KC McGinnis Receives Iowa Arts Council Grant for Collaborative Photography Project

January 9, 2026

KC McGinnis, Professor of Practice II in Communication and Media Practice at Grand View University, has been awarded an Art Project Grant from the Iowa Arts Council. The grant is funded by the Iowa Economic Development & Finance Authority and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The award supports a collaborative photography project titled Lookers, which examines the role of subjectivity in photojournalism. The project draws on archival photographs in which subjects directly engage the camera, effectively breaking the fourth wall. By highlighting these moments of visual exchange, Lookers invites viewers to reconsider long held assumptions about objectivity, authorship, and power within documentary photography.

Lookers will culminate in a public exhibition at the Prairie Meadows Art Gallery in Rasmussen. In conjunction with the exhibit, McGinnis will host an artist Q&A session that will be open to all Grand View University students, offering an opportunity to engage directly with the ideas, process, and themes behind the project.