With more than twenty changing exhibitions and displays offered each year, there is always something new to discover at the Muscatine Art Center. The two-story Stanley Gallery hosts large exhibitions while smaller displays are presented on the second floor of the historic house and in showcases near the reception desk.
The Muscatine Art Center curates exhibitions using works of art and artifacts from its collection, hosts traveling exhibitions, and collaborates with regional artists, museums, and collectors to spotlight artists and their visions and to tell thought-provoking stories. The organization builds its exhibition schedule to reflect the variety of interests present in the community. Within the two-story Stanley Gallery, interactive displays that appeal to children and families, a juried exhibition, a show of artwork by local elementary students, and a display of historic wedding dresses may be presented within a single year. These exhibitions are typically planned two to four years in advance.
Animals in Art is on view from February 24 through June 16, 2024. Man’s best friend, barnyard creatures, playful kittens, circus animals, and bucking broncos are among the animals portrayed in the Animals in Art exhibition. The exhibition combines the paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures from the Muscatine Art Center’s permanent collection with selections of art pottery on loan from Mark and Marie Latta.
Through his experiences, Cory Christiansen has come to appreciate the fragile and fleeting nature of our existence. Christiansen's exhibition is on view from August 10, 2023 through March 10, 2024 on the second floor of the historic house.
The Mississippi River town of Muscatine produced billions of pearl buttons. By 1905, Muscatine made 37 percent of the world's buttons and earned the title of "Pearl Button Capital of the World."
Some spectacular works of art are currently on view in two rooms on the second floor of the historic house through March 10, 2024. Paintings by Marvin Cone, John Steuart Curry, William Bunn, and Alma Held have been added to the Regionalist Collection in recent years. These artists were all contemporaries of Grant Wood, and they all focused on local subjects. Cone, Bunn, and Held were Iowans with direct connections to Wood. John Steuart Curry, Grant Wood, and Thomas Hart Benton are three major practitioners of American Regionalism, a reaction against European modernist trends.
©2020 Muscatine Art Center. All Rights Reserved. 1314 Mulberry Avenue, Muscatine, Iowa
Website by Applied Art & Technology