SPRING 2019
temporary offices
temporary locations
OLD MUSEUM OF ART BUILDING
I O WA M E M O R I A L UNION
FIGGE ART MUSEUM
150 N. Riverside Drive / OMA 100 Iowa City, IA 52242 319-335-1727 stanley-museum@uiowa.edu
STANLEY VISUAL CLASSROOM ROOM 376 (RICHEY BALLROOM)
225 West Second Street Davenport, IA 52801 563-326-7804
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.
S TA N L E Y M U S E U M . U I O W A . E D U
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.
Editor: Elizabeth M. Wallace Copy Editor: Lindsey Webb Design: Pederson Paetz Copyright © 2019
CLASSIC AL
YOU STAY CLASSICAL, IOWA. 91.7 FM IOWA CITY & STREAMING ONLINE AT IOWAPUBLICRADIO.ORG
5 Director’s Welcome 6 Calendar of Events 8 O N V I E W Visual Classroom Legacies for Iowa
Cover image Florence Henri (Swiss, 1893–1982) Structure (Interior of Palais de l’Air 1937 Paris World’s Fair), 1937 Gelatin silver print 7 3/4 x 7 in. Museum purchase, 1955.104
Born in New York in 1893, Florence Henri left the United States at age two. Early in her life in Europe, Henri trained as a pianist. During WWI, she abandoned music and pursued painting, studying with André Lhote and Fernand Léger. In 1927, Henri enrolled at the Bauhaus and studied photography with László Moholy-Nagy. She practiced avant-garde and commercial photography until WWII, when the Nazi occupation of France banned her photographic style and materials became scarce, prompting her return to abstract painting until her death in 1982.
12 C O L L E C T I O N S Four Folds Signed, Sealed...Delivered 16 P H I L A N T H R O P Y A Visionary Gift 18 P U B L I C P R O G R A M S Lectures Collaborations 24 E D U C AT I O N Stanley/AEI Partnership Senior Living Communities 26 S TA F F S P O T L I G H T Kim Datchuk Vero Rose Smith 28 E V E N T S Homecoming 31 From the UI Center for Advancement
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The Stanley Museum of Art transforms lives by connecting the University of Iowa community, Iowans, and the world with extraordinary works of art.
D I R E C TO R ’ S W E LC O M E
Happy New Year from the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art. It has been a busy five months as I’ve settled into my new position here. As we continue the capital campaign for our beautiful new building and celebrate the museum’s fiftieth anniversary, I am collaborating with the museum staff to create a strategic plan that will guide our work over the next five years. Our plan will align with the university’s own strategic plan and will advance our shared goals of research and discovery, student success, community engagement, and diversity. The museum’s staff and advisory board have already identified our core values and shaped new mission and vision statements that will guide the museum forward into its sixth decade. I am particularly proud of our vision statement: “The Stanley Museum of Art transforms lives by connecting the University of Iowa community, all Iowans, and the world with extraordinary works of art.” We are working for that vision every day! There is a long history of extraordinary, transformative art at the University of Iowa, and the Stanley Museum contributed significantly to that legacy in 2018. For instance, in April 2018 we welcomed the internationally renowned artist Adam Pendleton, who delivered the Stanley Museum’s inaugural Intermedia Research Initiative lecture. Pendleton’s practice moves fluidly across painting, publishing, photographic collage, video, and performance, perfectly complementing our concurrent exhibition Dada Futures: Circulating Replicants, Surrogates, and Participants. In keeping with our cross-disciplinary educational mission, all of our 2018 exhibitions and public programs were created collaboratively with campus and community partners, and they provided opportunities for student engagement across the curriculum.
Through our innovative programs, thousands of Iowans beyond the borders of the UI campus also discovered and enjoyed extraordinary works of art from the museum’s collections. In 2018, 8,806 schoolchildren in 41 schools across 17 counties benefited from the Stanley Museum’s unique approach to distance learning, which brings actual works of art into classrooms around Iowa for lessons that support the state’s curricular standards. Additionally, over the course of the year, nearly 2,000 residents of senior living communities in Iowa saw presentations and participated in art-making workshops led by museum staff. In 2018, the Stanley Museum also presented five Legacies for Iowa exhibitions at three venues, including Going Home; Boiled, Baked, and Brewed; and Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration at the Figge Art Museum; Farm Life in Iowa at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; and Crafting a Legacy: Oaxacan Wood Carvings at the Sioux City Art Center. In the past three years, over 100,000 Iowans have visited Legacies for Iowa exhibitions around the state. And, of course, works of art from the Stanley Museum’s celebrated collections, including Jackson Pollock’s 1943 masterpiece Mural, were on view in museums around the country and the world. In 2019, we will build on our successes while we also look ahead to an exciting future. Anniversary celebrations throughout the year will honor the museum’s past and its current partners and supporters. During this pivotal year, we will also engage our various communities in conversations about what the museum can become. I am looking forward to hearing your ideas!
Lauren Lessing Director
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1969–2O19 Join us in celebrating fifty years of sharing exceptional art, new ideas, cultural insight, and creativity with all Iowans.
EXHIBITIONS Through MARCH 1
Going Home Figge Art Museum
Through APRIL 21
The Full Spectrum: How We See, Feel, and Experience Color Figge Art Museum
JANUARY 15–APRIL 15
Brilliant as a Dark Cloud: The Goddess Kali Maquoketa Art Experience, Maquoketa, IA
MAY 4–SEPTEMBER 9
Views from the Other Side Figge Art Museum
MAY 25–AUGUST 25
Anonymous Donor Figge Art Museum
FEBRUARY 9–MAY 12
Hats Off! Figge Art Museum
EVENTS APRIL 13
50th Anniversary Gala Hilton Garden Inn, 328 S. Clinton St., Iowa City
JUNE 6
Steins for Stanley Big Grove Brewery, 1225 S. Gilbert St., Iowa City
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CALENDAR
PUBLIC PROGRAMS JANUARY 4 5:00–7:00 p.m.
FIRST FRIDAY FilmScene, 118 E. College St., Iowa City
FEBRUARY 1 5:00–7:00 p.m.
FIRST FRIDAY FilmScene, 118 E. College St., Iowa City
FEBRUARY 12 7:30 p.m.
TALK “Beauty and the Beast: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in the Arts of Sub-Saharan Africa” by Dr. Constantijn Petridis 240 Art Building West, 141 N. Riverside Dr., Iowa City
FEBRUARY 14 7:30 p.m.
TALK by Dr. Cecilia Vicuña, independent artist Ida Beam Visiting Professor Location TBA
FEBRUARY 25 7:30 p.m.
TALK “Paradigm Shift” by Eleanna Anagnos Grant Wood Fellow in Painting and Drawing 116 Art Building West, 141 N. Riverside Dr., Iowa City
MARCH 1 5:00–7:00 p.m.
FIRST FRIDAY FilmScene, 118 E. College St., Iowa City
MARCH 5 7:30 p.m.
TALK “Surface Studies” by Ryan Parker Grant Wood Fellow in Printmaking 116 Art Building West, 141 N. Riverside Dr., Iowa City
APRIL 5 5:00–7:00 p.m.
FIRST FRIDAY FilmScene, 118 E. College St., Iowa City
APRIL 16 7:30 p.m.
TALK “Unlazy With Language: The Poetics of Hip-Hop” by Brandon A. Williams Grant Wood Fellow in Music 116 Art Building West, 141 N. Riverside Dr., Iowa City
MAY 3 5:00–7:00 p.m.
FIRST FRIDAY FilmScene, 118 E. College St., Iowa City 7
VISITING the VISUAL CLASSROOM
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ON VIEW
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tudents cluster, look slowly, point, and stare, amazed at artwork chosen specifically for their class in the Stanley Visual Classroom (SVC). The SVC offers all faculty and students the opportunity to schedule private visits with a curator to see work not currently on view. During the Fall 2018 semester, over forty classes from more than ten departments—including Creative Writing–Writers’ Workshop, Global Health Studies, Health and Human Physiology, Physics and Astronomy, and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, in addition to the School of Art and Art History— came to the SVC. The breadth of the Stanley’s permanent collection and innovative pedagogical approaches by faculty and museum staff allow for unique educational experiences for students. Quincy Ngan, visiting assistant professor of art history, said his students were “amazed by the sheer quality of the university’s collection.” He noted that the four days his class spent looking at Japanese prints in the SVC “also energized them—they were more talkative than in a regular classroom…When they got the chance to see a work in person, they had a
strong impression of and connection with the work.” Visiting the museum is not a typical day in class, nor is it a leisurely field trip. Seeing original artworks in person and applying knowledge learned from class to new situations helps students think flexibly. Yannick Meurice, professor of physics, brought his first-year seminar students to the museum to view prints by Francisco Goya in preparation for making their own prints using a computer program. His students enjoyed the “unique experience” the museum provided and the “enlightening comments by the curator.” As the spring semester commences, the museum looks forward to continuing to be an integral part of courses and student success at the University of Iowa.
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Brilliant as a Dark Cloud: The Goddess Kali On view January 15–April 15, 2019
Maquoketa Art Experience 124 S. Main Street, Maquoketa, Iowa Kali is the embodiment of time and the goddess of death and rebirth in Hindu theology. A terrifying manifestation of cosmic energy, Kali is sometimes regarded as the personification of divine destruction, and at other times considered a constant creator. Identifiable by her luminously dark blue or black skin and her exposed tongue dripping with blood, Kali is often depicted garlanded in skulls and clothed in a skirt composed of severed hands. Though formidable to behold, Kali is also the destroyer of fear. To contemplate images of Kali is to encounter the inevitability of death, and to find peace in the ceaseless cycle of life. This small selection of works from the Indian folk art collection of Georgana Falb Foster illustrates the continual rebirth of images of the goddess herself. For centuries, inexpensive art works representing devi (female goddesses) were produced and distributed throughout India and Southeast Asia. Advancements in printmaking technologies, such as the introduction of lithography in the late nineteenth century, precipitated the production of increasingly colorful and visually dense devotional objects. Printmaking workshops such as the Calcutta Art Studio paired detailed images with prayerful texts. The phrase “brilliant as a dark cloud” is a snippet of one such prayer dedicated to Kali, often included in early poster designs. Iconography and printmaking techniques continued to evolve over the subsequent century, resulting in the posters included in this exhibition. Collected in the 1980s, these mass-produced posters and calendars offer a snapshot of daily devotion and secular visual culture in India during the late twentieth century.
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Unknown Indian artist Poster featuring the Hindu goddess Kali standing on top of Shiva, c. 1980 Print on plastic 9 13/16 x 6 5/8 in. From the collection of Georgana Falb Foster, 15.2001
ON VIEW
Hats Off!
On view February 9–May 12, 2019 Figge Art Museum 225 West Second Street, Davenport, Iowa Hats have the power to conceal identity as well as to declare a profession, passion, or social position. In this exhibition, fantastical feather-like forms adorn the headdress of an ancient Mayan warrior and tickle the temples of circus performers and Parisian socialites alike. Broad brims both accentuate the work-weathered features of a sharecropper and protect the porcelain complexion of an artist’s muse. While a glistening black top hat can declare an artist a gentleman, the crumpled crown of a threadbare fedora can suggest a reversal of fortune. Able to mark a momentous occasion or simply elevate an everyday ensemble, hats of all shapes and sizes have graced the heads of people on every continent in every period of human history. From the red woolen cap of a legendary lumberjack to the black lace mantilla of a mysterious Spanish dancer, this exhibition explores the many meanings and materialities of head coverings.
Nigeria; Yoruba peoples Beaded barrister-style crown Textile and beads 15 x 9 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. General Education Fund, 2009.3
These exhibitions were curated by Vero Rose Smith and organized by Legacies for Iowa: A University of Iowa Museum of Art Collections-Sharing Project, supported by the Matthew Bucksbaum Family.
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4
FOLDS
Good stewardship of the collection is a core mission of the Stanley Museum of Art, and every part of a museum collection needs specialized attention in the form of conservation, rehousing, or organizing. One job of Assistant Registrar Sarah Luko is to identify these needs within the collection, prioritize them within budget, staff, and time constraints, and to work towards making the collection more stable and safely organized. It was during a full inventory of works on paper that Sarah noticed a subdivision of objects that needed better care. There are over 9,000 works on paper at the museum. Bound works in the collection range from sequential, woodblock-printed Japanese images, to brittle and acidic print volumes, to contemporary artist books. Within those works there are a number of portfolios and bound objects that, Sarah discovered, needed to be considered for a different housing than the standard matting used for a print. Frequently the portfolios that come with prints also need special care—like Edward Rusha’s Insect portfolio, which contains encapsulated dirt and crumbled insects from his home state of Oklahoma. To protect this wide range of materials, an enclosure is needed to provide support in transit and to prevent abrasion, contact or transfer of unstable dyes between objects, and unnecessary handling or stress to the object.
Photos by Steve Erickson 12
COLLECTIONS
When Sarah worked in the UI Libraries Conservation and Preservation Department, she learned how to make four-fold flap enclosures out of acid- and lignin-free Bristol board. The construction of the enclosure creates layers of Bristol board that support and surround all sides of the object. This summer, she proposed a test project of fifteen objects to demonstrate the benefits of rehousing for these bound works on paper. After a demonstration from Sarah, Preparator Alexandra Janezic, seen above, then took over the project.
Alexandra identified and organized which works needed to be rehoused first. She used the opposing grain directions of the Bristol board to create laminate layers to diminish flex and better support and encase the objects. Her past work experience for a private works on paper conservator is a great asset for the museum. “It is incredibly beneficial, to the objects and to the budget, to have someone on staff with the hand skills, precision, and dedication to works on paper. This makes it possible to do rehousing work like this, as well as all our matting, in-house,� Sarah says.
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SIGNED, SEALED the Stanley. A courier travels with the art to ensure that the piece is handled in a safe and appropriate manner. Some trips go smoothly, while others require the courier to step in to prevent potentially dangerous situations from occurring. This trip, thankfully, went perfectly. In October 2017, a loan agreement over two years in the making came to fruition and traveled to Spain. Max Beckmann’s tryptich Karneval traveled to Spain to join the exhibition Beckmann. Exile Figures at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. Museums commonly loan out and borrow artworks for inclusion in exhibitions, which is frequently a long and complex process involving multiple professionals with specialized skills. It is a process unseen by the museum visitor, however, and is therefore not well understood. After a museum makes a loan request and the contracts are signed, the borrower must fund the shipment of the art accompanied by a courier—in the case of the Beckmann tryptich, this was Katherine Wilson, manager of collections and exhibitions at
Photos by Katherine Wilson 14
Transporting art from one country to another is no easy feat. Customs brokers must be hired to ensure that the art can cross country borders. Karneval was packed in an internationally-approved crate and travelled on an art freight truck to an airport warehouse, where it was wrapped and secured to a special pallet that slots into the cargo hold of the airplane. Sometimes art can be shipped on commercial passenger airplanes; however, Karneval’s crate was too tall to fit into the hold of a passenger plane, so it had to be shipped by cargo plane. These types of planes have only four passenger seats which are typically reserved for couriers. However, on this flight a racehorse was on board the plane and had two handlers, who rode with Wilson and another courier accompanying an artwork to the exhibition.
COLLECTIONS
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. . . DELIVERED The art was flown into Paris, as it is the closest airport to Madrid that accepts cargo planes from the US. Once landed, the couriers waited in the airport warehouse for the pallet to be offloaded from the plane. Once the pallet was in the warehouse and the art movers had arrived, Wilson watched as the pallet was unloaded and the crates were packed on the art shipper’s truck (which is climate controlled). The couriers then followed the art truck to a secure art warehouse, where the truck was locked up for the night. Over the next two days Wilson followed the art truck, stopping only at truck stops and designated overnight sites until the art reached Madrid, where the crates were unloaded at the Thyssen-Bornemisza. The crates were left unopened for one day to allow the paintings to acclimatize to their new location. Had the crates been opened too soon, the change in temperature and humidity could have caused different elements of the artwork to expand and contract, resulting in damage to the paintings. After the twenty-four hours of acclimatization,
Wilson arrived at the museum for the scheduled appointment to uncrate the painting. Wilson reviewed the painting with a conservator to look for any changes to the condition of the work. After this, the Beckmann tryptich was moved into the gallery and hung. With Karneval safely delivered and displayed, Wilson’s work was over, and she returned to the United States. Beckmann. Exile Figures is on display in Madrid through January 27, 2019. Assistant Registrar Sarah Luko will then repeat this process (excluding the international cargo plane) as the entire exhibition moves to a new venue—CaixaForum Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain.
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Photo © studioU photography
MY MUSEUM
A Visionary Gift for a MODERN MASTERPIECE Chris and Suzy DeWolf believe that art has the power to connect people. That’s why the Cedar Rapids entrepreneurs and philanthropists are helping the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art create a new home for Jackson Pollock’s world-famous Mural. The co-owners of Lil’ Drug Store Products, Inc., a leading consumer-products company, have made a visionary gift of $1.5 million to name the Chris and Suzy DeWolf Family Gallery, which will house the museum’s pièce de résistance in the new building. This gallery will help the museum fulfill its mission of helping visitors discover extraordinary works of art, explore new ideas, and cultivate fresh insights. The cornerstone of the Stanley’s prized collection, Mural will draw patrons, scholars, and art aficionados from across the country—and even the world—to the Chris and Suzy DeWolf Family Gallery. The DeWolfs first became interested in collecting art because of their three children—Riley, age 20; Lindsay, age 17; and Weston, age 14—who have been involved in the visual and performing arts since they were young. Here, the couple explains what inspired them to make their leadership gift for Mural and the museum. 16
PHIL ANTHROPY
Q What motivated you, as business owners, to give back to the arts? CHRIS Suzy’s parents, Dennis and Donna Oldorf, started our business in the 1970s, and we eventually bought it from them. We view our business as a catalyst for making a difference in the lives of our employees, customers, and consumers. Most importantly, we want to use it to positively impact the communities that we serve and in which we live.
Q How does art enhance people’s lives? SUZY Through our children’s experiences with the arts, we’ve been able to see, firsthand, how art can build confidence and allow for expression. Our appreciation for the arts—and for the organizations that support the arts— has deepened. Now, we also collect art, and we choose to support local artists and to acquire pieces during our many family travels.
Q How does art enrich communities? CHRIS We believe that art is inclusive—and that it brings people together. Anyone can appreciate art, regardless of his or her background.
Q What do you love most about the UI Stanley Museum of Art? SUZY We love the history of the original art museum, and we think it has a really interesting story. The new facility will usher in a new chapter and will help us reassemble the university’s—and the state’s—impressive art collection back in one place.
Q What do you hope will be the lasting legacy of your gift? CHRIS Knowing that the Pollock will have a permanent home at the University of Iowa will help ensure that the Stanley Museum of Art remains an attraction for people from throughout the great state of Iowa and across the world.
Jackson Pollock (American, 1912–1956) Mural, 1943 Oil and casein on canvas 95 5/8 x 237 3/4 in. Gift of Peggy Guggenheim, 1959.6
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C O N S TA N T I J N P E T R I D I S
Beauty and the Beast: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in the Arts of Sub-Saharan Africa February 12, 2019 7:30 p.m. 240 ABW
In her contribution to the now classic book African Art as Philosophy (1974), inspired by her colleague Herbert Cole’s fieldwork on Igbo masquerades, Suzanne Blier considered the concept of “Beauty and the Beast” as one of the key themes in the arts of sub-Saharan Africa. An exploration of this binary set and its various corollaries serves as the starting-point for an international traveling exhibition on African aesthetics that the Art Institute of Chicago is organizing for the spring of 2021. Among the ideas this talk and the planned exhibition seek to address is the belief in the fusion of physical beauty and moral integrity as it is expressed in many African languages through a single term that combines our notions of aesthetics and ethics. The Bamana in Mali call it nyuman, the Baule in Ivory Coast say kpa, the Lega in Congo-Kinshasa speak of busoga, and the Chokwe in Angola name it cibema. The moral basis of what is considered beautiful is also at the core of how masks, figures, and many other forms of art are evaluated and appreciated within the cultures where they have been created and used. Dr. Petridis is chair of the Department of the Arts of Africa and the Americas and curator of African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. He has a PhD in Art History, an MA (summa cum laude) and BA in Art History and Archaeology (magna cum laude) from Ghent University. His research interests include a special interest in the art of sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on the Congo Basin, visual anthropology, exhibiting cultures, and museum ethics. He has done field research in Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 18
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
E L E A N N A A N AG N O S Grant Wood Fellow in Painting and Drawing
Paradigm Shift February 25, 2019 7:30 p.m. 116 ABW There are gaps between what we know and what we think we know. Some of the greatest art creates a paradigm shift, where a viewer comes to the work with assumptions about what they think they are seeing and then the work offers something outside of those assumptions: a new way of seeing, thinking, and feeling. For this lecture, visual artist and Grant Wood Fellow in Painting & Drawing, Eleanna Anagnos, shares developments in her processes that bridge the gap between the corporeal and intangible. Anagnos has received awards from the Rauschenberg Foundation (2019); Yaddo (2017); BAU Institute (2016); The Anderson Ranch (2011); The Atlantic Center for the Arts (2009) and the Joan Mitchell Foundation (2011, 2009). Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Hyperallergic, Artnet, Artsy, and The New York Observer, among others, and her curatorial project, “Wish Me Good Luck,” was reviewed in Art in America. Anagnos shows her work nationally and internationally. In the US she has shown at: Maharishi University of Management (2018); HIGH NOON Gallery, NYC (2017); dOGUMENTA, NYC (2017); SPRING/BREAK Art Show, NYC (2017); South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend, IN (2011); and The National Hellenic Museum, Chicago, IL (2009), among many others. International exhibitions include: 68 Projects, Berlin, Germany (2014); Die Ausstellungsstrasse in Vienna, Austria (2012) and Galerie Vaclava Spaly in Prague, CZ (2009). Her upcoming New York City solo debut exhibition at High Noon Gallery opens in April. Anagnos earned her MFA in Painting from the Tyler School of Art (2005) and a BA with honors and distinction from Kenyon College with a concentration in Women’s and Gender Studies (2002). Since 2014 she has been a co-director at Ortega y Gasset Projects, a not-forprofit, artist-run curatorial collective and exhibition space.
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RYA N PA R K E R Grant Wood Fellow in Printmaking
Surface Studies
March 5, 2019 7:30 p.m. 116 ABW
Grant Wood Fellow in printmaking Ryan Parker will discuss his work produced during his residency at University of Iowa. His printed works on fabric and paper are based on his research during a 2017–18 Fulbright Fellowship in India where he studied connections between ancient temple architecture and Indian block printing. Parker grew up in Florida and received his MFA in printmaking from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Rome, Italy and Philadelphia. In his printed works on paper and fabric, Ryan uses architectural drawing and motifs to explore psychological space. With an interest in how architecture frames and impacts an individual’s experience, his prints present towering walls, endless mazes, uninhabitable structures, and computer screens cluttered with open windows—scenes reflecting the familiar and unknown in navigating daily life. Also influenced by travel, he’s participated in artist residencies at Frans Masereel Centrum (Belgium), Cork Printmakers (Ireland), and Ballinglen (Ireland). Recently, he was awarded a 2017–18 Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, which took him to India. His research included studying ancient architecture as well as the traditional, sustainable production methods of India’s fabric arts—in particular, block printing, hand painting (kalamkari), and the use of natural pigments. In addition to his artistic practice, Ryan has been working as a museum educator at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, teaching textile design and screen printing in the Post-Graduate Apprenticeship.
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PUBLIC PROGRAMS
BRANDON A. WILLIAMS Grant Wood Fellow in Music
Unlazy With Language: The Poetics of Hip-Hop April 16, 2019 7:30 p.m. 116 ABW
Mother-loving genius and cunning linguist Brandon Alexander Williams will do a lyrical analysis on the art of rapping and performance poetry. His lyrics will make your brain smile. Born in Maywood and raised in Peoria, Illinois, Brandon Alexander Williams is a poet, MC and DJ. Williams is an alumnus of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale where he produced “The Yard: An A’Capella/Hip-Hop Musical.” As an active MC and DJ, he has performed and taught throughout the country, produced eight albums, published two books, and given several guest lectures and keynotes centered around art-integrated education.
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Campus
Collaborations 2015 TO PRESENT
College of Law
Museum Studies
Academic Advising Center
Dance
American Studies
Division of World Languages, Literature, and Culture
Obermann Center for Advanced Studies
Anthropology
English
Radiology
English as a Second Language
Rhetoric
Center for the Book
French
School of Art & Art History
Center for Teaching
German
Certificate in Arts Entrepreneurship
Health and Human Physiology
School of Library & Information Science
Cinematic Arts
History
College of Dentistry
International Writing Program
College of Education
Iowa Writers’ Workshop
College of Engineering
Literary Translation
Asian & Slavic Languages and Literature
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Physics
Sociology Spanish & Portuguese Theatre University College University Libraries
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he Stanley Museum of Art has a long history of collaboration with partners across campus and beyond. Each curator at the museum teaches in a variety of contexts in the College of Education, School of Art and Art History, Kirkwood Community College, Museum Studies Program, and as a part of the Public Digital Humanities Graduate Certificate. Curator Kim Datchuk has worked to promote the use of our collections to create environments for inclusive teaching. Cory Gundlach has continued to make the Stanley African Art Collection robustly available for an international audience through his stewardship of the Art and Life in Africa website resource. With Kyle Rector, assistant professor of Computer Science, Legacies Curator Vero Rose Smith is developing strategies to make objects in the Stanley Museum of Art collection universally accessible by generating audible descriptions tailored to low-vision visitors. Through grants from Digital Bridges for Humanistic Inquiry, and the generosity of Hans and Barbara Breder, Curator Joyce Tsai has created opportunities for students’ professional experience in the museum by drawing upon faculty in the Library Information Sciences Program and partnerships with the Digital Scholarship & Publishing Studio and the School of Art and Art History. For this work, she was recognized by UI as a distinguished mentor in spring 2018. Our exhibitions draw upon the rich depth of expertise across campus. With Tim Shipe, curator of the Dada International Archive in Special Collections, as well as Jen Buckley and Stephen Voyce, faculty in English at UI, Tsai curated Dada Futures last spring. The show featured an international symposium and will lead to a peer-reviewed, guest edited issue of Dada/Surrealism that highlights the history of excellence in interdisciplinary scholarship that UI has fostered. Looking on the horizon, Tsai is co-director with Buckley of the upcoming Obermann Center for Advanced Studies Humanities Symposium “What can Museums Become,” which explores new ways that the institution can serve as an incubator for transformative practices in teaching, research, and outreach.
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Stanley Partners with Art Educators of Iowa The University of Iowa began collecting art in earnest in the 1940s under the auspices of the revolutionary “Iowa Idea,” which held that inquiry could be at once creative and scholarly. Works of art were sought out not only for their aesthetic qualities, but for the potential they presented as catalysts for dialogue and research. Works by pioneering contemporary artists of the time, like Max Beckmann and Joan Miró, quickly became critical instruments in the training of art historians, studio artists, and importantly, arts educators. This is the lineage of the Stanley: the museum has always been a catalyst for innovation and deep learning, and we remain committed to enriching teaching and learning on campus and across the state.
Teaching is deeply ingrained in our institutional DNA, so it is only natural that we would seek partnerships at the UI and around Iowa that would promote and enhance our educational mission. One such partnership that is proving very fruitful is the one we are building with Art Educators of Iowa (AEI), Iowa’s statewide professional organization for art teachers. In the nearly seventy years since its founding in 1950, AEI has become a major force in shaping the arts education landscape in Iowa, thanks in no small part to numerous UI faculty, students, and alumni that 24
have joined its ranks. What began as a small group of just three educators meeting in a café in Vinton, Iowa to commiserate about the Iowa State Education Association (ISEA) in 1949, has become a fully-fledged, arts-focused organization representing nearly a third of the licensed art teachers in our state. Recently, AEI joined a coalition of arts organizations led by the Iowa Alliance for Arts Education to support new core learning standards in the fine arts, which were adopted by the State Board of Education in 2018. The adoption of fine arts standards is an exciting leap forward for arts education in Iowa and we hope that the Stanley’s newly strengthened partnership with AEI will contribute to the success of this new initiative. One crucial step in enhancing our collaboration has been bridging the gap between the AEI Executive Board and the museum, which we have achieved through inviting the former AEI president to sit on the Stanley Education Advisory Council (SEAC). While most SEAC members are also members of AEI, bringing the former president on-board gives the group a strong grasp on conversations, concerns, and projects from the highest level. Another bond was forged this year as the Stanley was recognized as a sponsor of the 2018 AEI Annual Conference, held in Storm Lake. This sponsorship gave the museum a high level of visibility to AEI members from parts of the state we haven’t often visited, and gave staff the opportunity to promote Stanley School Programs through multiple conference sessions. Our biggest joint undertaking is still in the planning stages, as the Stanley and other campus partners will welcome the 2020 AEI Annual Conference on the UI campus. AEI has not been hosted in Iowa City in many years, and the museum is thrilled to be a leading force in welcoming this important organization back into our city and campus communities.
E D U C AT I O N
Senior Living Communities Program Since it was developed in 2011 by Chris Merkle, the Senior Living Communities program (SLC) has gone through several changes. In September 2017, Amanda Lensing became the SLC program coordinator. Due to Amanda’s non-traditional art background, inquisitive nature, and conversational approach, the current SLC program offers a variety of programs to accommodate different interests, abilities, and groups. April Marvin, wellness coordinator at Melrose Meadows Retirement Community, says that “the variety of [Stanley] programming appeals to so many different residents—whether it is doing ‘hands on’ activities, or having an intellectual discussion about different genres and movements of art. It helps residents feel engaged not only with art, but with this great community as well. The enthusiasm has carried over into our activity programming too, with several residents getting together once a week for ‘Art Playhouse’ and working on their own masterpieces!”
Art of Show and Tell. It’s a simple program I created in which the residents are given a list of items that qualify as art and are asked to bring them to the program. We sit in a circle, introduce ourselves, and tell the group about the object we brought and why it’s important to us, and thus learn about one another. The SLC program is a gift not only to the residents and participants, but to me. I enjoy putting the programs together and seeing the participants learn something new and, as they do so, they introduce me to new ways of looking at art and life.”
In the last year, the program has grown to include senior living communities and groups in Johnson, Linn, Cedar, and Iowa counties. In October, the program received a Community Foundation of Johnson County grant. Amanda plans on using the grant to buy art materials for more crafting projects and to bring in more artists to work with participants. Amanda notes, “Because some participants don’t like to craft and others physically can’t, it’s important to me to offer programming for everyone that engages discussion and learning in different ways and at different levels. My favorite program is The
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When Assistant Curator Kim Datchuk was researching an exhibition, she noticed something surprising in the Stanley Museum’s history. On a hunch, she began counting each Stanley exhibition that focused on women and minority artists. Datchuk discovered an unusually high number in the 1970s, when the Stanley had a string of women in leadership positions. “It seems like while we had female leadership,” she said, “there was this moment where the museum had real interest in showing and acquiring works by women and minority artists.” She’s currently looking at other examples of female leadership at similar institutions to see if there’s a pattern. She hopes to present on this research as one model for how museums can improve equity in the works they exhibit.
This isn’t limited only to the art on display, either. Datchuk also seeks to invite new visitors to the museum with her smART Talks, a series of short lunchtime talks given by faculty, local artists, and students about work in the collection. She says, “I wanted to do something to engage departments, especially those who hadn’t really used the museum before, to show how our museum collection is connected to the innovative work faculty are doing across campus.” This has also given her the chance to gear these talks to current issues and events. The October 2018 talk, for example, was given by Professor Stella Burch Elias, who specializes in immigration law. Professor Elias used two works from the collection—Peasants Under A Tree, a watercolor by Diego Rivera (20th c.), and Birmingham, a lithograph composed of three prints by Toyin Ojih Odutola (2014)—to speak about immigrant support networks and community-building.
KIM DATCHUK
Increasing representation and bringing diverse experiences into the museum has long been a focus for Datchuk, almost since she began working at the Stanley. She says, “It didn’t become clear to me that my work was going to take this focus, until I was planning my first exhibit” as an assistant curator at the Stanley. “I was working on the Spring 2016 exhibition, and I realized that the shows we had at the Black Box and the Visual Classroom were all men.” It’s not that she thought women had been left out on purpose, she said—but the imbalance struck her, especially now that she was in a position to influence those decisions. Out of that realization came Doing it All: Figurative and Abstract Work by Female Artists, an all-women exhibition held in spring 2011 at the Stanley Visual Classroom. “We’re commonly getting male interpretations of female experiences in art,” Datchuk said, “so I wanted to give women artists a chance to show themselves and their colleagues.”
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Datchuk sees the Stanley Museum playing an important role in engaging communities in sensitive conversations. She said, “Art has the power to change the way we think and how we understand the world, if we’re open to it. If the Stanley can bring together people with different experiences into the same space and give them something to talk about, even if they might not believe they have something in common, it can open other conversations and understandings.” The most rewarding aspect of her job, she says, is when students who had never before stepped foot in a museum realize it can be a place for them—and she speaks from personal experience. “I didn’t go into an art museum until I was in college and it was required for a class,” she said. “But sitting in there, I found a place where I could see myself in a different way. I want students to recognize that they don’t need to be an expert to enjoy the museum, and that it can give them a new perspective on other people’s experiences.”
STAFF SPOTLIGHT
In November 2018, Legacies for Iowa Curator Vero Rose Smith launched a pop-up exhibition in downtown Iowa City as an extension of her exhibition at the Figge Art Museum entitled Going Home. Smith collaborated with four local architectural firms, who each used a location downtown to consider different definitions and depictions of home. When asked how she chose her theme, Smith responded, “I look for universals, and conversations that everyone can contribute to. Home is one of those concepts. If I can present a really compelling theme, I’ve suddenly offered an invitation to people who never thought they cared about art.” Inviting people in is central to Smith’s work for Legacies.
for future patrons. We’ll be teaching visitors some basic art vocabulary in the gallery, they’ll describe what they see as they look at each artwork, and their descriptions will, in turn, help future visitors.” This initiative will not only assist those patrons who might otherwise be excluded from a museum experience, Smith hopes, but will help build visual literacy in all visitors. This kind of collaboration across the university and across the community is a central part of Smith’s work. In May 2019, the co-founder of the Center for Afrofuturist Studies at Public Space One in Iowa City, Anaïs Duplan, will guest-curate and exhibition for Legacies entitled Anonymous Donor. This is a culmination of a two-year relationship between the Center for Afrofuturist Studies and the Stanley Museum, during which Smith has provided guided tours of the museum collection to artists in residence at the Center. Smith recalls an experience with Jade Ariana Fare, a resident who, moved by the museum’s Elizabeth Catlett prints, created an immersive exhibition in response to those works. “That was incredible,” Smith says. “It’s fantastic to have Anaïs Duplan curate this show that is in many ways a manifestation of the conversations we’ve been having for two years about how the work of people who came before us can help us move into a hopeful future, especially for black lives.”
VERO ROSE SMITH
The Legacies for Iowa program began as a response to the 2008 flood, when, with help from a generous donation from the Matthew Bucksbaum family, the museum began to pilot creative solutions to bring our art to Iowans. Over the course of more than ten years mounting traveling and collaborative exhibitions around the state, Legacies has inspired similar programs across the country and has become a vital part of the Stanley Museum’s mission. Beyond traditional gallery exhibitions, Legacies also collaborates on a music series entitled Feed Me Weird Things. Smith says her anti-disciplinary approach has been useful: “It’s funny how, in the academic world, we can easily segment ourselves into disciplines, which is not the way the vast majority of non-academics function. I want always to be thinking about how we as an institution can offer invitations to a broader public.” Smith recently won a grant to expand the museum’s invitation to the public even further. In collaboration with Dr. Kyle Rector in the UI Computer Science department, Smith will pilot an emerging technology in the galleries to increase accessibility for low-sighted visitors. “It’s a crowd-sourced audio guide,” she says, “created in real time by visitors to the gallery
Smith says she hopes her work for Legacies can invite people to experience the Stanley Museum “not just as a nice way to spend thirty minutes, but as a crucial part of figuring out what it means to be human.” Though Legacies was created in response to the lack of a building, Smith emphasizes that “having a building isn’t going to alleviate the need for outreach to parts of the state far removed from Iowa City. Collections sharing isn’t going to go away. Instead, having a building will allow us to reach even further.” 27
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EVENTS
HOMECOMING
Stanley Museum of Art Members Council, staff, and student volunteers from the UI School of Art and Art History participated in the University of Iowa Homecoming Parade this past October. We are grateful to McDonough Structures and McComis-Lacina Construction for their sponsorship of our float. Photos by Sanjay Jani (top L) and John Moyers
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first Friday The Stanley extends a sincere thank-you to our First Friday sponsors
Thank You to our magazine sponsors!
John R. Menninger Ellen M. Widiss Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1798–1861) Untitled, 19th century Woodblock, 7 1/8 x 4 7/8 in. The Nancy and Frank A. Seiberling Jr. Family Collection, 1991.253
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H. Dee & Myrene R. Hoover John S. & Patricia C. Koza John R. Menninger
CENTER FOR ADVANCEMENT
A Golden Anniversary Gift
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he University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art’s 50th anniversary allows us to reflect upon the past and celebrate those who have played an indelible role in shaping our collections and our education and community outreach programs. This milestone also is an occasion to look to the future. In collaboration with the University of Iowa Center for Advancement, we have embarked upon a capital campaign that will allow us to fulfill our mission and our vision for a new museum building on campus. Thanks to My Museum: The Building Campaign for the UI Stanley Museum of Art, we already are 65 percent of the way to reaching our $25 million fundraising goal. I invite you, during our yearlong celebration, to join your fellow arts advocates in giving to the Fund for Rebuilding the Museum of Art, so that we can continue to transform peoples’ lives by connecting them with extraordinary works of art. Your support of this campaign will ensure that we can welcome community members—as well as citizens from Iowa and throughout the world—to our museum for at least another 50 years, allowing them to explore our exceptional collections and discover new ideas. Please take this golden opportunity to ensure our bright future by giving to the My Museum capital campaign. You can make an outright gift or a pledge, payable throughout the next five years. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like more information about recognition or naming opportunities within this important campaign.
Susan Horan Associate Director of Development The University of Iowa 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
stanleymuseum.uiowa.edu
“THE UI STANLEY MUSEUM OF ART IS MY MUSEUM BECAUSE ITS WORLD-CLASS ART STRETCHES MY MIND AND WARMS
”
MY HEART.
HELP US BUILD A NEW HOME FOR I N S P I R AT I O N .
MY
MUSEUM THE BUILDING CAMPAIGN FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA MUSEUM OF ART
foriowa.org/mymuseum MARY WESTBROOK
G I V E T O D AY !
MEMBERS COUNCIL VOLUNTEER | THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA STANLEY MUSEUM OF ART UIMA MagAd_18_FINAL.indd 1
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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/.