Stanley Museum of Art Magazine Fall 2018 by University of Iowa Stanley Musuem of Art

FALL 2018

INSIDE 4

Fall 2018 Calendar of Events

1 8

Lectures

From the Acting Director

20 School Programs Collections

New Director Profile

Education Advisory Council

Fall Exhibition

Staff Profile

Legacies for Iowa

Museum Party

Conservation

From the UI Center for Advancement

Cover image C. Maxwell and Elizabeth Stanley Image © Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret

temporary offices OLD MUSEUM OF ART BUILDING

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150 North Riverside Drive / OMA 100 Iowa City, IA 52242 319-335-1727

temporary locations IOWA MEMORIAL UNION UIMA@IMU VISUAL CLASSROOM ROOM 376 (RICHEY BALLROOM) 125 North Madison Street Iowa City, IA 52242 319-335-1742 Free admission Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 12–5 p.m.

FIGGE ART MUSEUM 225 West Second Street Davenport, IA 52801 563-326-7804 Free admission for University of Iowa students, faculty, and staff with UI ID cards and SMA members with membership cards. Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Sunday, 12–5 p.m.

Become a member today! JOIN ONLINE uima.uiowa.edu

FALL 2018 CALENDAR

E X H I B IT I O N S Through January 6, 2019

Building Community

UIMA@IMU, third floor Iowa Memorial Union

Through September 30, 2018

Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration

Figge Art Museum Davenport, IA

October 9, 2019– March 1, 2019

Going Home

Figge Art Museum Davenport, IA

P U B LI C P R O G R A M S September 7 5:00–7:00 p.m.

FIRST FRIDAY

FilmScene 118 E. College St., Iowa City

September 25 7:30 p.m.

LECTURE David A. Binkley, “A View from the Forest: The Power of Southern Kuba Initiation Rites and Masks”

240 Art Building West 141 N. Riverside Dr., Iowa City

October 5 5:00–7:00 p.m.

FIRST FRIDAY

FilmScene 118 E. College St., Iowa City

November 2 5:00–7:00 p.m.

FIRST FRIDAY

FilmScene 118 E. College St., Iowa City

November 29 7:30 p.m.

LECTURE Lena Stringari, “Thoughts on Stewardship in the Twenty-First-Century Museum”

240 Art Building West 141 N. Riverside Dr., Iowa City

December 7 5:00–7:00 p.m.

FIRST FRIDAY

FilmScene 118 E. College St., Iowa City

MEMBER PROGRAMS October 25

DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE RECEPTION

The University Club 1360 Melrose Ave., Iowa City

Nayarit Smiling dog, 200 BCE–200 CE Terracotta 6 1/2 x 8 x 8 in. Gift of Gerald and Hope Solomons 2003.256 4

FROM THE ACTING DIRECTOR

JULY 2018

s I write, the sun envelops my office in the recently completed Visual Arts Building, as it was designed to do. When the VAB project was launched nearly a decade ago I was told, “remember, buildings build what happens in them.” I am reminded of this as my very brief role as acting director comes to a close, because so much of what the Stanley Museum of Art is now engaged in is envisioning the future and creating a new building. The moratorium on campus building projects has not changed the momentum for groundbreaking. In fact, the Stanley Museum of Art has, to date, received over sixteen million dollars from donors, an amount that exceeds expectations. This is remarkable and is in keeping with a tradition of strong support. The building for the first museum on Riverside Drive likewise drew tremendous fundraising support. This enthusiasm, set side by side with 100% completion of the design for the new Stanley Museum, makes it clear the building is on its way. Now add to the momentum of a new building the Stanley’s exceptional new director, Lauren Lessing. When I first met Lauren in April, heard her presentation, and saw her engage with the museum board and staff, I, like many folks across the university, found myself inspired to imagine a very bright future where the Stanley Museum of Art envelops the campus with a sensibility and purpose emanating from art. Lauren has explained that the challenges facing any art museum in this historical moment need also to be understood as exhilarating opportunities. I look forward to her becoming director. Her first official day is July 31. I have been a faculty member at the University of Iowa for thirty years, and now serve as director of

the School of Art & Art History. The past four months have been one of the highlights of my career. Every two weeks we meet as a museum staff in the conference room of the old museum. We go around the room and present what we are each engaged in, and we discuss our efforts for the move. In these meetings, I see just how incredible the Stanley Museum of Art staff is. As director of the School of Art & Art History, I have always counted the SMA staff as SAAH colleagues, but now know the richness of their work. Stepping into my role at the SMA and seeing the work of the staff has been like taking a seat for the northern lights: inspiring. The staff are planning the regathering of a world-class collection, virtually modeling exhibition spaces and galleries, working with national experts on moving and installing the collection, planning the transition from the IMU, devising methods of preventative conservation to safeguard the collections for the future, reviewing with architects such things as lighting, negotiating bus parking for K-12 tours, and writing grants to support new programming. All this is being done along with maintaining registrarial, curatorial, and outreach work on campus and across the state and country. We are anticipating the new Stanley Museum of Art and very much looking forward to welcoming Lauren Lessing as our new director.

Steve McGuire Acting Director

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MEET

LAUREN LESSING

I grew up watching my parents make things. In my memories, curls of wood peel away from the edge of my dad’s chisel and a bird emerges from a block. My mother dips a brush in yellow ink and scatters a trail of dandelions across a sketchbook page. It’s not surprising, I guess, that my love of art is deep, visceral, and multisensory. I love the smells of turpentine and modeling clay, the friction of a graphite pencil on a rough piece of paper, and the hushing sound of embroidery thread pulled through a taught piece of linen. I was scolded more than once for trying to touch sculptures in museums and galleries that I visited as a child. I was still ignorant about the harm that bare hands could do to wood, metal, or stone, and I was captivated by the tactile allure of shapes and surfaces. My parents were students of Ulfert Wilke at the University of Louisville in the early 1950s, and he taught them to appreciate, and emulate, art from Africa and Asia as well as Europe and the Americas. We never had much money, but our house was full of beautiful things. At Earlham College, where I earned a BA in Fine Art, I studied graphic design, sculpture, painting, photography and printmaking. I also catalogued the paintings in Earlham’s small art collection and the historic photographs in its archives. During most of my undergraduate summers, I worked for friends of my parents in an art gallery in Louisville, Kentucky, but between my junior and senior years I had the opportunity to intern at Earlham’s history museum, Connor Prairie. Some of that museum’s extensive collection of early nineteenth-century art and material culture was installed in historic houses, and every morning I did quick condition checks as I swept and dusted inside those buildings. I enjoyed this work immensely, and I became adept at spotting insect damage, mold, and (to my chagrin) children’s handprints. I learned what it means to be a caretaker. 6

I attended Indiana University for graduate school, intending to become an art librarian, but along the way I fell in love with art history. The Americanist at IU, Sarah Burns, showed me that works of art are always connected in myriad ways to culture, history, and science. As I pursued a PhD in art history, I started my first professional job as a reference librarian at the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries of the Art Institute of Chicago. There I had the opportunity to help with research on many parts of that museum’s vast, impressive collection. It was an interesting job, and Chicago was a wonderful place to live in the late 1990s. My husband Uri and I enjoyed all the energy and culture the city had to offer, but after our son was born the city became a bear we had to wrestle daily. Work on my dissertation ground to a halt, and we knew we should move on. A project-based research appointment at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City offered me an opportunity to finish my dissertation while expanding my knowledge and experience. There I worked with curators Margi Conrads and Randy Griffey, paintings conservator Mary Schafer, and a host of other scholars to write a two-volume catalogue of the museum’s collection of American paintings. I became a crack researcher and a fast

NEW DIRECTOR

writer, but perhaps most importantly, I learned how much conservation science can tell us about the lives of objects, and my thinking about art shifted again. The physical evidence that artworks carry within themselves offers further avenues for exploration and connection across disciplines. The Nelson’s American paintings catalogue was published in 2006, and my position there ended. I half-jokingly asked Uri where he would like to live. “How about Maine?” he proposed, having spent summers on Old Orchard Beach as a child. When I became the first Mirken Curator of Education at the Colby College Museum of Art, it seemed too good to be true. Not only was the museum in Maine, connections between the collections and exhibitions at the museum and a liberal arts curriculum. It also offered me the opportunity to build bridges between the college and the surrounding Central Maine community, and I was excited by the possibility of using art to bring students, faculty and community members together. Over the past eleven years, I’ve been able to make ambitious plans and see those plans realized at the Colby Museum. I’ve had the good fortune to work with a visionary director, Sharon Corwin, an equally far-seeing board, and brilliant and creative colleagues and staff. With them, I’ve stewarded the museum through a period of dramatic growth. The staff has multiplied from five to thirty, and the building has grown too, with the addition of

With Uri Lessing, 1999

As a Tiffany lamp

a new wing—the Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion—that has dedicated spaces for teaching and art making. Recently, I’ve helped to shape the vision and secure funding for the Colby Museum’s new Lunder Institute for American Art, which will bring artists and scholars from around the world to collaborate with Colby faculty and students on cross-curricular projects related to the museum’s collections. Last month, my son Gabriel graduated from high school. My husband and I sat on folding chairs in the scant shade of his school’s front lawn and watched him shake hands with his teachers and receive his diploma. We snapped pictures as he hugged his friends and said goodbye, sad to leave them but eager to start college and embrace new challenges. I am similarly eager to take the next step in my career and begin my work as the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art’s new director. I was drawn to this position by so many things: the challenges of ensuring that the museum has a beautiful new building and bringing our world-class art collections home; the opportunity to work with brilliant colleagues across the campus and a talented staff who have met challenge after challenge with creativity and grace; UI’s students, whose energy, engagement and curiosity animate the university; the warm and welcoming communities of Iowa; and the endless possibilities ahead.

At the Capital City Museum, St. Louis, 2007

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André Lhote (French, 1885–1962) Baie des Lecques (Abstract Composition, Bay of Lecques), 1956 Oil on canvas 25 1/2 x 39 1/4 in. Gift of Owen and Leone Elliott, 1968.28 © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

FALL EXHIBITION

BUILDING COMMUNITY JUNE 30, 2018–JANUARY 6, 2019 UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom, Iowa Memorial Union To mark our upcoming 50th anniversary (2019), the fall exhibition at the Iowa Memorial Union (IMU) celebrates the past, present, and future of the Stanley Museum of Art. The exhibit features selections from the Stanley and Elliot collections of African and European art respectively, as well as others entrusted to the museum as gifts and those purchased with strategic forethought. The University of Iowa was one of the first in America to recognize and promote the collection of art as part of its teaching and research mission well before it even had a museum. It amassed an impressive collection of modern masters, including Max Beckmann, Jacques Lipchitz, Joan Miró and others, through purchases made less than five years after the works were made. Peggy Guggenheim gave Jackson Pollock’s Mural and other major artworks to the university on the strength of its renown. In 1969, after successfully meeting the challenge mounted by Owen and Leone Elliott to build a museum to house their gift of important twentieth-century paintings, prints, antique silver, and jade, the University of Iowa Museum of Art opened its doors. Major gifts of African art from the Stanley Collection in 1986 and 1990, as well as the Project for Advanced Study of Art and Life in Africa (PASALA), provided a foundation for collaboration between the museum and UI faculty. Through support from the Stanley Foundation, the PASALA has become an important resource for research, publications, exhibitions, and conferences on African art. A recent example of the PASALA’s successful support was the 2010 conference and exhibition of the J. Richard Simon Collection of Yoruba Twin Figures, which the museum acquired last year.

Leone and Owen Elliott, c. 1970

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It is clear that the support for the museum and its mission has always been the product of collective effort. Remarkably, one-fifth of the million-dollar construction budget for the original 1969 building came from smaller contributions from faculty and staff. Though the University of Iowa Museum of Art flooded in 2008, it continued its innovative programming through partnerships locally and internationally. Even without a permanent building, Black Box Theater at the IMU and the Figge Museum in Davenport have hosted an ever-evolving slate of rotating exhibitions. The Richey Ballroom at the IMU was transformed into the UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom, where students from all disciplines have the opportunity to participate in object-based learning.

Burkina Faso; Winiama peoples Plank mask Early to mid-20th century Wood, pigment, fiber 32 1/4 x 11 7/8 x 10 1/2 in. The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art Purchased with funds from Mary Jo and Richard H. Stanley, 2011.27a-c Mary Jo and Richard Stanley Image courtesy of University of Iowa Center for Advancement

FALL EXHIBITION

Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1997) Moonscape, 1965 Silkscreen and Rowlux film on paper 20 x 24 in. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. George Rickey, 1975.101 ÂŠ Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Through the generosity of the Stanley family, for whom the new building will be named, and other donors, the museum is about to embark on its next chapter. This exhibition presents plans for the Stanley Museum of Art, to be built at the heart of campus just south of the University of Iowa Main Library and adjacent to Gibson Square Park. It includes old master, impressionist, and modern prints, as well as outstanding works by Jackson Pollock, Damien Hirst, Roy Lichtenstein, Jean Metzinger, Ben Nicholson, and others. It also features works from West and Central Africa from the Stanley Collection, and the J. Richard Simon Collection of Yoruba Twin Figures.

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The Feed Me Weird Things collaboration is a series of online visual “mixtapes” created in response to a series of music performances. Each mixtape (or group of art) is culled from the permanent collections of the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art and paired with short essays. These essays and images provide an avenue for exploring overlaps between the aesthetic sensibilities of visual and sonic artforms.

FEED ME WEIRD THINGS

A central endeavor of art exhibitions and concert series alike is to introduce audiences to new ideas, or novel combinations and juxtapositions of old ideas. Musical curator Chris Wiersema (Mission Creek Festival) and visual curator Vero Rose Smith (Stanley Museum of Art) are united in their effort to carve out cavities for interesting conversations and cross-disciplinary connections. What is music? What is art? Where are the spaces between, and the intersections? What does it mean to listen and see deeply? The curators hold in common a belief that learning to listen and see with depth and empathy should not be limited to those able to receive specialized training. Sharing time, and attention, and physical proximity with others can create a natural empathy despite differences in personal identities and cultures.

THROUGH FALL 2018 www.facebook.com/feedmeweird/ Digital exhibition uima.uiowa.edu/exhibitions/legacies-for-iowa/

LEGACIES

Where is home? For many, home is the living room where first steps were taken, the kitchen where countless pancakes were flipped, the porch where cricketserenaded summer nights were spent. For others, home is a constellation of relationships. For all, home is some combination of memory, people, and place. Home can be a hug, a country, a familiar stretch of road, or a singular house or apartment. Whether simply a place to sleep or a place imbued with a deep sense of belonging and history, the structures that house us reflect personal and cultural pasts and form our earliest ideas of comfort and stability. Habitation is reciprocal: as we build homes, homes build us. Constructed of brick, glass, metal, and timber, housing represents a wide range of physical and aesthetic elements that often intersect with the material muses of artists. Included in this exhibition are works created from the detritus of literal homes, painted representations of childhood homes remembered, and images of imagined dwellings for beings both physical and metaphysical. This exhibition explores home as place and identity. Additionally, this exhibition investigates depictions of domestic architecture across time, culture, and media.

GOING HOME OCTOBER 9, 2018 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; MARCH 1, 2019 Figge Art Museum

This exhibition was curated by Vero Rose Smith organized by Legacies for Iowa: A University of Iowa Museum of Art Collections-Sharing Project, Supported by the Matthew Bucksbaum Family.

Lil Picard (American, 1899â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1994) Hide and Seek House, 1960 Assemblage, 35 1/16 x 10 5/16 x 8 3/4 in. Lil Picard Collection, 2012.475

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…

BEFORE

…

Grant Wood (American, 1891–1942), Plaid Sweater, 1931, Oil on Masonite, 29 1/2 x 24 1/8 in., Gift of Mel R. and Carole Blumberg and Family, and Edwin B. Green, through The University of Iowa Foundation, 1984.56, Art © Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, NY. Photo by Steve Erickson

CONSERVATION

PLAID SWEATER REVEALED …

niversally recognized as one of Grant Wood’s most important portraits, Plaid Sweater joined the Whitney Museum of American Art’s major retrospective on the artist this past spring, shown with American Gothic.

The Stanley Museum of Art took the occasion of the Whitney exhibition to clean and treat the painting, which is a portrait of the young Mel Blumberg. Before Blumberg gave it to the museum in 1984, its surface had accrued decades of dust and soot and the varnish had yellowed. This is hardly surprising, as the painting had a long life in the cozy spaces of Blumberg’s family, in the presence of fireplaces and tobacco. Varnishes are commonly applied by artists to protect and enhance the paints applied. When varnishes inevitably discolor, conservators carefully remove that layer using a solvent calibrated to lift only the varnish and not the artist’s paints. The removal of dirt and the discolored varnish has revealed a vibrant painting with a brilliant blue sky, much more characteristic of other Wood paintings from the period. In preparation for the new museum, curator Joyce Tsai has secured grants and drawn upon the generous support of our community of donors to mount conservation treatment of a number of important works in our collection. This stewardship of the collection generates new scientific and art historical insights that offer new opportunities for teaching and research.

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… TH E P RO CE S S … In the course of cleaning, Wood’s delicate brushwork was revealed. That process also exposed areas of longstanding damage and paint loss. Here we see the conservator, Rita Berg, Associate Paintings Conservator at Midwest Art Conservation Center (MACC, Minneapolis, MN), inpainting, or filling the losses with fully reversible material without covering original paint.

Images courtesy of Midwest Art Conservation Center (MACC)

CONSERVATION

…

AFTER

…

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Photograph by David A. Binkley Northern Kete novices at initiation camp (Kabao), Southern Kuba region Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1981

DR. DAVID A. BINKLEY

A View from the Forest: The Power of Southern Kuba Initiation Rites and Masks T U E S DAY SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 7 : 3 0 P. M . 240 ART BUILDING WEST

This presentation will consider the profound influence of Kete cultural and artistic practices on the Bushoong and other Kuba-related peoples. This includes Southern Kuba initiation rites, funerary practices, and masking traditions, which were established by theÂ indigenous Kete prior to the migration of the proto-Bushoong into the region and their eventual rise to a regional power in the seventeenth century.Â Initiation rites and masking traditions among the Southern Kuba will be discussed from three distinct perspectives. The first is the deep-rooted potency and symbolism of the forest both as the abode of nature spirits, and as an instrument of male power and authority. The second demonstrates how the rites and their masking traditions celebrate traditional male power and authority, and underscore the importance of title-holding in both the forest camp and in the community at large. The third perspective demonstrates the authority of secret knowledge possessed by initiated men in the form of the visual and verbal esoteric arts, which include mask-making, proverbs, riddles, and long recitations. Initiated men fervently believe the acquisition of this lore transforms boys into men who will one day govern the community. Dr. David A. Binkley was Chief Curator and Senior Curator for Research and Interpretation at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, where he developed numerous exhibitions and publications. He was also Curator of the Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City. He holds a PhD in Art History from Indiana University (1989). His doctoral research was on Kuba masking traditions associated with initiation rituals.

LECTURES

LENA STRINGARI

Thoughts on Stewardship in the Twenty-First-Century Museum T H U R S DAY N OV E M B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 8 7 : 3 0 P. M . 240 ART BUILDING WEST

The Stanley Museum of Art welcomes Lena Stringari to speak about her work as a conservator, educator, and museum leader. Stringari has transformed the stewardship of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum collection into an animating force to advance the mission of the twenty-first-century museum. She will discuss recent projects where the care of collections has led to significant contributions to the art-historical, theoretical, and scientific interpretations of the objects in the care of the Guggenheim. Lena (Carol) Stringari is deputy director and chief conservator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, responsible for developing policy and procedures for the care and treatment of the collection. She was organizer of Jackson Pollock: Exploring Alchemy in 2017, a didactic exhibition designed to draw visitors into the world of an art conservator via one of Pollock’s earliest poured paintings, and Imageless: The Scientific and Experimental Treatment of an Ad Reinhardt Black Painting in 2008, the culmination of a long-term research project on the scientific analysis and experimental laser treatment of a damaged study painting by Ad Reinhardt. In 2004 she co-organized the exhibition Seeing Double: Emulation in Theory and Practice on the theme of variable media. She is also a founding member of the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art. Stringari has shared her expertise with students, serving as an adjunct professor at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, and has lectured throughout the world on ethical considerations and the conservation of contemporary art.

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SOUL CATCHER As a self-proclaimed “musician trapped in the body of a glass artist,” Tlingit artist Preston Singletary is a master of an art form whose history lies in the arts of indigenous peoples going back to the introduction of trade beads several centuries ago. The Seattle-based artist mines rich cultural and historical Tlingit tradition for references, reinterpreting and melding a contemporary aesthetic with modernist sensibilities of the contemporary studio glass movement. Historically, the soulcatcher necklace served sacred, ceremonial purposes as a shamanistic tool that allowed for the transference of the soul in and out of the body of the afflicted. Singletary uses this traditional form, altering media and scale, to make a sculptural form that continues to honor spiritual practices and cultural traditions. Singletary uses formline motifs, which is a series of curvilinear elements combined with abstracted, representational imagery and animism that are characteristic of much Pacific Northwest American Indian and First Peoples art. The etched and sandblasted relief and textural effects are distinctive to the medium. The addition of Preston Singletary’s Soul Catcher to the Stanley School Programs Collections was made possible by a generous gift from Phyllis and Dr. George Lance. Phyllis was a long-time docent and continues to be a supporter of the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art. Photographs above by Julian Capmeil

SCHOOL PROGRAMS

Preston Singletary (American; Tlingit, 1963â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ) Soul Catcher, 2016 Blown and sand-carved glass, 9 1/2 x 19 x 5 1/2 in. Gift of Phyllis and George Lance Stanley School Programs Collections, AIS.110

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Education Advisory Council Helps Shape Stanley Museum of Art’s School Programs The Stanley Museum of Art’s Education Advisory Council (EAC) is a platform for K-12 educators from across the state of Iowa to collaborate in the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Stanley Museum of Art’s School Programs. EAC members provide essential input on current and future offerings for K-12 audiences, including on-site tours, didactic materials for students and teachers, and statewide outreach programs. EAC members strive to enhance and to advocate for the Stanley’s K-12 initiatives. “Our job as museum professionals is to guide audiences in the interpretation of artworks. The classroom educators can bring perspectives that help us channel museum practice into practical applications in the classroom for the students,” said Brady Plunger, Assistant Curator of Education. Members of the EAC include Dr. Nora Steinbrech, a retired administrator in the Iowa City School District; Laurie Zaiger, former Solon High School Art teacher and supervisor of UI Art Education student teachers; Chris Noel, retired Newton, Iowa elementary art teacher; and Molly Sofranko, high school art teacher at Iowa BIG of Cedar Rapids. The members meet with the Stanley education staff monthly to enhance curriculum connections to the Stanley’s K-12 initiatives, and to channel these efforts toward increasing visibility and promoting access to the museum’s collections, educational resources, and programs. Teachers also provide direct guidance regarding their classroom needs and the Stanley responds. Jennifer Aguirre and Pamela Lund of Ankeny Centennial High School describe the positive outcome of integrating the arts into the French and Spanish curriculum: “Having the Stanley Museum of Art staff come give an overview of our art topics gives our students a solid foundation and background to successfully learn about the various genres of Spanish and French art, which is a critical part of the culture. Our students also appreciate the aesthetic part of this unit, as it is a nice break from the structured part of language learning. It is such a treat that we are able to have a knowledgeable guest speaker from the University of Iowa who is willing to come teach our students.”

STAFF PROFILE

What were you doing before you came to the Stanley? Why did you go into museum work? After finishing my BA in Art History two years ago, I felt the call to continue living in Iowa City; the arts and cultural scene captured my attention as a community where I could grow and help other artists thrive. My involvement in museums is best described in several layers. My background truly began as a child. Every year family vacations centered on the cultural institutions of America: national parks and museums. I would imagine myself making art that was important enough to install in a gallery space (I still do). The next layer developed in high school, as I found joy in the eccentric details of history sans textbook. I quickly combined a love for art and history but wanted a practical, hands-on approach for a career. Recognizing how museums developed my identity, it was a fulfilling choice to dedicate my career to the art and museum world. Originally I was a spectator; now I get to be a part of the show.

What is your average workday like? What makes you excited about the work you do here? I work with our curator, Cory Gundlach, to research acquisitions, improve the Art and Life in Africa (ALA) website, and assist with exhibition and collection materials. Considering within these categories I have researched dragons, worked with objects from across time and space, and hauled coffins for our contemporary African art exhibit, it’s difficult to imagine my job as a boring life behind a desk! Actually, I do sit at a desk most days, pouring over books and scrounging through files. That doesn’t bother me, because in the end I enjoy the hunt for little details.

What have you accomplished since you began at the Stanley? What are your goals for the museum? Technically I started as a volunteer, so I can testify how serving others is valuable to yourself and the community. I’m so grateful to have this position at the Stanley since it has been a personal ambition to expand my understanding of global art history and develop strong curation practices in a palpable setting. My goals every day for any job are based on hard work, problem solving, and taking initiative. One of my biggest projects was to create tags and filters for the entire Stanley Collection on the ALA website. This not only strengthened our online collection, a priority since the flood, but streamlined the research process for scholars worldwide who use the site every day! Since our presence online will become priority number one in the months before the Stanley has a building again, I eventually want to strengthen the content on ALA to include more people groups, better research tools, and additional visual references for our African collection.

RACHEL COBLER Curatorial Research Assistant Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas Photograph by Joe Essaf

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This year’s “Art & Soul” Museum Party, held on May 5th at Hancher Auditorium, celebrated our community of art lovers. Guests enjoyed visiting a display of artworks from the Stanley School Programs Collections, contributing support for upcoming museum programming, and dancing away the evening to tunes spun by DJ Barry Phipps. The “Off the Wall” fundraising prize wall was a hit for the second year in a row! The Stanley Museum of Art is thankful for the generosity of all the local artists, businesses, and individuals who donated items for this activity. Thanks to the Stanley Members Council and party co-chairs Jamie Boling and Joy Fiala, the evening was a festive, fundraising success. We thank all of our generous Museum Party supporters: Museum Party Signature Sponsors BNIM Architects River Products Company, Inc. University of Iowa Community Credit Union Museum Party Hosts James & Anna Barker Bradley & Riley PC Shaun & Jessica Glick Hudson River Gallery— Nick Hotek

Neumann Monson Architects

Rohrbach Associates PC Architects

O’Brien Family McDonald’s Restaurants

Shive-Hattery, Architecture + Engineering

Phelan, Tucker, Mullen, Walker, Tucker & Gelman LLP

Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, PLC Kristin Summerwill

Alan & Liz Swanson Toyota of Iowa City Douglas & Vance Van Daele Mary Westbrook Mark & Laurie Zaiger

MUSEUM PARTY

All photos by Zakery Neumann

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Thank You to our magazine sponsors!

John R. Menninger Ellen M. Widiss

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1798â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1861) Untitled, 19th Century Woodblock, 7 1/8 x 4 7/8 in. The Nancy and Frank A. Seiberling Jr. Family Collection, 1991.253

The Stanley extends a sincere thank-you to our First Friday sponsors H. Dee & Myrene R. Hoover John S. & Patricia C. Koza John R. Menninger

CENTER FOR ADVANCEMENT

ach year, generous museum members help the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art put on exhibitions, offer events, and educate Iowans throughout the state. When you renew your membership, you help ensure that we have the necessary funding to continue this important work for another year. As we look toward our exciting future in the new building, these resources are more crucial than ever— and now it’s also easier than ever to support us! We’re pleased to offer the new option of automatic membership renewal, which will allow you to provide sustaining support for us in just three simple steps:

In addition to agreeing to automatic membership renewals in support of our work, you also can make a pledge to our building campaign. Your pledge can be paid monthly, quarterly, or annually. Please consider the ways in which you can support us and choose what is most meaningful for you and your family. From visiting exhibitions and attending museum events to becoming an annual member and giving to our building campaign, you play a vital role in our museum community.

1. Give online at givetoiowa.org/UIMA. 2. Choose your monthly gift amount. 3. Designate your gift to the area of the museum most meaningful to you. This is a quick, convenient, and affordable way to have an even bigger impact on our people and programs.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions about membership or about how to make a gift for our new building. To learn more about the campaign, visit foriowa.org/mymuseum. Thank you!

Susan Horan Associate Director of Development UI Stanley Museum of Art The University of Iowa Center for Advancement susan.horan@foriowa.org 319-467-3407 or 800-648-6973

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University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art 150 NORTH RIVERSIDE DRIVE / OMA 100 IOWA CITY, IA 52242 319-335-1727

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“THE UI MUSEUM OF ART IS MY MUSEUM BECAUSE ITS WORLD-CLASS COLLECTIONS FEED MY CURIOSITY AND OPEN MY MIND.

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HELP US BUILD A NEW HOME FOR I N S P I R AT I O N .

MY MUSEUM T H E B U I L D I N G C A M PA I G N FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA S TA N L E Y M U S E U M O F A R T foriowa.org/mymuseum

JAMIE BOLING

G I V E T O D AY !

ARTIST | MUSEUM PARTY CO-CHAIR | UI STANLEY MUSEUM OF ART MEMBERS COUNCIL The University of Iowa Center for Advancement is an operational name for the State University of Iowa Foundation. The State University of Iowa Foundation, Iowa Law School Foundation, and Iowa Scholarship Fund, Inc. are 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations soliciting tax-deductible private contributions for the benefit of The University of Iowa and are registered to solicit charitable contributions with the appropriate governing authorities in all states requiring registration. The organizations may be contacted at One West Park Road, Iowa City, IA 52242 or (800) 648-6973. Please consult your tax advisor about the deductibility of your gift. If you are a resident of California, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, or West Virginia, please see the full disclosure statement at http://www.foriowa.org/about/disclosures/.