City

doors downtown iowa city public art

2022 Downtown Public Art Opportunities

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Through a partnership between the @uiowa, @neumann

Through a partnership between the @uiowa, @neumannmonson, and the ICDD, a new interactive 120-foot light canopy has been draped over one of the signature alleys in the heart of downtown. This new lighting installment will be open during Winter Night Lights experience and remain a permanent fixture throughout the year. This highly adaptable lighting canopy can be activated by sound with those that engage with it and is sure to set the stage for impromptu events and activities throughout the year.
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Make sure to stop downtown tomorrow for the first winter Silent Disco dance party with @uiowacab from 6:00 - 9:00pm. Bundle up and bring your dancing shoes to have some fun under the dazzling new lights. Silent Disco is completely free to enjoy every Friday night in February, but headsets are limited!
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#winternightlights #downtowniowacity #thisisiowa #traveliowa #thinkiowacity

February is here and it felt good like a good day

February is here and it felt good like a good day to get a little jump on Valentine’s Day shopping. From vinyl to fragrance, jewelry to vino…there’s something for every valentine. If you need a little help, enlist our FREE personal concierge shopping service to find just what you’re looking for.

Come down the rabbit hole with us and have fun wit

Come down the rabbit hole with us and have fun with Intrude, the new public art installation opening in the pedestrian mall next week. Designed by highly acclaimed international artist Amanda Parer, Intrude features 6 giant inflatable rabbit sculptures illuminated with light. We invite the community to come interact with the rabbits as they would if they were real and feel their impact - give them a gentle touch, snap some photos with them, or even embrace them with a warm hug. Read Amanda’s artist statement below to learn more.
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Some very large white rabbits, illuminated in stark white light, have been invading the planet. The bunnies of Intrude stand enormous, yet relaxed in their given new homes.

Rabbits in artist Amanda Parer’s native Australia are a feral species, they leave a trail of ecological destruction wherever they go and defying attempts at eradication. First introduced by white settlers in 1788, they have caused a great imbalance to the country’s endemic species.

Yet, the rabbit is also an animal of contradiction. They represent the fairy-tale animals of our childhood, of furry innocence, frolicking through idyllic fields. Intrude deliberately evokes this cutesy image, and strong visual humour to lure you into the artwork only to reveal the more serious environmental messages in the work. The bunnies of Intrude are huge, the size referencing “the elephant in the room”, the problem, like our mismanagement of the environment, big, but one that we too easily ignore.

“It can be said that the rabbit is my muse. My artwork, Intrude, is like any good fairytale, it works from both the light and the dark. In Australia, the rabbit simultaneously represents a cute, cuddly character from our childhood and is an animal known to impose great destruction on the island continents’ delicate ecosystems. It has been fun to use these motifs to explore our relationship with the natural world.” - Amanda Parer, Artist @parerstudio
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Special thanks to @thinkiowacity, @opnarchitects, @uiowacab, @neumannmonson, @midamerican_energy, @axiom_consultants, and @cityofiowacity for their support of the Winter Night Lights experience.

Grab your mittens, scarves, and jackets. Every y

Grab your mittens, scarves, and jackets.

Every year we host a silent disco during the summer's Block Party event. This year, we will be adding the popular event to our inaugural Winter Night Lights experience. Different season, same great dance party!

Fridays in February, @silentdiscodsm will be coming to Iowa City to host a winter Silent Disco Party with support from @uiowacab. From 6-9pm come down to the ped mall, check out your headsets outside of @graduatehotels and dance the night away amongst the stunning light installations on display.

Fridays- February 3, 10, 17, 24 -- 6-9pm

#thinkiowacity #thisisiowa #winternightlights #silentdisco #downtowniowacity

February is going to be an exciting month downtown

February is going to be an exciting month downtown as we look to embrace these long, dark nights with art and fun. On February 1st, we will be opening a month-long winter light experience called Winter Night Lights.

An outdoor winter experience, aimed at embracing winter nights, the Winter Night Lights experience will be a month-long, multi-faceted event. The event will extend through February 28 on Downtown Iowa City's pedestrian mall, featuring one-of-a-kind light-based installations and unique activations.

Winter Night Lights will center around four different lighting installations combining traveling, annual, and permanent features, from local and international artists throughout the ped mall. The line-up will feature @alihval Doodle Trees, downtown's annual Singing Trees, a new permanent 120-foot alley light "canopy," and internationally renowned artist Amanda Parer's Intrude bunny inflatable sculptures.

In addition to the art installations throughout the ped mall, we will host cold-weather dance parties with silent disco at the Weatherdance Fountain stage. Beginning February 3, 2023, the community and visitors staying in the area will want to grab their parkas, scarves, and mittens from 6-9pm each Friday night.

A big thank you to @thinkiowacity @opnarchitects @uiowa @neumannmonson @midamerican_energy @axiom_consultants for their support of the Winter Night Lights experience.

#thinkiowacity #intrude #downtowniowacity #singingtrees #doodletrees

We’re so happy to have the Singing Trees from @l

We’re so happy to have the Singing Trees from @limbicmedia back downtown for the second time. We hope you’re as mesmerized by the dazzling light show as we are. The public art feature will be part of a new larger installation coming to the Ped Mall this winter. We can’t wait to tell you more about it. Stay tuned as more details will be announced soon!
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#downtowniowacity #thinkiowacity #thisisiowa #singingtrees

This Saturday is the last chance to catch a festiv

This Saturday is the last chance to catch a festive ride through downtown on the antique tractor from @bassfarmsllc. Thanks to @hillsbank, the rides are free for you to enjoy. Bundle up and grab a blanket on the tractor to stay warm and enjoy a free candy cane for a sweet treat.
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Rides are every 15 minutes from 10:00am until 4:00 pm at the corner of Washington St & Clinton St.
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#downtowniowacity #thisisiowa #thinkiowacity #tistheseason

ICDD is excited to introduce a new collaboration w

ICDD is excited to introduce a new collaboration with tech firm, @hellolamppost_ as an innovative way to engage with the community and downtown visitors. The new platform allows anyone in downtown Iowa City to have direct and unique conversations with the interactive persona with objects and featured activities happening downtown via a text (SMS) conversation.
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For the holidays, the conversations and engagements are designed to provide workers, residents, and visitors with information on holiday happenings and gift shopping recommendations. To interact with the surroundings, visitors simply scan a QR code found on the distinct "Hello Downtown" signs throughout the downtown area, enabling them to engage in a friendly two-way conversation via text, receiving real-time answers to shopping questions as well as information on Downtown's holiday events.
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Engagement with the program can happen via the QR codes posted in different areas of downtown Iowa City or by texting with the direct number 319-346-3443.
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The launch of the platform is the first of many Hello Lamp Post rollouts coming to downtown over the next year. In the upcoming months, additional conversations and objects will be introduced throughout downtown providing ways to engage with featured public art, feedback on upcoming streetscape projects, and event information.
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#downtowniowacity #thinkiowacity #thisisiowa #tistheseason #hellolamppost

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