student blog

Along with the Stanley's belief in getting students into and engaged with the museum physically, we also believe students should have a space to share their research, creative projects, writing, and other achievements, expertise, and thoughts about art, art history, and the Stanley with their peers. 

The Stanley Student Blog will not only serve as a way to make our events accessible, but also to preserve the work that students do;  their work isn't gone once the event they helped coordinate is over or their employment ends, but lives on here, for future students to engage with days, weeks, months, or maybe even years later. 

If you're interested in contributing to our blog in some type of way, please reach out to Assistant Curator of Student Engagement Allie Tokarski at allison-tokarski@uiowa.edu. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the art on display at the Stanley, the work you're doing related to the Stanley or the arts community on campus, or how the arts are impacting your time here at Iowa. 

A photo of two valentine's craft bags and their contents: candies, blank valentines, ribbons, stickers, and more.

Night at the Museum: A Week of HeARTs

Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Our first Night at the Museum for the spring semester was a slightly different one--we hosted a week-long drop-in event over Valentine's Day week. Read this blog post for more information about how it played out!
A photo of Katharine with a grey background.

Graduate Assistant of Collections & Exhibitions: Katharine Cummings

Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Click here to learn more about Katharine Cummings, the Stanley Museum of Art's Graduate Assistant of Collections & Exhibitions.
The front cover of the printmaking tour, with green polkadots.

Printmaking Self-Guided Tour

Monday, February 10, 2025
As part of her internship, Campus Engagement Coordinator Annelies Knight created a self-guided tour that explores printmaking techniques. Check out this blog post to learn more about Annelies's process and see the final result--or swing by the front desk and grab a copy!
Two MLK murals, hung on the slatted wall in the Stanley's lobby.

Art & Expression Day at the Stanley Museum of Art

Friday, January 31, 2025
On Thursday, January 23 (day 4 of MLK Week), the Stanley Museum of Art hosted an all day art workshop in collaboration with students at the African American Cultural Center. The program, Art and Expression, was led by different mural artists throughout the day and focused on creating a collaborative mural on large sheets of paper that reflected the themes of justice, equality, and unity that Dr. King championed throughout his life. Students and museum visitors were invited to participate and express ideas of social justice through art. Read this blog post for more info!
A smiling woman with blonde hair.

Museum Studies Intern Spring 2025: Amelia Enskat

Monday, January 27, 2025
Click here to learn more about Amelia Enskat and the work she will do as Museum Studies Intern within the Learning & Engagement department at the Stanley Museum of Art during the Spring 2025 semester.
A photo of a student, in profile, working on their sewing project; fabrics, sewing supplies, and other materials are scattered in front of them on a table covered with a blue gingham tablecloth.

Night at the Museum: Stress-Relief Patchworking

Monday, November 18, 2024
For our November installment of Night at the Museum, we hosted a stress-relief patch making workshop. Students were welcomed to join us and create their own pieces of fabric art on tote bags or pencil cases or their own textile goods. Click here to learn more about how the event went!
A graphic comprised of four movie posters on a red-purple gradient background.

Recap of Refocus Film Festival from Museum Programs Intern Abbie McLaren

Monday, October 28, 2024
Museum Programs Intern Abbie McLaren attended FilmScene's 3rd Annual Refous Film Festival in Iowa City this October with a pass received through FilmScene's partnership with the Stanley. She watched a total of four films--check out this post for Abbie's thoughts on "Nightbitch," "Pavements," "Aelita: Queen of Mars," and "Plastic."
A close up of a student working on assembling their cyanotype; they are laying various materials on top of the blue paper.

Night at the Museum: Cyanotype Photograms

Thursday, October 17, 2024
For our second installment of Night at the Museum this academic year, we hosted a making workshop focused on cyanotypes. Students were able to stop by the Stanley on Thursday night to create cyanotypes with us, or they could instead opt to pick up a take-home bag with all the materials and instructions to make their cyanotype photograms at home by themselves. Click here to learn more about how this event went!
A photo of the entire setup: approximately one dozen printed blue paper bags are lined up along the top of a table, waiting to dry, set above a bottle of white ink, a plate with white ink on it, the ink covered linoleum block, an inked up brayer, and a clean brayer that has been used to apply pressure to the back of the plate to help transfer the ink.

DIY Block Printing

Monday, October 7, 2024
The creative component of our September Night at the Museum event with student org Hawk the Vote involved making political inspired block prints with event attendees. After this event, we decided to use the same process to stamp the take-home-kit bags for our October event. If you are interested in learning how to make your own block prints to decorate your clothes, bags, or walls with, read this blog post for information about how we designed and made ours!