Make the Stanley your study spot for finals week. We'll have free coffee, lemonade, punch, and snacks available all day Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (10 a.m.–4 p.m.). Stop by for a few hours to study for your exams: grab a snack, replenish your study supplies (we'll have post-its, highlighters, and more) and take a quick break—either by exploring the galleries or playing with a fidget toy.

Following the grand opening of To My Friends at Horn: Keith Haring and Iowa City, the Stanley Museum of Art invites you to a special event dedicated to the students of Horn Elementary School! Keith Haring painted the mural, A Book Full of Fun, especially for students to inspire them and show them that art is for everyone. This Sunday, we welcome students, staff, families, and friends from Horn Elementary and all schools across Iowa to celebrate Keith Haring's legacy and his connection to Iowa...

Join us for the grand opening of the exhibition, To My Friends at Horn: Keith Haring and Iowa City. Opening on Keith Haring’s birthday, this exhibition celebrates the artist’s legacy and 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...

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...

This unique and hands-on program integrates art viewing, art making and mindfulness strategies to provide students with tools to de-stress, manage anxiety, and develop wellness practices. During the 2-hour workshop, participants will learn new ways to improve well-being, while benefiting from the positive effects of viewing and making art. No prior art making experience necessary. The workshop will be led by Dana Keeton, a local board-certified art therapist and licensed mental health...

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...

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...

On your day off from school, stop at the Stanley to create an art project and enjoy snacks in our lobby. Then, head up to the galleries to try your hand at our scavenger hunts and find a new favorite artwork. Create unique and beautiful designs using textured plates and sharpies! Kids will press the textured plates onto very thin sheets of copper to combine different textures. Then, they will experiment with different colored sharpies to complete their artwork. Please allow 30 minutes to...

The Stanley Museum of Art is thrilled to host artist Tommy Kha for the next artist talk on Thursday, April 18 at 6:30 p.m. The talk, marked by the recent acquisition of two of Kha's works, is followed by a conversation with Visiting Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Diana Tuite. Attendees will be invited to view Kha's work firsthand in the galleries following the event.

Image credit: Chihongo (male face mask), Chokwe style. Early to mid-20th century. Wood, cotton, bark, raffia. 11 1/2  x 9  x 10 3/4 in. University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, The Stanley Collection of African Art, X1990.598 SAAH Visiting Scholar Professor Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz will join Professors T.J. Dedeaux-Norris (Associate Professor, SAAH) and Beatrice Mkenda (Associate Professor of Instruction, French and Italian), and Dr. Cory Gundlach (Curator of African Art, SMA) for a workshop on...

Join us for our next installment of Night at the Museum—a series of monthly events for students that occur Thursday nights, when the museum is open late.  This month, we're partnering with Campus Activities Board (CAB) to host a paint-and-sip-style creative workshop led by Amanda Lensing! Lensing will lead attendees in creating their own pastel-and-watercolor masterpiece, inspired by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's work. This event has a limited capacity; we encourage you to RSVP at this link t...

A Virtual Curator Talk with Eric Ensley and Emily Martin Join Eric Ensley and Emily Martin, co-curators of Making the Book, Past and Present, for a behind-the-scenes look at their Main Library Gallery exhibition. Find out how they decided which Special Collections & Archives materials to share with visitors, discover more about some of the curators' favorite items, and learn why it is so important to show modern book art in conversation with historic books.  Registration is required to attend...

On your day off from school, stop at the Stanley to create an art project and enjoy snacks in our lobby. Then, head up to the galleries to try your hand at our scavenger hunts and find a new favorite artwork. This week, collage your own robot! We will provide a base and a variety of materials. Gear up your creativity and imagination to create a unique robot! Please allow 30 minutes to complete the art project. No registration required.

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...

This unique and hands-on program integrates art viewing, art making and mindfulness strategies to provide students with tools to de-stress, manage anxiety, and develop wellness practices. During the 2-hour workshop, participants will learn new ways to improve well-being, while benefiting from the positive effects of viewing and making art. No prior art making experience necessary. The workshop will be led by Dana Keeton, a local board-certified art therapist and licensed mental health...

Dr. Boureima Diamitani and Dr. Samuel Nortey will explore the historical, political, educational, and gendered dimensions surrounding ceramic pottery in West Africa today. Diamitani’s research addresses challenges around the (mis-)representation, production, and restitution of pottery among Senufo communities in Burkina Faso, while Nortey’s work examines ceramics as an agent of community cohesion, social inclusion, and cultural heritage preservation in Ghana. Together, the presentations and...

The program will be held in the Stanley Museum of Art Visual Classroom on the 3rd floor. Due to space limitations, reservations are required. Please reserve your spot here. Please join us for an artist talk by Molly Jae Vaughan. This talk concludes Vaughan’s weeklong residency at the Stanley Museum of Art in collaboration with the Theatre Department, the Printmaking Program, Iowa Print Group, and the LGBTQ Iowa Archives and Library to complete the 23rd garment in her Project 42. Since 2012...

Join Melinda Myers, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Dance and Choreography, for a fun Prompt for the Planet workshop that lets you connect with nature through art!  Whether you're an experienced artist or just starting to dip your toes into the world of creativity, this workshop is open to all skill levels. Space is limited!  Please register at https://uiowa.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5tmleArm2C7Lnds

Join us for a conversation about the deep impact leading mid-century visual artists played on the choreographic vision of Martha Graham. The conversation will give special emphasis to the work of Isamu Noguchi, who designed the set for Errand into the Maze and Alexander Calder, who designed mobiles for Graham’s Panorama—both will be performed on the Martha Graham Dance Company presentation at Hancher Auditorium on March 29.

This lecture looks at the continuing life and uses of some very old books in and outside of the Making the Book, Past and Present exhibition. Starting from one of the biggest in both scale and edition size, the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, which was printed from hundreds of woodcut blocks, to others containing mystical puzzles or movable parts, no two copies of a pre-modern book were ever the same. This look at annotating, collecting, and censoring them, as well as keeping things in them will show...