east front of museum with sky reflected in the glass

Visit

Our beautiful building is a cultural and social center where you can explore, unwind, meet, and create. Everyone is welcome.

Plan Your Visit
Two students thoughtfully viewing artwork

Explore

Spark your curiosity with something new or stop by and see your old favorites.                                                                                                                                  

Collections
A group of three university students look at a large African mask

Discover

The world-class art collection provides exciting opportunities for teaching, learning, and research.                                                                            

Learn More
Two women sitting on a green couch having a conversation

Connect

There’s always something exciting going on at your art museum. Find out what’s coming up on the calendar.

Engage

Gallery Hours

Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
Wednesday: 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
Thursday: 10 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
Friday: 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m.–​​​​​​​4:30 p.m.​​​​​​​
Sunday: 12:00–4:30 p.m.

Admission to the museum building will end 5 minutes before gallery closing.

Office Hours

Monday: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Tuesday: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Wednesday: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Thursday: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Friday: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Saturday: Closed
Sunday: Closed

Haring exhibition image

To My Friends at Horn: Keith Haring and Iowa City

May 4, 2024 - January 7, 2025

Inaugurated on Keith Haring’s (1958–1990) birthday, this exhibition celebrates the revolutionary graffiti artist's ties to Iowa City. It also honors the many individuals who shaped his visits to Iowa City during the 1980s. The 1989 mural Haring painted for Ernest Horn Elementary School, which is on loan to the Stanley Museum of Art during the school’s renovation, anchors the exhibition and is accompanied by other works of art, photographs, and archival ephemera.

Print "Copyist at the Metropolitan" by John Sloan

A Year in Print

March 1, 2024 - December 2024

This exhibition will feature Twelve Prints by Contemporary American Artists, a portfolio recently gifted to the Stanley by collectors Alan and Ann January. 

Text reading "Coming Home Coming Home" side by side with the left part of a large abstract painting with swirls of yellow, pink, teal, and light greenish blue, amid longer, vertical, curved black lines that have a quality of dance-like movement.

Homecoming

August 26, 2022–July 2025

The Stanley's inaugural exhibition, Homecoming,  reintroduces visitors to the museum's extraordinary collection. Homecoming comprises a series of related installations: “Generations,” which will foreground the University of Iowa’s history of innovative arts education and scholarship; “Fragments of the Canon,” featuring African art collected by a Black Iowan, Meredith Saunders; and “History Is Always Now,” in which the Stanley’s celebrated collection of African art will be displayed in a new way that emphasizes movement and cultural exchange through time and across space.

Aerial view of museum with campus recreation center on left and Main Library on right

The Building

Nestled between the Main Library and Campus Recreation and Wellness Center on the west side of Gibson Square Park, the new Stanley Museum of Art is a hub of learning and research for the University of Iowa and the state. The three-story, state-of-the-art building, designed by BNIM of Des Moines, Iowa, includes a range of flexible spaces for research, education, and exhibitions, and is ideally suited to serve as a center for interdisciplinary teaching, discovery, and community building.

Upcoming Events

Staged Reading of SANKO FA by Isaac Addai promotional image

Staged Reading of SANKO FA by Isaac Addai

Saturday, May 18, 2024 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Stanley Museum of Art
SANKO FA is a story that explores the complexity of identity and legacy: a struggling artist is presented with the opportunity to ascend to stardom if he completes a series of labors for a mysterious benefactor, leaving him at a crossroads.  Isaac Addai will conduct a reading of the play in the Museums Visual Classroom with objects from the collection on display.  SANKO FA is a solo performance play that is still being workshopped. The content for the story was inspired by the Asante artifacts...
Sunday With the Docents: What is a “Print?” promotional image

Sunday With the Docents: What is a “Print?”

Sunday, May 19, 2024 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Stanley Museum of Art
Join us at the Stanley Museum of Art on May 19 at noon for our inaugural Sundays with the Docents tour where Stanley docents create unique tours to share with our audiences throughout the year. What is a “Print?” will be led by Docent and former Adjunct Assistant Professor in Printmaking, Deanne Wortman. Deanne will share her experiences in the amazing world of printmaking. Visitors will examine printmaking history, materials, processes, and artists while being led through a tour of some of...
Drawing Salon with Robert Caputo promotional image

Drawing Salon with Robert Caputo

Sunday, May 19, 2024 2:00pm to 3:30pm
Stanley Museum of Art
The Drawing Salon focuses on drawing artworks from the museum's collection. Each session will focus on a different artwork. The sessions will begin with an introduction and discussion of the selected work. Participants will be encouraged to pursue their own visions and to take inspiration from the artworks in the gallery. Pencils and sketchbooks/paper are the only artmaking materials allowed in the galleries. The museum has golf pencils with erasers and clipboards for participants to use...
View more events