Ames

Many Ames community members associate Ames City Auditorium with their children’s grade-school concerts, dance recitals, and awards ceremonies, and those events continue to have a home in the space. But for Craig Kaufman, who manages the auditorium, bandshell and community center for the City of Ames, the venue can be — and is — more than what it's been known for.

Since 2021, the nonprofit Ames Writers Collective has brought writers of all ages and skill levels together to learn and create. Now it has its own space, called Fifth Street Writers.

The Ames History Museum is ready to reopen after a years-long, $4.5 million expansion and renovation. It now has five times more exhibit gallery space, a special collections room and an event space.

Backed by the Department of Energy, Iowa State University researchers are studying how farming the land around solar panels can diversify farm income, boost biodiversity and improve worker safety.

Every summer, Ames' Roosevelt neighborhood puts on Roosevelt Summer Sundays, an evening concert series. The musicians play while the community celebrates and builds just that — community. Attendees pay no admission fee and can hear some of the best Iowa-based and Iowa-adjacent musicians.