Ciraj Rassool, PhD is Senior Professor of Historical Studies at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, and director of the African Programme in Museum and Heritage Studies. He has published widely on changing old museums & making new museums, race in museums, restitution, political movements and the politics of nonracialism. He served on the boards of the District Six Museum & Iziko Museums of South Africa and is a member of the South African National Advisory Board for Restitution...

Join us at the Stanley Museum of Art for the 2025 Bette R. Spriestersbach Endowed Lectureship, featuring Siddhartha V. Shah, PhD, and John Wieland 1958 Director at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. Our Wounds and Our Weapons: Artmaking in India as Liberatory Practice, 1947 to TodayIndependence from British rule in 1947 signaled the end of nearly 350 years of British occupation, leaving the people of India to grapple with tremendous trauma and the task of building a nation that was...

Join us at the Stanley Museum of Art for insightful talks by artists Sonya Clark and Taiye Idahor, followed by a conversation with Cory Gundlach, Curator of African Art.Both Clark and Idahor, whose works are included in the Stanley’s collection, explore critical themes of identity, memory, and cultural heritage through their art, with a shared interest in the visual and symbolic power of hair. Their multidisciplinary approaches, spanning sculpture, textiles, and more, create compelling...

Join us at the Stanley Museum of Art for a talk featuring artist and UIowa alumnus, Bruce Dorfman. Three works by Dorfman will be on view in the Visual Classroom. About the artist:  Bruce Dorfman has had 60 solo exhibitions in New York, across the U.S.and abroad. He is represented by: June Kelly Gallery, NYC; Carrie Chen Gallery, Great Barrington, MA; and Elizabeth Clement Fine Art, Boston/Miami/NYC, where he will continue to have solo exhibitions during 2025. His very first solo exhibition...

Join artist, innovator, designer and UIowa alum Suzanne Tick for two insightful conversations about her work. What Now?  Wednesday, March 20 | 6 p.m. |E125 Visual Arts Building What Now? will feature the ever-changing discussion of evolution, connectivity with the world around us, and what is relevant for the time as we move forward as creatives in a post-Covid world. Making Materials Matter Thursday, March 21 | 6:30 p.m. |240 Art Building West Making Materials Matter is a visual journey...

Join us for a thought-provoking conversation between the artist behind “Spirit Dance,” Nnenna Okore, and environmental historian Robert Rouphail at the Stanley Museum of Art on November 16, 2023. Their insights will inspire and challenge you to think about the relationship between art, the environment and social justice. In her conversation with Rouphail, Okore will discuss her process for creating her work as well as the themes and inspirations behind it. She will also talk about how her work...

Join the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s head curator, Randall Griffey, as he discusses Alice Neel’s 1967 painting The Black Boys, on loan to the Stanley from the Tia Collection in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Griffey, who co-curated the blockbuster exhibition Alice Neel: People Come First, which opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2021, will share insights into Neel’s work and career and discuss how this exhibition helped the Met widen and diversify its audience. Randall Griffey is the new...

Funded by the Henry Luce Foundation and organized by curator Cory Gundlach, this is the first in a series of programs featuring contemporary artists working in Africa and the United States that are represented in Homecoming, the Stanley’s inaugural installation. Both Youmbi—a Cameroonian artist who lives and works in Douala—and Cole—an American sculptor, printer, and perceptual engineer—make works that respond to and build upon African art-making traditions while interrogating the colonial...

This event has been canceled. We are working to find a new time when Pamela Franks can come to campus. Academic museums are uniquely positioned to act as catalysts in higher education, to serve as bridges between campuses and communities, and to enhance the future of museums. How can we unlock the particular potential of campus museums in our evolving world? Focusing on the early planning of a new building for the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) as a case study, this talk explores how...

Groundbreaking painter, Iowa alumnus, and founding member of the Black Artists Group, Oliver Lee Jackson presents "The Alchemy of Making," a public talk at the Stanley. Jackson's five-decade career began at Iowa and now his monumental Painting (4.78-I) and Painting (4.78-II) are proudly featured at the Stanley Museum of Art in Gallery 6 as part of Homecoming. Please join us to meet the artist and and learn more about his career and artistic process.  If you are not able to attend in person...

Nina Roth-Wells holds a BA in French and art history from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and an MA in art conservation, specializing in painted surfaces, from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. For over 20 years Roth-Wells has been a conservator in private practice in the state of Maine. She conserves paintings for both museum clients and private collectors. In addition to her conservation work, Roth-Wells is passionate about conservation education. She teaches professional...

Generations of Myaamia people produced beautiful minohsayaki ‘painted hides’ in order to wrap their relatives in visual representations of familial love. This artistic practice waned in the 1700s, but examples of minohsayaki survive in European archives. This presentation summarizes the work of a team of citizens of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma as well as non-tribal allies to reconnect with existing painted hides and reclaim the practice of hide...

Anita Fields will give the 2022–23 Jeanne and Richard Levitt Lecture. Born in Oklahoma, Anita Fields is a contemporary Native American multi-disciplinary artist of Osage heritage. She is known for her works which combine clay and textile with Osage knowledge systems. Her work examines the intricacies of cultural influences at the intersections of balance and chaos found within our existence. Fields' work can be found in several collections, such as the Museum of the American Indian...

Heidi Wiren Bartlett is an interdisciplinary performance artist from the Great Plains. Her film, Downriver, is part of the Stanley's Homecoming exhibition and on view during the fall semester. Bartlett will be in conversation with Joyce Tsai, director of the Clyfford Still Museum of Art and former chief curator of the Stanley Museum of Art, about the film. If you are not able to attend in person, the talk will be live streamed at: https://uiowa.zoom.us/j/97041684178 Join us in advance for a 3...

Reception for Downriver, a film commissioned by the Stanley Museum of Art in 2019 and on view in Gallery 8. Film director Heidi Wiren Barlett will give an introduction and Joyce Tsai, who worked with Bartlett on the commission, will discuss the work. Join us later in the evening for Source and Flow: A Conversation between Joyce Tsai and Heidi Wiren Bartlett about Downriver. 7 p.m., Art Building West.