Another article from the local Des Moines Iowa paper:

The Des Moines Register

CROWD COMES EARLY TO VIEW ART SCENE
Two men who created the visual attraction earn praise from their former teacher at Lincoln.
By Jared Strong, Des Moines Register
Tuesday, September 29, 2009

A first-time art festival brought about 800 people to the South Des Moines Sculpture Park on Sept. 19.
It also reunited two art students and a teacher who hadn’t seen each other for decades.
The art students were Phil Barber and Chuck Mettler, two longtime friends who created the sculpture park at the corner of Southwest Eighth Street and Southwest McKinley Avenue.
The art teacher was Donna Yeast, who retired nine years ago from Lincoln High School.  She remembered Barber for being the president of the school’s Dorian Art Club shortly after she began teaching at the school in 1968.
“It was an honorary art club that they don’t have anymore,” Yeast recalled last week.  “Students were picked from the quality of work and their attitude and behavior.”
Yeast said Barber “was a real character and really outgoing.  He seemed to have a really good following from the other students.”
She had heard of the sculpture park, which opened last year, but didn’t know that Barber and Mettler were the ones behind it until she read about this year’s festival.
“It was a nice art fair.  It’s an eye-catching place,” said Yeast, who also lives on the south side. “It’s really rewarding to see people follow along in the footsteps they started in high school.”
The chance meeting between students and teacher was an added bonus for a successful first time event, Barber said.
“It was really good, man.  Everybody had a blast,” he said.  “This was our trial run, and it went really, really well.”
Barber and Mettler plan to expand the festival next year to include 20 art vendors—they had a dozen this year—and more live music.  Joryn Brown, a 14-year-old blues guitarist who recorded his first original song nine years ago, played this year.
The festival was supposed to start and noon, but people began arriving about 100 a.m.  A steady stream came and went until about 4 p.m., Barber said.
Councilman Brian Meyer was among the attendees.
“It’s really, really cool stuff,” he said.  “They had a big turnout, and they want to make it even bigger next year. … I’ll do what I can to help.”

Thanks Des Moines. It was my pleasure.