{"id":14090,"date":"2025-11-19T23:01:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsmidwest.org\/?p=14090"},"modified":"2026-02-18T18:00:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:00:37","slug":"dubuque-iron-pour-project-tamsie-ringler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsmidwest.org\/stories\/dubuque-iron-pour-project-tamsie-ringler\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubuque Iron Pour Project Brings New Heat to Iowa\u2019s Creative Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tamsie Ringler<\/a> moved to Dubuque, Iowa, five years ago. After years in Minnesota and Wisconsin, she was looking to retire somewhere she could afford a house, continue her art practice, and see her son finish school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But before she relocated, Ringler spent decades teaching sculpture and foundry in colleges and leading iron pours across the country and internationally. At these live, high-heat casting events, artists melt scrap iron in a furnace and pour the glowing metal into molds to create sculptures. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\n \n\n\n\n<\/g>\n\n\n\n<\/clipPath>\n<\/defs>\n<\/svg> Photo Credit: Heidi Bohnenkamp \/ Courtesy of Tamsie Ringler<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
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\n For Tamsie Ringler, the iron pour is a space for community building, art, performance, teaching, among many other things. It’s integral to her life. Pictured here is a iron pour performance in 2015 at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota.\n <\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n \n \n <\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ringler has always loved the collective spirit that comes with iron casting and foundry,  a passion she put into practice during a decade of organizing the Community Collaboration Hot Metal Pour<\/a> at Minnesota\u2019s Franconia Sculpture Park. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] working together with a large group of people to make something happen and supporting the work of other people as well as your own,\u201d the artist explains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ringler is used to setting up foundries in non-traditional spaces including parking lots and sculpture gardens. \u201cIt wasn’t a jump for me to be like, well, I can do that here in Dubuque,\u201d she explains. \u201cThere wasn’t anything like that going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in spring of 2025, Ringler debuted the Dubuque Iron Pour Project.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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\n \n\n\n\n<\/g>\n\n\n\n<\/clipPath>\n<\/defs>\n<\/svg> Photo Credit: David Welder \/ Courtesy of Tamsie Ringler<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
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\n The first Dubuque Iron Pour Project crew included participants from Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. \n <\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n \n \n <\/figure>\n\n
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Heavy Metal Artistry<\/h2>\n

For three weeks, eight local and regional artists (including sculptors, painters, metalsmiths, and landscapers) joined Ringler through the whole metal casting process\u2014\u201cfrom pattern to pour.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For participant <\/span>Tim Olson<\/span><\/a>, the technical parts of the workshop were a learning experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a while for it to all make sense,\u201d says the artist who primarily works in painting and stained glass. He cast a miniature guard shack, incorporating stained glass as windows. \u201cI picked a pretty difficult mold without really knowing what I was getting into.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Olson, most participants were new to metal casting. \u201cIt was great\u2014I got to meet artists\u00a0[from Davenport, Iowa] I’d\u00a0never met before\u2026 We were all working together\u00a0pretty closely\u00a0because\u00a0we had to help each other mix the material for the molds,\u201d he adds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Along the way, the group also helped Ringler make relief molds for the project\u2019s outdoor community pours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Supported by grants from the Iowa Arts Council, the Starseed Foundation, and local businesses, the Dubuque Iron Pour Project offered free workshops\u2014including one at the Boys and Girls Club\u2014and a public iron pour at the Dubuque Art Museum.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t really think of this type of work as being a kind of community project, you know, the way it turned out to be,\u201d says Olson.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b>\u201cI definitely want to do it again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n \n\n\n\n<\/g>\n\n\n\n<\/clipPath>\n<\/defs>\n<\/svg> Photo Credit: Jedrzej Niezgoda\u00a0\/ Courtesy of Tamsie Ringer<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n Artist and educator Tamsie Ringler has spent decades teaching at universities across the country and organizing community metal casting events in non-traditional spaces around the world.\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
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\n \n\n\n\n<\/g>\n\n\n\n<\/clipPath>\n<\/defs>\n<\/svg> Photo Credit: David Welder \/ Courtesy of Tamsie Ringler<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n For three weeks, eight local and regional artists (including sculptors, painters, metalsmiths, and landscapers) joined Tamsie Ringler through the whole metal casting process, using salvaged iron from things like old radiators to source their metal.\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
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\n \n\n\n\n<\/g>\n\n\n\n<\/clipPath>\n<\/defs>\n<\/svg> Photo Credit: Dubuque Boys & Girls Club \/ Courtesy of Tamsie Ringler<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n Foam relief patterns molded and cast with young participants at the local Boys & Girls Club as part of Dubuque Iron Pour Project’s workshops this year.\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n
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\n \n\n\n\n<\/g>\n\n\n\n<\/clipPath>\n<\/defs>\n<\/svg> Photo Credit: Dubuque Boys & Girls Club \/ Courtesy of Tamsie Ringler<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n As part of Dubuque Iron Pour Project’s first year, Tamsie Ringler host a workshop for ten youth participants from the Boys and Girls Club to create foam relief patterns which were molded and cast. \n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n <\/div>\n\n
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