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STAN L E Y M US EU M .U IOWA.EDU Editor: Elizabeth M. Wallace Editorial Team: Rebecca Hanssens-Reed and Derek Nnuro Design: Benson & Hepker Design Copyright © 2020
STANLEY MUSEUM OFART
TEMPORARY OFFICES
OLD MUSEUM OF ART BUILDING 150 N. Riverside Drive OMA 100 Iowa City, IA 52242 By appointment 319-335-1727 stanley-museum@uiowa.edu
TEMPORARY LOCATION
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.
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 2
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COVER AND LEFT Drone images of the new Stanley Museum of Art courtesy of Russell Construction Co., Inc.
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Calendar of Events
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Director’s Welcome
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LOOKING FORWARD History is Always Now Collections Conservation How to Move a Collection Construction Update
16 MY MUSEUM Inspiring Future Generations 18
23 STAFF SPOTLIGHT Katherine Wilson 24
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LEARNING & ENGAGEMENT Summoned Mother Public Programs The Virtual Museum & The Classroom
FROM THE UI CENTER FOR ADVANCEMENT Sustaining Support Anchoring History From the Associate Director of Development
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STANLEYMUSEUMOFART EXHIBITIONS
As we prepare to move the museum’s collection to our new home in 2022 all current exhibitions will remain on extended view.
CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC
Stanley Visual Classroom, Iowa Memorial Union
ONGOING
Pollinators, Figge Art Museum
ONGOING
Views from the Other Side, Figge Art Museum
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
All programs will be held on Zoom. *Registration required.
SEPTEMBER 12
2:00 p.m.
Saturdays at the Stanley: Follow Her Lead exhibition talk with Cory Gundlach Curator of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
SEPTEMBER 16
3:30 p.m.
Chat from the Old Cap—Stanley Museum Edition with Lauren Lessing and Rod Lehnertz
SEPTEMBER 18
11:00 a.m.
smART Talk: “Welcome to Afro City” with Donté Hayes, UI MFA graduate in ceramics
SEPTEMBER 19*
2:00 p.m.
Stanley Reads Book Club with Kimberly Datchuk, Curator of Learning & Engagement Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing (2016), Effia (pp. 1–26) & Esi (pp. 27–48). Presented in partnership with Prairie Lights Books
SEPTEMBER 26*
2:00 p.m.
Stanley Creates: Elizabeth Catlett-inspired monoprinting with Lauren Linahon Art Education Masters Student, UI College of Education
OCTOBER 3*
2:00 p.m.
Stanley Reads Book Club, Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing (2016), Quey (pp. 49–86) and James (pp. 87–109)
OCTOBER 10
2:00 p.m.
Saturdays at the Stanley: “Artists, Travelers, & Immigrants” with Brady Plunger Associate Curator of Education
OCTOBER 16
11:00 a.m.
smART Talk with Elizabeth Powell, UI MFA graduate in printmaking
OCTOBER 17*
2:00 p.m.
Stanley Reads Book Club, Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing (2016), Kojo (pp. 110–131) and Abena (pp. 132–152)
OCTOBER 20*
7:00 p.m.
Stanley Quiz Show—Art & Museum Trivia with Brady Plunger, Associate Curator of Education and special guests
OCTOBER 24*
2:00 p.m.
Stanley Creates: Fluidity-inspired paper marbling with Lauren Linahon Art Education Masters Student, UI College of Education
OCTOBER 31*
2:00 p.m.
Stanley Reads Book Club, Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing (2016), H (pp. 155–175) and Akua (pp. 176–197)
NOVEMBER 7
2:00 p.m.
Saturdays at the Stanley: “Frenemies—Jackson Pollock & Willem de Kooning” with Kimberly Datchuk, Curator of Learning & Engagement
NOVEMBER 13
11:00 a.m.
smART Talk with Terry Conrad, UI Assistant Professor and Program Head of Printmaking, and Iowa Print Media Faculty Fellow
NOVEMBER 14*
2:00 p.m.
Stanley Reads Book Club, Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing (2016), Willie (pp. 198–220) and Yaw (pp. 221–241)
DECEMBER 5*
2:00 p.m.
Stanley Reads Book Club, Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing (2016), Sonny (pp. 242–262) Marjorie (pp. 263–282), and Marcus (pp. 283–299)
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Dear Friends, I hope that you are safe and well. As I listen to the sounds of firecrackers mingling with lawn mowers on this hot, sunny weekend in Iowa City, it’s impossible to forget, even for a moment, the crises unfolding in our community and in our world. We are in the midst of a global pandemic. Our economy is fragile, and many people are suffering. At the same time, demands for longoverdue racial justice have called us to examine our beliefs and change our practices. We are building a new museum during a pivotal historic moment. As we strive to meet the challenges of this moment, it’s worth remembering that on a similarly warm summer day in 1934, University of Iowa President Walter Jessup laid the cornerstone of a building designed expressly for the study of art—the first such structure on the UI campus.
Photo by Uri Lessing
The new Fine Arts Building would soon house an innovative educational program—the first of its kind—that would leverage the power of art to awaken new perceptions and teach new skills, enabling UI graduates to interact with their world in eloquent, powerful ways. This was timely. The nation was four years into the Great Depression. Nearly one in four Americans was out of work. The dust bowl ravaging the American Midwest had already destroyed thirtyfive million acres of farmland. As Jessup’s audience shielded their eyes from the bright sun to watch the cornerstone settle into place, fascism was casting a lengthening and evil shadow over much of the world. What Jessup knew then, and what I know now, is that art can be a light in the darkness, illuminating a path to a better future. It is both a comfort to the sufferer and a powerful weapon against injustice. To quote the German author Bertolt Brecht, “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” Fifteen years after the cornerstone of the Fine Arts Building was laid, Elizabeth Catlett left the University of Iowa with the very first MFA degree—a hammer with which she would change the world. Over the past year, the indefatigable construction crew at our building site has been hard at work and the frame of the new Stanley Museum of Art is now complete. It is our challenge to live up to the elegance of the building’s design and make the museum truly work for our campus and our community. If we do this work well, we will honor the vision of teachers like Jessup, artists like Catlett, and museum leaders like Lonnie Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, who recently extolled the power of museums to raise questions, begin public conversations, and help audiences become comfortable with nuance and complexity. Please stay safe as you care for one another! Best wishes,
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NOW History is Always
The inaugural exhibition will welcome
long-loved masterpieces to their new home
next to the Main Library in downtown Iowa City. But it will do so in ways that are informed by our present moment.
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LOOKING FORWARD
Curators have been working from home, planning the inaugural exhibition that will reunite Iowa City with the Stanley Museum of Art’s extraordinary collection. There are few academic art museums—public or private—with comparable depth and breadth. The Stanley is home to exceptional modern masterpieces, a peerless collection of African art, as well as ceramic and print collections that span the centuries with artwork from around the world.
Sam Gilliam (American, 1933– ) Red April, 1970 Acrylic on canvas 116 1/2 x 161 x 3 in. Gift of The Longview Foundation and Museum purchase, 1971.11 © 2020 Sam Gilliam / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
In planning the inaugural, the curators have reflected on the history of this collection and considered the values the collection has embodied over time. The focus and quality of the artworks in the Stanley’s holdings are indebted to the University of Iowa’s commitment to art as part of its teaching and research mission. In the midst of the Great Depression and as war loomed in Europe, the UI secured the resources to build West Campus, home to the theater and fine arts buildings, and began collecting art. Just as FA LL 20 2 0
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Jackson Pollock (American, 1912–1956) Mural, 1943 (detail) Oil and casein on canvas 95 5/8 x 237 3/4 in. Gift of Peggy Guggenheim, 1959.6
cutting-edge science cannot be conducted without labs, faculty, and access to the latest research, so transformative art cannot be created without infrastructure, expertise, and exemplary works from which to learn. In addition to hiring renowned faculty, which included Lester Longman, H. W. Janson, Grant Wood, and Phillip Guston, the UI drew upon endowments to invest in art early on in the twentieth century. The Mark Ranney Memorial Fund, for example, was established in 1907 and generated income that enabled the university to purchase masterpieces that included Max Beckmann’s Karneval (1943) and Joan Miró’s A Drop of Dew… (1939). In the last decade, this same fund
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LOOKING FORWARD
Artworks are made in their own time and place by artists concerned with the present challenges of their lives. But no artwork is wholly contained by the moment of its making.
was used to purchase important photographs by Herbert Matter, Barbara Morgan, and Carrie Mae Weems. The excellence of the collection inspired transformative gifts that led to the establishment and construction of the art museum, which opened its doors in 1969. The inaugural exhibition will welcome long-loved masterpieces to their new home next to the Main Library in downtown Iowa City. But it will do so in ways that are informed by our present moment. Now, as then, exceptional artists stretch the parameters of their medium to contend with social, political, and economic crises. Jackson Pollock’s Mural (1943), made when victory in World War II seemed unclear, adopted the expansive scale of historic painting to convey a vision of American triumph. Pollock’s work inspired generations of abstract painters; but the history that Sam Gilliam captured in Red April (1970) is profoundly different from that of Pollock’s. Pleating, folding, and soaking his canvas with bright red, Gilliam made this work a year after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the spring of revolt against the exploitation and persecution of Black Americans. Stretched across
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the enormous beveled frame, the painting, however lyrical, however abstract, forces the viewer to contend with the blood that soaks American history. Artworks are made in their own time and place by artists concerned with the present challenges of their lives. But no artwork is wholly contained by the moment of its making. Rather, every artwork— collected, interpreted, and shown—resonates with our present and envisions possible futures. What the inaugural exhibition will explore are the ways that every artwork we show can reveal the world of the past, sharpen our sense of the present, and allow us to envision the future.
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Joan Mitchell (American, 1925–1992) Red Painting No. 2, 1954 Oil on canvas 67 5/8 x 74 x 2 1/2 in. Gift of Frederick King Shaw, 1973.34 © Joan Mitchell Foundation
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LOOKING FORWARD
Collections Conservation Red Painting No. 2 (1954) is a spectacular work that helped earn Joan Mitchell early acclaim. Mitchell was one of the very few women who helped to cement the reputation of the Abstract Expressionists through her participation in the watershed Ninth Street Show in 1951 and, in following years, her solo exhibitions at the Stable Gallery, NYC. Red Painting no. 2 was recognized for its daring; Kyle Morris included it as part of the 1955 exhibition Vanguard at the Walker Art Center. Critics alternately described her work as lyrical or aggressive, rigorously abstract or naturalistic. Red Painting No. 2 sustains the simultaneity of these seemingly contradictory descriptions. Colorful marks accrue across the canvas, layered like sediment to create passages of thick impasto. The highly gestural, vibrant abstract painting shimmers and registers at times like landscape. Precisely because of its experimental approach and because it is so well loved, the painting has had a few condition issues. In the past it had lost some paint because of scratches here and there, but more recently and more alarmingly, the painting had begun to flake. This was one of the most highprofile paintings in our collection that was in need of treatment. But there are others in the collection that needed care as well. When Joyce Tsai first FA LL 20 2 0
arrived as curator in 2016, she conducted a survey of the paintings with Katherine Wilson, manager of exhibitions and collections, and Kim Datchuk, now curator of learning and engagement. As newcomers, Kim and Joyce wanted to get a sense of the collection in person, but the process also gave them an opportunity to identify artworks that should be conserved. Because the collection is in Davenport, this study had to be conducted over the course of a year on days they could devote to being in storage. It was a thrilling experience for them to go from reviewing the collection through the database to seeing the works in person. One painting that caught their eye was Girl in Green (1937) by Nicolai Cikovsky. It was a charming picture but in an alarming state—not only was it dirty, but the painting had been folded over multiple times and there were patched nail holes along the edge from various attempts to stretch the canvas. With a little research, museum staff discovered that this painting had once been in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and came to UI by exchange for a piece by Man Ray. That in itself was a bit shocking. Why on earth would the University of Iowa have a Man Ray painting to begin with, and what would convince the UI to exchange it with MoMA for this portrait?
Above, left: Installation view of Vanguard 55, Walker Art Center, 1955 Courtesy Walker Art Center Archives 11
Tastes and values change over time and Girl in Green captures these shifts. This painting debuted at the renowned Downtown Gallery in 1938 to rave reviews in The New York Times and was selected as a representative painting in Three Hundred Years of American Art, the landmark show that was organized by MoMA and exhibited in Paris. That same year, MoMA acquired the painting. This painting came to Iowa in part because of the University of Iowa’s MFA program. While early on the program was devoted to Modern art, it was also training painters to work in traditional genres like portraiture. Even Phillip Guston, who taught at the University in the forties, executed portraits that share Cikovsky’s language. In 2017 both the Mitchell and Cikovsky were among dozens of works assessed by a paintings conservator at the Midwest Art Conservation Center. Through the generosity of retired Iowa City citizen Steven A. Hall—who also happens to be Katherine Wilson’s father—the museum was able to send both paintings to be conserved. The Mitchell was cleaned, the areas of flaking and potential loss stabilized. Conservators vacuumed the Cikovsky, removed the dirty varnish, humidified the canvas to help relax the deformations, and filled paint losses. The Stanley is thrilled to bring both these paintings to light soon in the inaugural exhibition.
Nicolai Cikovsky (American, 1894–1987) Girl in Green, 1937 Oil on canvas, 43 1/2 x 37 ½ in. Exchange with the Museum of Modern Art, 1938.2 © Estate of Nicolai Cikovsky 12
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LOOKING FORWARD
How to Move a Collection:
When you can’t access the collection With the temporary closing of the University of Iowa due to public health measures in response to COVID-19, the collections management team has been working from home, along with much of the country. Unable to proceed with packing up for the move to the new museum building, the first challenge was to determine what could be done without access to the art. Many objects need extra support to ensure they are not damaged during the moving process. While some art pieces need specific reinforcements or bracing that must be made on an individualized basis, there are others that one can create reinforcements for without having the object on hand. For these a number of different-sized supports that fit most objects can be created. Ceramic vessels with small or round bases are excellent examples of these types of objects. For these vessels supportive rings are made. When the pieces are boxed up for transportation—and eventually stored on our new building’s compacting movable shelving—these rings maintain stability and proper orientation. The rings are made out of an inert foam that is soft enough not to damage the object should it be jostled, and stiff enough to maintain its shape under the weight of the object it is placed under. In order to support small, medium, and large vessels a variety of ring sizes were made. FA LL 20 2 0
As soon as the collections team is able to be reunited with the art, these rings will be ready to be matched with appropriately-sized objects and packed up for transportation. Along with the rings, the team has also been making supports to protect the museum’s extensive textile collection. These soft fabric tubes will pad out any folds made when packing. Folding fabric can cause the cloth to crease, and overtime these creases will become permanent and cause the fibers of the textile to break due to prolonged stress. To create the tubes, cotton stockinette is filled with batting. This material is formed into giant snakes which will then be cut to length as each piece of fabric is folded. The collections team is excited to put these and other newly made supports into action once they can return to working with the art. COVID-19 has prompted the team to review their packing needs, which now involves developing assembly line-like processes to meet those demands.
Steve Erickson
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Right: Topping out beam Below right: Installation of stair seen from the lightwell Below left: From southeast of building, looking toward main entry Far below: Looking south on first level Photos courtesy of Russell Construction Co., Inc.
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Construction update Construction is continuing apace for the new Stanley Museum of Art. The ground works were finished over the winter months. The building is supported by 66 concrete piers socketed into bedrock with a combined total length of 3,420 feet. Concrete was poured for foundation walls, the underground parking level, elevator pits, and stairway access on the north side. Structural steel was delivered to the site in February and the new building emerged from the ground in the following four months. Thus far, 800 tons of steel and the custom public staircase have been installed. Timed to coincide with underground utility work being conducted by the city on Madison and Burlington streets, chilled water, fiber optic, and electrical connections are now complete. Construction of the exterior wall has begun, and the iconic brickwork will start in August 2020. The construction crew celebrated a traditional “topping out” ceremony on June 12 when the final, highest steel beam, signed and adorned with flags and a fir tree, was hoisted into place. The practice of including a tree originates from the ancient Scandinavian practice of placing a tree on a finished, timber-frame structure to appease tree-dwelling spirits displaced in construction. Steelworkers have adopted this custom to ensure good luck for both the workers and the future occupants of the building. FA LL 20 2 0
You can help turn our new home into a “signed original”! Visit foriowa.org/mymuseum between September 16–30 to virtually sign the new structure. Your message will be transcribed on your behalf. Details: susan.horan@foriowa.org 319-467-3408 or 800-648-6973
The project webcam has moved to the roof of th UI Main Library. Follow along live via: webcam.iowa.uiowa.edu/sma/
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Inspiring Future Ge Where cranes, backhoes, and scaffolding now stand, Craig (75JD) and Nancy Willis (77BA, 80JD) see a future Iowa landmark that will inspire new generations of art lovers.
organizations. This past fall, the UI presented the Willises with its top honor—a Distinguished Alumni Award for their outstanding contributions to he university.
The longtime university benefactors and Iowa City community leaders have committed $1 million toward the building campaign for the forthcoming University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, which is set to open in 2022. The project broke ground in 2019 near the corner of Burlington and Front streets, adjacent to the UI Main Library and Gibson Square. In recognition of the Willises’ support, the plaza entrance of the museum will be named for the couple. “We’ve really developed an appreciation for art as a result of our relationship with the institution, the collection, and the people at the museum,” says Nancy Willis. “This is an opportunity for us to express our appreciation for that enrichment.” The Willises have become two of the museum’s most steadfast supporters since first getting involved with the organization in the 1970s. The couple, who work as real estate attorneys, have served prominent roles on numerous boards and committees for the museum, in addition to showing support for Hancher, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and UI Health Care, among many other university and community
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enerations The couple credits the university for sparking their lifelong passion for the visual arts—first as museum patrons, then as art collectors themselves. Over the years, they have built relationships
with art dealers they’ve met through the UI and visited many of the world’s top art galleries. They say their travels have only deepened their appreciation for the university’s cultural offerings. “The pieces in the university’s collection are, in a way, old friends,” says Craig Willis. “And it will be nice to be able to visit those old friends again. We’re also excited about new acquisitions and traveling shows, which will be another great aspect of the new museum.” Raised on a farm in northwest Iowa, Nancy Willis says her first exposure to the art world, like many students, happened at the UI. She’s hopeful that the museum and its accessible location in the heart of campus will spark the same interest for the next generation. “We’re establishing a venue that will expand horizons, expand the way we look at things, and expand life experiences,” Nancy says. “This will be something that students will take with them wherever they go around the world.”
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“‘Every mother heard him. We heard George Floyd. We hear him.”
Summoned The weeks of protest following George Floyd’s killing further cast light on the prior killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and have kindled a necessary American reckoning with systemic racism. Across the country institutions are engaging in vital exercises of self-reflection and goalsetting, out of which they hope to effect lasting change. At the Stanley, we are committed to being at the forefront of this lasting change, and we continue to identify meaningful ways to achieve this goal. On June 19, Summoned Mother, a threevolume video series featuring literary artist Dr. Tameka Cage Conley (18MFA), launched on the museum’s social media platforms. In Summoned Mother Conley juxtaposes the works of Elizabeth Catlett with those of contemporary Black poets Lucille Clifton, Danez Smith, Terrance Hayes, and Jericho Brown, bridging the visual and literary arts in a meditation on Black artistry’s longstanding eye on injustice.
Dr. Tameka Cage Conley Photo by Christopher Hunter 18
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Mother
View all three volumes of Summoned Mother on the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art YouTube channel
The title Summoned Mother invokes the breathless call George Floyd made for his mother while a white police officer kneeled on his neck and killed him. In each video, Conley, mother to a six-year-old Black boy, answers Floyd’s call. As Conley puts it, “Kadiatou Diallo, mother of Amadou Diallo, said, ‘Every mother heard him. We heard George Floyd. We hear him.’ I heard him.” And in response Conley created a memoir about her particular American motherhood: Black and uniquely precarious.
Summoned Mother is part of the Stanley’s revitalized dedication to amplifying the voices of artists and thinkers from underrepresented communities. We seek to create transformational educational spaces by making the museum’s resources available to diverse voices. It is our hope that this and other efforts galvanize equity and social change in Iowa City and beyond. Additionally, as believers in the restorative power of art, we aim to provide spaces for healing. “Casting my voice here for Summoned Mother, as well as my pain,” Conley says, “is something I needed.” Elizabeth Catlett (American and Mexican, 1915–2012) Maternity, 1959, Lithograph, 23 x 17 1/2 in. Museum purchase, 2006.70 © 2020 Catlett Mora Family Trust / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY FA LL 20 2 0
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Public Programs
Roberto Lugo, the first ceramic artist to receive the Rome Prize, will deliver the Spriestersbach lecture by video in October.
While the Stanley Visual Classroom remains closed to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, we are happy to continue our Saturdays at the Stanley, smART Talks, and annual Spriestersbach lecture, all online, along with new programs we’ll be launching on Zoom. The Stanley is able to continue and expand its virtual programming in 2020–21 thanks to Yvonne McCabe’s generous support. In October Roberto Lugo will deliver the Spriestersbach lecture by video. Lugo, the first ceramic artist to receive the Rome Prize, spent the last year living and producing work in Rome, Italy. He is known for injecting contemporary social justice issues into traditional ceramic forms. For example, he added a gun barrel from a gun buyback program in New Jersey and an image of Tupac Shakur to a teapot (To Disarm: Tupak, 2019). About the teapot, he said, “When I make a teapot, I’m thinking about the accessibility of that particular vessel.” He adds portraits, like the one of Tupac, to his objects “to look at history and re-contextualize the ceramic vessel.” Lugo will discuss other key aspects of his work in this year’s virtual Spriestersbach lecture. Saturdays at the Stanley will kick off on September 12 with Cory Gundlach, curator of the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, who will discuss his exhibition Follow Her Lead. The exhibition highlights the strength of our collection of African and Diaspora art and focuses
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on women, motherhood, fashion, and leadership across times and cultures. On October 12, Brady Plunger, associate curator of education, will examine how artists’ movements across geographical, cultural, and political landscapes resonate through their work in a talk titled “Artists, Travelers, & Immigrants.” We will conclude our fall series on November 7 with “Frenemies: Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning” led by Kimberly Datchuk, curator of learning & engagement. The discussion will focus on the breakthroughs each artist made in abstract painting and how their friendship and rivalry bled into (and fed) their art. The online platform will be especially useful for this talk because it will allow us to look very closely at the surface of Pollock’s Mural and Portrait of H.M., as well as consider key paintings by de Kooning not in the Stanley’s collection. In addition to resuming Saturdays at the Stanley, we have some new programs we will introduce on Zoom. Stanley Reads, a book club presented in partnership with Prairie Lights Books, will meet virtually every two weeks for a total of six meetings. Our first read, starting in the fall will be Homegoing, the debut novel of Yaa Gyasi, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Homegoing was published in 2016 by Penguin Random House and won the PEN/Hemingway award. The novel spans from the eighteenth century to present day and from Africa to America, as it follows the parallel paths of two sisters and their descendants through eight generations. As part of the discussion, Kimberly Datchuk will pair chapters of the book with pieces from Follow Her Lead to highlight overlapping themes and to examine the characters, histories, and artwork more deeply.
On September 12, Cory Gundlach, curator of the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, will discuss his exhibition Follow Her Lead.
For the family, we will offer two art-making workshops through our Stanley Creates programing. Lauren Linahon, a graduate student in art education in the UI College of Education, will lead kids and their parents through art projects that relate to our recent exhibitions in the Stanley Visual Classroom—Follow Her Lead, 20/20, and Fluidity—using materials readily available at home. The projects are geared toward elementary and middle school students, but everyone is welcome to join. Lastly, we will have a trivia night, Stanley Quiz Show, hosted by Brady Plunger on October 20. (Virtually) gather your friends to compete as a team for bragging rights. Questions will focus on artists and artistic movements, as well as general museum history. These three events— Stanley Reads, Stanley Creates, and Stanley Quiz Show—are free, but require registration online for planning purposes. We look forward to meeting with you virtually throughout the fall. Thank you for joining us as our online adventure continues! FA LL 20 2 0
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The Virtual Museum & The Classroom
Reese Lensing
Produce N Van Gogh
Deborah Elizabeth Whaley
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In response to the pandemic the Learning & Engagement department has been shifting the ways they connect with their audiences. When UI classes went online for the remainder of the spring semester, they shared the collection digitally with faculty and students through virtual visits. They’ve also been developing content in collaboration with the other departments at the Stanley so the rest of you can “Museum from Home”—including coloring sheets based on the museum’s collections, familyfriendly activities, DIY art projects, and behind-the-scenes videos, all of which are available free on our website. As they look toward the fall, the L&E team is excitedly preparing to meet virtually with K–12 and university students, senior living communities (SLC), and the public. Associate Curators of Education Brady Plunger and Joshua Siefken are preparing instructional videos about some of our Stanley School Programs Collections: these will feature Graphic Novels and Comic Art, Masks, Art of Africa, and American Indian and First Peoples’ Art. Curator of Learning & Engagement Kimberly Datchuk is producing additional videos and digital resources, such as worksheets and discussion guides, to help faculty teach with the Stanley’s collection whether they plan to teach face-to-face or online. Senior Living Coordinator Amanda Lensing has been writing biweekly newsletters since March to continue sharing art with some of the communities hit hardest by COVID-19. In partnership with SLC activities leaders, she is also developing virtual programs for the fall to keep seniors connected to the museum and each other. The L&E team is eager to meet the challenge of this difficult time. The Stanley’s education programs will continue to evolve in conversation with faculty, teachers, and senior living communities, so everyone can stay engaged across a variety of platforms in new, accessible, and innovative ways.
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Katherine Wilson
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sk Katherine Wilson about one philosophy that informs her role as the Stanley Museum’s Manager of Exhibitions and Collections and she will tell you, “to always consider how my actions will impact the future of the museum.” As if anticipating a global pandemic that would push much of the world into virtual spaces, four years ago, Wilson launched an initiative to store the museum’s collections online. Worldwide, museum doors remain closed in response to COVID-19, and administrators face an urgent need for their collections to have a virtual home. Already with a head start, Wilson says, “we are moving closer…the University of Iowa Libraries is working on publishing information and images of over 14,000 objects to the Iowa Digital Library, leaving us with only a few thousand more objects to add.”
The collaboration with the University of Iowa Libraries is a Photo by Avery Tucker seamless one for Wilson, who considers herself “a librarian for art.” To elaborate, she says, “my job is to ensure the care and safety of the museum’s collection, as well as providing access to the collections through database and digital collections management systems.” Her work runs the gamut—from selecting the Stanley Museum’s current collection management software and overseeing the data transfer to the new system, to managing outgoing loans to other museums, including the world tour of Pollock’s Mural. Wilson gained initial exposure to her current role by volunteering and working for museums and art centers. “I learned what a registrar was,” she says, “and decided FA LL 20 2 0
STAFF SPOTLIGHT that it sounded like the perfect job for my skills and interests: working behind the scenes, helping to provide information to others.” Wilson earned her bachelor’s degree in art education from University of Northern Iowa. While a graduate student at University of Iowa’s School of Library and Information Science, she started at the Stanley Museum as a student registrarial assistant, then assumed the role of assistant registrar after she graduated. “Throughout my time at the museum,” she says, “my responsibilities have steadily evolved and inevitably increased.” When asked about one of her proudest achievements, Wilson again invokes her view of herself as a librarian. “I recently went through all of the museum’s past exhibition catalogs and publications and realized that they weren’t readily available to the community,” she begins. “So I arranged for the transferring of duplicate copies of these publications to University Archives, the Art Library, and the Iowa City Historical Society, so that people will be able to search the university’s library catalog to discover and use these works.” In addition to ensuring that the Stanley Museum’s collections have a permanent online presence, Wilson is currently focused on her role as the conduit to the building project of the new Stanley Museum of Art— while simultaneously supervising the tour of Pollock’s Mural to loan venues across the country. She looks forward to Mural’s return to Iowa city, and is putting measures in place for the return of several other of the museum’s art objects to Iowa City. “Once we have more working space with the completion of our new museum building,” she says, “I hope to increase access to the physical collections by creating internship opportunities that teach students how to care for and store art objects.”
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SUSTAINING SUPPORT:
Learn How Endowed Funds Benefit the UI Stanley Museum of Art
Caprice and Influence 2015
How is an endowed gift different than an annual gift or membership? Annual and membership gifts support our yearly needs, and we do not invest these donations. Endowment gifts are invested in perpetuity, rather than spent, and we only use the earnings that these funds generate.
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For decades generous donors have invested in our important work by establishing endowed funds for everything from acquisitions and education to unrestricted use. These resources have made it possible for us to fulfill our mission of helping visitors discover and enjoy extraordinary works of art; of exploring ideas; and of cultivating new insights into history, culture, and the act of creation. A donor establishes an endowed fund, which is self-sustaining, by making a financial gift that is invested in perpetuity. The University of Iowa Center for Advancement manages our museum’s endowed funds, and its team oversees these investment portfolios, with the objective of generating returns that allow for an annual payout to us of 4.5%. For example, a $100,000 endowed fund would generate $4,500 annually for our use. When the fund overperforms the expected yearly distribution, the excess is added to the principal, growing the endowment. S TANLEY M U S E U M O F A RT
FROM THE UI CENTER FOR ADVANCEMENT When you establish such an endowed fund, you can decide how it should be used. Here are a few examples of existing endowed funds that provide us with crucial support:
INTERNSHIPS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Museum of Art Dr. John Martin Award Fund John Martin, MD, established this fund in 1995 to support a paid internship or research assistantship at the museum. Dr. Martin was interested in all forms of art throughout his life and hoped this fund would assist students in furthering their knowledge and competence in the field of museum training. Most recently, this fund supported the work of research fellow Lindley Warren-Mickunas. Since completing her Stanley fellowship, Lindley has accepted a curatorial assistant position at the Museum of Photo by Annick Sjobakken Contemporary Photography in Chicago.
FLEXIBLE USE
Velma P. Stuit Museum of Art Fund Dewey and Velma P. Stuit were longtime patrons of the UI Stanley Museum of Art, which came into existence during Dewey Stuit’s tenure as dean of the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (1948–1977). He established this fund during his lifetime and fully endowed it through his generous estate gift to the University of Iowa. As we plan for the future in our new home, Director Lauren Lessing will use the fund’s annual proceeds to ensure that a variety of dynamic programming, learning
opportunities, and exhibitions are available to our members, students, and visitors.
EXHIBITIONS
John S. and Patricia C. Koza Art Exhibition Fund In 2013, loyal Stanley members John and Trish Koza established this resource to support activities connected with developing and presenting museum exhibitions. From research to installation, the fund helps us host engaging exhibitions. When the new building opens, the John S. and Patricia C. Koza Art Exhibition Fund will allow us to unveil our inaugural exhibition.
ACQUISITIONS
Edwin B. Green American Art Acquisition Fund Throughout his life, Edwin B. Green helped us acquire important works for our collection, including his good friend Grant Wood’s painting Plaid Sweater. In 1988, Green left the museum an estate gift of $250,000, with the stipulation that the museum raise the funds to match the gift two to one. This campaign was a success, and today, we have an endowment of $1 million that allows us to continue obtaining important works of art for our permanent collection.
If you’re interested in supporting one of our existing endowed funds—or in establishing an endowed fund of your own—please contact Susan Horan, associate director of development for the UI Stanley Museum of Art, at 319-467-3407 or at susan.horan@foriowa.org. You can invest in generations of museum visitors to come by making this important gift commitment for our future! FA LL 20 2 0
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Legendary newsman Tom Brokaw has a passion for history—and for the university that helped launch his career. Though there wasn’t an art museum when he was a student at The University of Iowa, Brokaw has been back to campus in recent years, and he understands the crucial role that today’s museum plays in educating students. He sees art as a powerful means of connecting our past and future, and his belief in the UI Stanley Museum of Art’s mission is an extension of his commitment to preserving history. Brokaw visited the university in 2018 to donate his personal papers to the UI Libraries, and at the time, the Iowa Magazine published the following story (excerpted) about how Brokaw’s research materials will inspire generations of UI students to come.
Anchoring History Brokaw, a former UI student who received an honorary degree from the university in 2010, returned to campus to film a segment for NBC about the trove of material he donated to UI Libraries’ Special Collections. He spent the morning sharing stories from the thousands of history-steeped artifacts that make up The Papers of Tom Brokaw: A Life and Career, newly open for public research. Among the items are hand-written notes from President Ronald Reagan and filmmaker Steven Spielberg, stacks of reporter’s notebooks from trips to the Soviet Union and Middle East, and interviews for his best-selling book, The Greatest Generation. For Brokaw (10LHD), finding a permanent home for his papers was less about preserving his legacy than providing students and scholars with a new lens to view some of the most pivotal moments of the last fifty years. His collection reflects the unique on-the-ground perspective of one of the nation’s most influential broadcast journalists who covered world-shifting events like Watergate and the fall of the Berlin Wall. “I was just in the right place at the right time,” Brokaw says of his career. “My generation saw big, 26
big events. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the rise of China, 9/11, the end of the nuclear showdown with Moscow, the sixties. I didn’t really lift my head up—I had my head down just running through all those events at the time, and I managed to keep enough stuff that has some value for future generations of students to see how quickly things can change.” Originally from South Dakota, Brokaw was a freshman in 1958–59 in Iowa City, where he had a great time but not a great year, as he puts it. He transferred as a sophomore to the University of South Dakota before breaking into the TV news business in Sioux City and Omaha. While he didn’t graduate from the UI, Brokaw has always held a fondness for the university and its library. It was here in the Main Library, he recalls, that he dug through the upstairs stacks researching Calamity Jane, the pioneers, and the history of his home state for class projects. So when the time came to find an institution to accommodate his substantial collection, the UI was a natural fit. “Every single time he’s come, we hear new stories about the items,” says former head of Special Collections Greg Prickman, who worked with Brokaw after the donation was announced in 2016. “We could sit with him all day for a week going through things and there would still be stories to tell. Now I’m interested to see what happens when other people come in and start telling new stories using the collection.” While filming the Today show piece, Brokaw made an impromptu visit to a class titled Race and Ethnicity in Sport, which meets in one of the library’s high-tech TILE classrooms. Brokaw joined in the discussion, sharing his thoughts on racial issues in sports today and challenging students to do the same. For Sydney Zatz and her classmates, it was an unexpected thrill. “As a journalism major, I truly thought it was the coolest thing,” says Zatz, a junior who works as a producer for Daily Iowan TV. “He inspires me to keep working hard.” S TANLEY M U S E U M O F A RT
FROM THE UI CENTER FOR ADVANCEMENT There have been many anxious days throughout the last several months. As we work toward a healthier and more just world, I have found much solace in art. I also have had the opportunity to witness, firsthand, the ways in which the UI Stanley Museum of Art staff is working to ensure that our programs and future exhibitions are relevant and responsive. Their work reflects our commitment to community safety and to presenting a collection that includes many voices. Each week, I look forward to Lauren Lessing’s “Dive In with the Stanley” Instagram Live program on Tuesday nights. The hour I spend listening to her talk about art, artists, and history has brought me great comfort. Through art, I find hope and optimism for the future. It makes me smile to think that, in just two short years, we will be attending these programs and exhibitions in our new building. This issue of the magazine includes information about our construction progress. We are nearing 50% completion thanks to our donors’ generosity. To date, UI Stanley Museum supporters have helped us raise 95% of our $25 million goal! If you have not already made a gift, I hope you will help us reach this goal by donating to the campaign today. There are many ways in which you can contribute, including by making an outright gift or a pledge that is payable for up to five years. You also can establish a qualified charitable distribution from an IRA account, a transfer of securities, or a donor-advised fund. My colleagues at the UI Center for Advancement are here to help you achieve your philanthropic goals in whatever way makes the most sense for you. We are working with our architects to incorporate gift recognition into the building design. If you are considering a donation of $10,000 or more, please contact me to ensure that we recognize your support in the museum. Thank you!
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 • 319-467-3408 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
“ART ALLOWS US TO PRESERVE OUR PAST AND DREAM ABOUT OUR FUTURE.
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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
TOM BROKAW (10LHD)
G I V E T O D AY !
AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR 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,Sor West Virginia, TANLEY M U Splease E U Msee O FtheA full RT 28 disclosure statement at http://www.foriowa.org/about/disclosures/.
