Christine Her firmly believes in managing risks. 

I spoke recently with Her, who has led ArtForce Iowa as its executive director for almost five years, for a story that I’m working on about food insecurity. In that interview, I learned that the Des Moines nonprofit will, for the foreseeable future, operate entirely without any physical studio or office space after moving out of the Des Moines Social Club building downtown at the end of June. 

While it was a difficult decision, Her believes that it’s the best move for her clients and the organization. ArtForce Iowa should save about $20,000 on rent over the next year as it continues to offer programs and workshops on a virtual basis as staff members work remotely from home. 

Many of the young clients of ArtForce Iowa are in the state juvenile detention system, Her said, so she and her staff often can’t see those kids in person. Additionally, the immigrant teens that the organization works with, and their families, are distrustful of the government and aren’t getting immunized for COVID-19. 

A lot of factors came together to multiply that mistrust during the pandemic. 

“You know, this community works in the meatpacking plants, and you hear that managers and supervisors are doing these really disgusting things like betting on who was going to get sick and die,” Her said. “And then you find out that the Johnson & Johnson vaccines were the ones being used at those meatpacking plants, and the FDA says, ‘Stop using Johnson & Johnson — it’s harming people.’ 

“That becomes the language that our community hears. ‘See, I knew they wanted to hurt me … and now I don’t trust any of the vaccines, because I don’t trust the government and I don’t trust my employer.’ … So it’s hard to come back from that and to change that narrative.” 

Her, who is the daughter of Hmong refugees from Laos, is an East High School graduate who earned a degree in creative writing, philosophy and political science from Drake University. 

She has good reasons to be cautious, and not only from her family’s experiences as refugees and immigrants. Three years ago, a flash flood inundated ArtForce Iowa’s previous studio space in Des Moines, destroying $100,000 worth of art equipment and supplies. 

“I have to be [cautious], because if I’m not thinking about the possible risks that come with this organization, then it could really hurt us because we are so small,” she said. “I had no idea that we were going to come back from that.” 

She also wants to avoid the turmoil of transitioning to a new space with a new owner for now. “Due to our past trauma, I wanted to be very mindful that we know what it’s like to go through this transition,” she said. “There’s no reason for us to be in these spaces, when our young people are also afraid to get their vaccines. So that just means we’re not doing in-person workshops and everything is virtual, and all in-person workshops during the summer are going to be outdoors in a park, so we don’t need a physical space.” 

During the interview on Zoom, I could see stacks of cardboard boxes behind Her’s desk. Moving boxes? Not exactly. Each is filled with about $400 worth of art supplies, packaged and ready to be distributed to young clients. Last year, ArtForce Iowa was one of just three organizations to receive a $50,000 grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, which ArtForce used to make the kits to help kids get through the isolation of COVID quarantines. 

“We’ve been able to deliver close to 300 of these kits in the last eight months, impacting over 800 youths,” she said. “These are going to be packed last [into a storage unit] as close as we can to the doors so that when kids are in need of art, we can access them easily.”