April 8 - 10, 2022

The Grant Wood Art Colony at the University of Iowa will host a compelling series of presentations investigating 20^th-21^st-century artists who, like Grant Wood, extended their practice to creating distinctive homes and studios.  They will explore how these environments reflect or shape an artist’s output and how they can be considered independent works in their own right. This three-day-long symposium will explore the intersections of home, creativity, and identity. Our prototype is Grant Wood, who renovated a hayloft into a studio and home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and restored and furnished a significant mid-nineteenth-century historic home in Iowa City where he lived and worked.

A call for papers held in spring 2020 generated great interest and an excellent program of diverse scholars. Speakers will present new research about contemporary or historic figures who created unique homes and/or studios. 

Learn more about Grant Wood's Cedar Rapids studio, affectionately called "5 Turner Alley," by visiting the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art's website.

LOCATIONS

• Art Building West on the University of Iowa Campus
  141 North Riverside Drive, Iowa City, Iowa 52246
  Parking is available behind the building, around the Theatre Building, and the Hancher Lot (55)
• Grant Wood's Studio
  5 Turner Alley SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402
• The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
  410 3rd Ave SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401

SCHEDULE

Click on the titles to learn more about the speakers and their research. Links to each session's recording can be found beneath each session description. Otherwise, recordings of the entire Symposium can be found by visiting this YouTube playlist.

Friday, April 8
240 Art Building West

3:00 p.m. Welcome

Maura Pilcher, Director, Grant Wood Art Colony
Nick Benson, Director, Office of Community Engagement
Barbara Wilson, President, University of Iowa

3:40-5:30 p.m.    Keynote: Creativity on the Home Front

• Opening remarks by  Wanda Corn
• Valerie Balint, "Yesterday and Tomorrow: Re-framing the Historic Artists' Homes and Studios Program"
• Joni Kinsey, “Grant Wood’s Studio-Homes: From Hayloft to Mansion, Overalls to Hollywood"

Click here to see a recording of the keynote presentation. (Note: Due to a technical difficulty, this session was recorded at a later date.)

6:30-8:00 p.m. All attendee reception at Tomás Lasansky Studio.

Saturday, April 9
240 Art Building West

9:30 a.m. Opening Remarks

Jim Hayes, President, Grant Wood Art Colony National Advisory Board

9:50-11:35 a.m.    Session 1: The Art that is Life

Chair Tripp Evans

• Olivia Armandroff, "Tiling a Life: Henry Chapman Mercer and His Fonthill Castle"
• Michael Clapper, "Living the Dream: Maxfield Parrish and The Oaks"
• Karen Zukowski, "The Past and Future of Henry Varnum Poor's Crow House"
  • Download the petition to save the Crow House here.
• Q&A, moderated by Tripp Evans

Click here to view a recording of Session 1: The Art that is Life.

1:15-2:30 p.m.    Session 2: Visionaries

Chair Jane Milosch

• Lisa Stone, "Home Based and Life-Specific: Artist-Built Environments"
• Zac Bleicher, "Edgar Miller's Handmade Homes and Studios of Interwar Chicago"
• Q&A, moderated by Jane Milosch

Click here to view a recording of Session 2: Visionaries.

2:45-4:10p.m.    Session 3: Labors of Love

Chair Lauren Lessing

• Sarah Rovang, "'Thinking on a Wall': Home, Space, and the Creative Practice of Georgia O'Keeffe"
• Daniel Belasco, "The Artist as Builder: Al Held's Barn Studio, 1965-2005"
• Q&A, moderated by Lauren Lessing

Click here to view a recording of Session 3: Labors of Love.

Sunday, April 10
Grant Wood's Studio*

11:00 a.m.    Grant Wood Studio House open for tours for Symposium attendees

Cedar Rapids Museum of Art*

12:30-2:00 p.m.    Closing Plenary

Chair Valerie Balint

• Sean Ulmer, “The Grant Wood Studio: A Space Transformed and Transformational”
• Victoria Munro, "Alice Austen House"
• Helen Harrison, "'The country is wonderful,' Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner in The Springs"
• Closing Remarks by Valerie Balint

Click here to view the closing plenary.

Support provided by the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

 

 

Dedicated to telling a site-specif ic story of our country's art history