The Stanley Museum of Art in Iowa City celebrated its grand opening on Friday, Aug. 26, with a ribbon-cutting at 3 p.m. After the event, visitors enjoyed tours of the building and its galleries as well as live entertainment. Photo courtesy of BNIM.
It’s here! The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art is now open to the public in Iowa City. Following historic flooding in 2008, the UI Museum of Art was closed and its exhibits scattered. After 14 years, the newly built Stanley Museum will reunite the city with the world-class collection.
A grand opening celebration took place over the weekend of Aug. 26-28 following the official ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony Aug. 26. Remarks came from UI President Barbara Wilson and museum director Lauren Lessing. Guests took tours of the new facilities and the inaugural exhibit, “Homecoming,” and enjoyed food trucks, live music and art activities in the museum and Gibson Square Park. Watch a livestream of the event here. “Homecoming” will remain on display through July 2025.
With more than 150,000 square feet of glass and over 200,000 black bricks, the modern building designed by Rod Kruse of BNIM in Des Moines stands proudly on the banks of the Iowa River. Top attractions include “Mural,” a 1943 work by Jackson Pollack, and the stunning new floor-to-ceiling mural “Surround” by Odili Donald Odita. The Nigerian-born abstract painter was raised in Iowa City and his father studied printmaking under artist Mauricio Lasansky.
Find the museum at 160 W. Burlington St. Hours for the free museum are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Sundays from noon to 4:30 p.m. To learn more about the museum and plan your next visit, click here.
