Photographer visiting Jasper County to document changes after Maytag closure

She has been walking among us, taking photographs and asking questions, cataloging the changes in Newton since the closure of the Maytag Corporation. April Friges, a native of Ohio, became interested in the story of Maytag’s demise when she heard about it on public radio in 2006. “Growing up in Ohio, I understand the plight of people losing their jobs,” Friges said. She continued to research the Maytag story and was disappointed with media coverage on the west coast, where she is a student at the University of California - Irvine. So she got a travel grant to come to Iowa for a project involving her master’s of fine arts program in studio art and arrived in Newton on Dec. 28 last year, just in time for the caucuses. The proposal for her res