7th Biennial Symposium of the Grant Wood Art Colony at the University of Iowa presents

A Home and Studio of One’s Own

Symposium Dates: Friday-Saturday, October 16-17, 2020.

Location: School of Art and Art History, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa

The Grant Wood Art Colony at the University of Iowa seeks paper proposals investigating 20th-21st-century artists who, like Grant Wood, extended their practice to creating distinctive homes and studios.  Do these environments reflect or shape an artist’s output, or might we consider them independent works in their own right?  What role do these spaces play in an artist’s self-fashioning? 

We are looking for new work about contemporary or historic figures who created unique homes and/or studios. Selected speakers will provide 20-minute presentations or may propose panels that utilized a similar timeframe per participant that address the symposium’s topic. We encourage proposals from artists, art historians, decorative arts specialists, along with any others who can bring a fresh angle of vision on this understudied topic.

This two-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.

Proposals will be peer-reviewed. Speakers invited to present papers will receive a stipend to use for travel and overnight accommodation. Every participant is expected to participate fully in the two-day event.

Proposals should consist of a single PDF or Word file containing the following:

  • presenter’s name, email address, and institutional affiliation (if relevant)
  • title of presentation
  • format of presentation (lecture, paper, panel, performance)
  • brief biographical information of presenter(s) or one-page CV (Please do not send a full CV.)
  • proposal of less than 800 words
  • brief bibliography or list of sources (as relevant)
  • anticipated AV needs and any other logistical or technical requirements

Please submit a proposal via electronic mail to Maura Pilcher, grantwood@uiowa.edu  by March 1, 2020.