Jennifer Drinkwater

About the Artist

A Mississippi native, Jennifer Drinkwater decided to pursue art full-time halfway through a 700-mile trek on the Appalachian Trail. She’s spent one year of her life in tents, and currently lives with her husband and their big yellow dog in an almost tiny house in Ames, Iowa.

Jennifer explores how we bring artwork from the studio into the world, and how art-making can both build and shape community. Over the years, she’s helped to organize a community-wide steamroll printmaking event in Perry, Iowa; created installations in restored prairies in Nebraska; collaborated on public art projects in vacant sites on Iowa main streets; spearheaded a community knit-bombing project; and has painted murals with middle school children on a juke joint in the Mississippi Delta and behind City Hall in Perry, Iowa.

If you’ve got a little extra time, read Jennifer Drinkwater: Blending Art and Community to Find the Good in Delta Magazine to discover more of Jennifer’s background and inspiration for the What’s Good Project.

DRINKWATER is the winner of the 2024 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Visual Arts for The What’s Good Project.