Menna Abou O'llow Art

An Arabic poem I wrote and published in Egypt in 2007. I translated it to English so I can republish on Substack.

My poetry pieces were all written after a big heartache that took me years to heal from. I found them on Blogger, and I can't believe how Green I was. :D.

The pen-and-ink drawing is also by me and was also created in 2007, in Egypt. I unfortunately don't have it, and I don't have a better image of it. That's the best quality my Nokia phone was able to capture.

Let me know what you think

The Land of Dreams - أرض الأحلام 2007

https://open.substack.com/pub/mennaabouollow/p/iowas-creative-economy-is-a-retention?r=2nhl8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

https://open.substack.com/pub/mennaabouollow/p/art-is-infrastructure?r=2nhl8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

https://open.substack.com/pub/mennaabouollow/p/loneliness-is-a-community-problem?r=2nhl8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Loneliness Is a Community Problem. Art is the Cure. Welcome to the Tribe

"Every purchase you make isn’t just art leaving my studio; it’s a piece of my dream being kept alive. You help me pay my studio rent, buy materials, and most importantly, focus on what I love most: creating and sharing my stories. You make me feel heard, seen, and valued. Thank you for being part of my journey." 🎨❤️

Thank you for supporting my Art

The monotype Workshop at Creston Arts was the highlight of my residency time, I met so many great people, and great artists and creatives.

Thank you to everyone who made my stay enjoyable and thank you for coming to see me today ❤️

I'm thankful for making new friends in Creston.

The beautiful mural in the background is by the artist: Amy Putney Koenig

https://www.facebook.com/events/1021743343962049/?ti=ls

Art Is Infrastructure: But Artists Need Infrastructure Too.

When people ask why art matters, I want to ask a different question: What happens to a city when people no longer have places to gather, create, belong, and be seen?

This issue crosses boundaries; it matters to artists and business leaders alike. In Central Iowa, workforce development, downtown vitality, talent retention, mental health, inclusion, and quality of life are common focus areas. Strategic plans, committees, and campaigns revolve around these concerns, yet the arts, too, remain siloed from these efforts. For example, when Mainframe Studios partnered with downtown development initiatives to host First Friday events, it not only brought new audiences into the city center but also offered creative workforce opportunities for artists and vendors. This kind of collaboration demonstrates what becomes possible when the arts are integrated into broader strategies.

That is why treating art as something beautiful but optional misses an essential point.

Art is how a community becomes livable, memorable, and human. It helps people attach meaning to a place. It creates reasons to gather. It turns buildings into destinations and neighborhoods into communities. It gives everyone a way to experience a city beyond transactions.

Yet, there is another truth: if art is infrastructure, then artists need infrastructure too.

We cannot celebrate creative cities while leaving creative workers unsupported. We cannot ask artists to make our communities vibrant, welcoming, and emotionally alive. It is unfair to expect artists to survive on exposure, multiple side jobs, and unstable income or no medical insurance. If Central Iowa wants the benefits of a strong creative economy, business and civic leaders must treat artists as small-business owners, cultural workers, educators, and community builders.

As an artist in Des Moines, I have seen this closely. I have lived the difference between being physically present in a place and truly belonging to it. When I moved through different countries and eventually established a life in Iowa,

These communities do not suddenly appear. They must be created. Sometimes it is made through policy and leadership. But the best way is when it is made through a shared craft table, a shared art activity, and the simple invitation: come as you are.

That is why businesses should care about the arts. It is a serious investment in the region's social, economic, and emotional health. It is not bougie or charity. This is not my own interpretation and personal struggle. The data support this claim. In Central Iowa alone, the nonprofit arts and cultural sector generates billions in economic activity and supports thousands of jobs every year, fueling local businesses and strengthening the overall vitality of our cities (Iowa Economic Development Authority, n.d.). This local impact is echoed in national numbers. Americans for the Arts' Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 study found that nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences generated $151.7 billion in economic activity nationally in 2022. That activity supported 2.6 million jobs, generated $29.1 billion in tax revenue for local, state, and federal governments, and provided $101 billion in personal income (Americans for the Arts, 2023). The study also makes a key point for business readers. Nonprofit arts and culture organizations are technically businesses. They employ people, buy supplies, promote their regions, attract audiences, and drive sales to restaurants, parking, hospitality, and other local services.

The impact is not only national. In Iowa, arts and cultural production is a $5 billion industry that supports approximately 48,000 full-time jobs and generates $2.4 billion in annual wages (Iowa Economic Development Authority, n.d.). These numbers should change how we talk about the arts. Artists are not asking for handout support. Artists are part of the economy.

However, being part of the economy does not mean the economy is built to support them.

This disconnect is one of the most prominent issues facing the creative field. Public perception usually centers on the finished artwork, the exhibition, or the performance. But what is hidden is the full business behind it.

Many artists are not "just" artists. We are designers, marketers, grant writers, social media managers, customer service representatives, shippers, drivers, bookkeepers, CEOs, CFOs, installers, event planners, and community organizers. Then we go home and become spouses, parents, caregivers, cooks, cleaners, drivers, teachers, and everything in between. This reality is discouraging. It is also depressing.

The Strategic National Arts Alumni Project found that 75% of arts and design alums have been self-employed, and 39% were self-employed as of September 2022. At the same time, the largest gap between what alums learned in school and what they needed in paid work was in business, financial, and entrepreneurial skills. Sixty-five percent of working alums said those skills were important to their employment, but only 33% said they developed them during their postsecondary arts or design education (Novak-Leonard, 2024).

That gap explains what many artists already know from experience. We are trained to create, critique, research, experiment, and develop our voice. But we are not always taught how to price our work, negotiate a contract, write a grant, manage taxes, market ourselves, build a client base, or protect our time and labor. When the traditional job market does not offer enough stable arts-related positions, artists are pushed toward self-employment. Often, we are not given the tools to survive there.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects little or no employment growth for craft and fine artists from 2024 to 2034, even though artists are still expected to build portfolios, sell work, apply for grants, promote themselves, and develop an online presence (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). In other words, the demand for creativity has not disappeared, but the structure of the workload has shifted onto the artists.

This disconnect presents an opportunity for business leaders to act differently.

If artists are already functioning as entrepreneurs, then arts support should not stop at sponsorship. Yes, sponsorship helps. But artists also need professional infrastructure: fair contracts, paid opportunities, affordable studio space, business mentorship, marketing support, access to decision-making rooms, and respect for creative labor as real labor with medical insurance for creatives. We pay taxes too!

Local businesses can play a direct role in building this infrastructure. For example, companies can partner with artists to establish mentorship programs that connect creative workers with business professionals in areas like finance, marketing, or project management. Shared workspace initiatives, such as offering unused office space to artists for studios or co-working, provide affordable creative environments. Businesses can also create small grants or micro-funding opportunities to support artist-led projects. Inviting artists to business training workshops or organizing regular networking events that bring together artists and business leaders can help strengthen these vital connections. Concrete actions like these equip artists with the support necessary to thrive and help our cities flourish.

Central Iowa already has examples of what this can look like. Mainframe Studios in Des Moines provides permanent, affordable workspace for more than 180 artists. These artists represent thirty different disciplines (Mainframe Studios, n.d.). That matters because artists need more than visibility. They need stability. They need space to experiment, fail, build, sell, teach, collaborate, and grow real careers. When artists have that kind of foundation, the benefit does not stay inside the studio. It moves into schools, nonprofits, festivals, public art projects, small businesses, galleries, community events, and neighborhoods.

This is the part business leaders should notice: creative infrastructure multiplies. Hear me out. A single artist studio can become a classroom, a gallery opening can become a networking space, and a small gathering can become a support system. These outcomes are difficult to measure in the same way we measure square footage or revenue. But they are not soft. They are the conditions that help people stay.

I see this in my own work through The Tribe at Menna's, a small community arts gathering I host at my studio. It began with a personal need. As an immigrant living far from my original home, I wanted to create a space where people gather without needing to perform or explain their worth. I wanted a space where artists, creatives, parents, educators, friends, and strangers could make art, exchange ideas, and sit together.

The idea is simple, but the need behind it is deep. The world is becoming a sad place. People are tired. Many are isolated. Many crave friendship but do not know how to begin. Art gives us a gentle beginning. It gives our hands something to do while our walls come down. It allows conversation to happen naturally. In that way, art turns into a bridge.

The National Endowment for the Arts has reported growing research around arts engagement and social connectedness. This includes how participation in the arts relates to belonging and community connection (National Endowment for the Arts, 2024). This matters because loneliness and social isolation are not abstract problems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that loneliness and social isolation are connected to increased risks for depression, anxiety, heart disease, stroke, dementia, and earlier death (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024). Connection is a public health concern.

Creative spaces, therefore, can help answer that concern.

For Central Iowa businesses, this is more than a feel-good message. Companies already invest in branding, recruitment, team culture, wellness, and community. Supporting the arts connects all those goals. A business that commissions local artists is not only buying artwork. It tells employees and clients that local creativity has value. A company that sponsors accessible community art programming is not giving money. It helps build places where people can connect.

To make the case even stronger, businesses can track the impact of their arts support through practical metrics. For example, organizations might monitor employee engagement surveys, retention rates, participation in creative events, or solicit community feedback on the impact of public art initiatives. Seeing positive shifts in these areas offers leaders measurable results and helps demonstrate the value of investing in a creative economy.

If businesses, civic leaders, and community members want a stronger creative economy, here is what you can do:

First, treat artists as professional partners, commit to paying artists fairly, include them early in planning, and seek their creative input in shaping spaces, communication, engagement, and experiences while encouraging ongoing partnerships that recognize their expertise and contributions.

Second, companies can invest in small, consistent creative gatherings. Festivals matter, but so do monthly workshops, open studios, artist talks, youth programs, and neighborhood-based creative projects. Belonging is built through repetition. People trust what they can return to.

Third, business and civic leaders can include artists in conversations about workforce and economic development. If the goal is to make Central Iowa attractive to talent, then artists belong in the room. They understand stories of identity and human relationships. These issues are central to how people experience a region.

Fourth, organizations can support the business side of creative work. This includes artist entrepreneurship workshops, marketing support, grant-writing clinics, legal and contract guidance, bookkeeping education, paid internships, mentorship from local business owners, and partnerships between artists and commerce chambers. In Central Iowa, programs like the Business of Art conference hosted by Mainframe Studios, which offers sessions on business skills and practical tools for artists, already show what is possible. These are capacity-building tools for creative workers who are already contributing to the local economy.

Fifth, individuals can support local artists directly. Buy local artwork. Share their events. Attend open studios. Commission work. Invite artists to speak. Recommend them for paid opportunities. Bring children to community art events. Ask who made the art on the wall. Learn the names of the artists shaping your city.

Finally, we need to normalize not asking artists to prove that beauty has value while receiving help from the value they create. Every developed city depends on creative labor and its cultural texture, and spaces where people can gather across differences. If we want that kind of region, we must support the people who help build it.

William Zinsser, a journalist, teacher, and author of On Writing Well, reminds writers to believe in their own identity and opinions because clear writing begins with conviction (Zinsser, 2006). His lesson matters here because this article is about saying clearly what many artists already know but are often too tired to keep proving.

Art is not the opposite of business; on the contrary, art helps businesses understand people, and people are the real infrastructure of this planet.

References
Americans for the Arts. (2023). Arts & Economic Prosperity 6: The economic and social impact study of nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences. https://aep6.americansforthearts.org/
Business Publications Corp. (n.d.). Brands: Business Record. https://www.bpcdm.com/brands/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). Health effects of social isolation and loneliness. https://www.cdc.gov/social-connectedness/risk-factors/index.html
Iowa Economic Development Authority. (n.d.). Impact of the arts in Iowa. https://opportunityiowa.gov/community/arts-culture/impact-arts-iowa
Mainframe Studios. (n.d.). Mainframe Studios, Des Moines, IA. https://www.mainframestudios.org/
National Endowment for the Arts. (2019). Taking note: Entrepreneurship as a career choice. https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2019/taking-note-entrepreneurship-career-choice
National Endowment for the Arts. (2024). New research explores arts engagement and social connectedness. https://www.arts.gov/
Novak-Leonard, J. L. (2024). Arts and design alumni employment and perspectives on their work and careers. Strategic National Arts Alumni Project. https://snaaparts.org/findings/reports/arts-and-design-alumni-employment-and-perspectives-on-their-work-and-careers
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025). Craft and fine artists: Occupational outlook handbook. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-design/craft-and-fine-artists.htm
Zinsser, W. (2006). On writing well: The classic guide to writing nonfiction. HarperCollins.

*The photo is AI-generated.