Museum Closure Alert

The Stanley Museum of Art will be temporarily closed for two weeks for reinstallation and routine building maintenance starting Thursday, July 11, 2024. We will reopen our doors to the public on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. In the meantime, follow us on social media or visit our website for the latest art news and updates.

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

Write at the Stanley: A Generative Writing Workshop promotional image

Write at the Stanley: A Generative Writing Workshop

Sunday, May 26, 2024 2:30pm to 4:30pm
Stanley Museum of Art
Join us monthly to generate new creative writing inspired by works in the Stanley collection. Each session will be led by a different talented writer from our area, who will be offering a new prompt and a new approach to ekphrastic writing (writing inspired by visual art). Bring your own notebook and pencil or computer and leave with the beginning of a newly written piece. Co-sponsored by Iowa City Poetry. Teen and adult writers in all genres are welcome. Write at the Stanley meets every fourth...
Art & Write Night promotional image

Art & Write Night

Friday, June 7, 2024 6:00pm to 8:00pm
University of Iowa Museum of Natural History
Join the long, rich, historical tradition of artists creating in our spaces. Professional, aspiring, and amateur artists alike, make our museum your muse. The return of this popular program series welcomes guests into the Museum of Natural History's magical gallery spaces after-hours to work on sketching or writing projects with other campus and community artists. Tell a friend, grab a notebook, and join us on the first Friday of each month. We'll provide a new inspo prompt for each session...
Arts Iowa Calendar website retirement promotional image

Arts Iowa Calendar website retirement

Sunday, June 30, 2024 (all day)
Virtual
The University of Iowa is planning to retire the Arts Iowa calendar website effective June 30, 2024. Retiring the Arts Iowa calendar website is necessary because the platform on which the site is built will soon be obsolete and no longer supportable. Additionally, traffic to the site has declined significantly in recent years as users increasingly find event information through the UI Events calendar (events.uiowa.edu) and your respective collegiate and departmental websites. Finally, the...
View more events