On Sunday, August 14, 2011, about ten members of the UIMA staff took a field trip to the Iowa State Fair! Our purpose was to enjoy much more than the food on a stick (although we did enjoy our share of that ...).

Check out this gorgeous video-tour of John Dilg introducing his work at the historical Stuit Hall on the UI campus. Serving as a site for music, painting, and, finally, clinical psychology students, the location is honored in Dilg's paintings, which seek to capture "the spiritual properties of the landscape and architecture."  

Weekday afternoons at the Iowa Memorial Union are buzzing with excitement. Incoming students of the Class of 2015 and their parents have been visiting the University of Iowa in waves over the past several weeks for Freshman Orientation. Until late July, new students can learn about the endless opportunities the University offers at the UI Information Fairs, where dedicated volunteers are representing the UIMA. 

When Dr. Sean O'Harrow visited in the University of Iowa campus on July 20, he said at age 18 his future goal was set: he would become the director of an art museum. While he realized that goal in 2007 when he became the executive director at the Figge Art Museum, he now gets to further develop his dream at a new museum: the University of Iowa Museum of Art. 

Dr. Sean O'Harrow, the second UIMA director candidate to visit the UI campus, said at the age of 18 he had his life goal set: He would become a museum director. In 2007 he realized that dream by becoming the executive director f the Figge Art Museum in Davenport. Dr. O'Harrow, who received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Cambridge, spoke to museum supporters on Tuesday, July 20 about "Issues for leading University Art Museums in the 21st century."

Dr. Kent Lydecker, the first UIMA director candidate to visit the UI campus, began a public forum by making a comparison between the depiction of chickens in works by Grant Wood and Parmigianino (see here, from the recent UIMA exhibition, In the Footsteps of Masters) as a way of demonstrating the importance of an art museum. The former Frederick P. and Sandra P. Rose Associate Director for Education at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York explained that it is within a museum that ideas and conversations come together.