Students from a variety of disciplines taking Community Development in the Upper Midwest produced videos that tell stories from the Grant Wood Loop, located in eastern Iowa, through their own experiences in the region and interviews with local residents. 

As part of their capstone project, second-year graduate students from the University of Iowa’s School of Urban & Regional Planning created a Vision Plan to support Cedar County's efforts to earn Great Places designation through the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.

Concurrent with the development of the Cedar County Comprehensive Plan, students developed a Cedar County visioning document to support an application for Iowa Great Places designation, a competitive program administered by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. 

Graduate students in the School of Library & Information Science built a framework and online platform for archiving data related to Mason City architecture.

MFA student Ali Hval designed murals with "prairie style" themes for two downtown Mason City locations as part of the community's "Building Our Brand" campaign.   Ali also painted the mural designed for the Brick Furniture building.

Students from the School of Journalism & Mass Communication created a strategic marketing plan to attract artists and art enthusiasts to the Maquoketa Art Experience, a non-profit organization with a physical community space in downtown Maquoketa.

Students from the Tippie College of Business Marketing Institute created an integrated marketing communication plan that includes the new branding for the City of Maquoketa.

In a report to the City of Mason City and North Iowa Farmers’ Market Board of Directors, students in the Entrepreneurial Management Institute: Business Consulting class provided recommendations for a permanent location for a community farmers market based on preferred characteristics and potential sites.

In a report to The Edgewood Museum Corporation, students in Heidi Lung's "Museums in the Digital Age" class recommended appropriate methods to digitize historical artifacts for a new community museum and developed a comprehensive communications plan for the organization.

Students in Professor Anita Jung’s studio course collaborated with the City of Iowa City to develop a public art piece for installment in Iowa City. During the course of the class, students broke into groups and prepared proposals for the public art piece, which city staff chose from. Their proposals were informed by meetings with City staff and a guided tour of the possible sites for installment. 

Students made parklands along the Iowa River the focus of questions that focus on Iowa City's history, and concentrated on environmental justice concerns related to use and misuse of the river. The project resulted in a website with audio and visuals about this history that can be accessed from the parks for use in taking self-guided tours.

Students from the School of Art & Art history developed two public art pieces. The first project emblematizes the Decorah eagles in a sculpture that celebrates the natural assets of Winneshiek County. The second playfully acknowledges the mythical gnome-like “nisse” of Norwegian culture through several small ceramic doors and windows that will be displayed in local parks for the mischievous “nisse” to use.

MFA students in the School of Art and Art History created 10 small statues of nisse, gnome-like figures from Scandinavian folklore, for the 2015 Nordic Fest Celebration.

Following the success of the "Gnomes on the Trail" event during the 2013 Nordic Fest celebration, the Winneshiek County Conservation Board aimed to create new gnome statues along the trail for trail users to interact with.