Josie Fischels
Arts & Culture ReporterExpertise: Performance art, visual art, Iowa life
Education: The University of Iowa
Favorite Iowa Destination: Dunnings Springs, Decorah
Experience:
- Covered local and statewide arts, news, and lifestyle features for The Daily Iowan, The Denver Post, NPR and currently for IPR
- Has written features on Iowans participating in the Hollywood writers’ strike, the nation’s largest historic theatre backdrop collection – housed in Iowa, the reopening of the African American Museum of Iowa and an ‘inside-the-culture’ feature on local drag kings, among others
- Is an award-winning reporter, including a retrospective of Iowa’s first poet laureate, Marvin Bell, following his death in 2021
- Writes regularly for IPR’s internationally award-winning newsletters
- Covered the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, climate and the Kabul takeover by the Taliban in 2021 for NPR’s news desk
- Served as an editor and mentor for multiple projects with NPR’s Next Generation Radio
- Created IPR’s weekly news quiz and launched IPR’s TikTok (follow us!)
My Latest Stories
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The National Humanities Alliance estimates that more than 1,200 grants that support culture and history programs across the country have been abruptly cut by the National Endowment for the Humanities. -
The Broadway hit Hadestown has made several stops in Iowa this year on its national tour. Production Stage Manager Molly Goodwin, who grew up in Davenport and attended Luther College, oversees every aspect of the show from backstage. -
All employees of the Institute for Museum and Library Services, or IMLS, have been placed on administrative leave following an executive order from President Donald Trump to dismantle seven independent government agencies. The IMLS distributes thousands of grants nationwide to museums and libraries. -
Some Iowans at the Trans Lives Festival in Des Moines say this may be their final time celebrating in the state, given a law stripping Iowa's Civil Rights Act of gender identity protections goes into effect July 1. -
After achieving accreditation from a global nonprofit, the Iowa City school can now offer independent instruction, teach international students and accept tuition from state tax-funded ESAs. -
Ingersoll Theatre, which has sat unused for over a decade, plans to reopen this fall after undergoing a $5 million restoration. -
The Waterloo after-school literacy program co-founded by Nikole Hannah-Jones will host the city’s 19th African American Read-In after the city’s school district withdrew from the statewide program last month. -
Iowans reflect on the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought about loss and a change in the way we live. But for some, it also brought positive transformation. -
The Fault in Our Stars author and YouTuber is coming out with a new nonfiction book about the world's deadliest infectious disease. He'll visit Iowa City on his book tour March 22. -
The painting, which has been part of the Sioux City Arts Center's permanent collection since 2007, has been sent to the Midwest Art Conservation Center in Minneapolis for a year-long conservation process.
