The Clarke Area Arts Council’s featured artist is Janet Heinicke [MA ’56] of Indianola.

Heinicke is a professional artist with a studio in Indianola who paints, draws and hand pulls prints. She paints and draws what she sees in the world around her, mostly nature.

She has traveled across the United States and also around the world from Africa to Europe and the Far East. Her art has won her multiple awards and she often displayed her art for competitions. She has given lectures on art nationally and internationally. Heinicke has taught in Russia, the Ukraine, Latvia, Japan and Tanzania.

Heinicke came to Indianola in 1982 to assume the chairship of the art department at Simpson College. Between 2013 and 2018 she was the Superintendent of Fine Art at the Iowa State Fair and in 2016 she received the AWE AWARD (Arts Within Everything) by the Des Moines Metro Arts Organizations. She holds degrees from Northern Illinois University and the University of Wisconsin. She has also studied at Syracuse University and the Anderson Art Ranch.