UI Grant Wood Art Colony hosts Grant Wood Symposium, Oct. 28-29

This year’s theme is “Myth, Memories, and the Midwest: Grant Wood and Beyond”
Thursday, October 20, 2016

Scholars from across the country will convene at Art Building West on the University of Iowa’s campus Oct. 28-29 for the fifth biennial Grant Wood Symposium to address topics from humor to camouflage. To honor Wood’s 125th birthday, this year’s theme is “Myth, Memories, and the Midwest: Grant Wood and Beyond.” The symposium, hosted by the Grant Wood Art Colony, will culminate with a special showing of the new documentary, 1142, at the Englert Theatre in downtown Iowa City on Saturday night.

The mission of the Grant Wood Art Colony is to nurture creative work and teaching in disciplines relevant to the art and life of Grant Wood—studio art, art history, and the performing arts. The program exemplifies the UI’s commitment to creative work and pioneering of the MFA degree. The Grant Wood Art Colony further embodies the "Iowa Idea" of bringing artists and scholars together in an academic context.

All are welcome to participate and engage leading professionals in art history and listen to their original research. The symposium commences with a keynote address from Dr. Erika Doss, University of Notre Dame, titled "Screwball Regionalism: Grant Wood and Humor During the Great Depression." Then, experts will present the following papers from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday at Art Building West:

  • Grant Wood and the After-Life of Victorian Architecture, Kerry Dean Carso, State University of New York at New Paltz
  • On Common Ground: Grant Wood and the photography of the Farm Security Administration, James Swensen, Brigham Young University
  • "Something of color and imagination": Grant Wood, Storytelling, and the Past's Appeal in Depression-Era America, Annelise K. Madsen, Art Institute of Chicago
  • Grant Wood’s Regionalist Camouflage, Jason Weems, University of California, Riverside
  • In Springtime: Myth and Memory in Grant Wood's Last Paintings, Sue Taylor, Portland State University

Dr. Wanda Corn, professor emerita in Art History at Stanford University, and Dr. Joni Kinsey, professor in Art History at UI, will moderate discussions throughout the day. 

“The symposium explores new perspectives on an artist who continues to attract scholars from a variety of disciplines,” Corn says. “There is still much to learn about Wood’s impact on culture now and then.”

“What is unique about the symposium is that it is contextualized within the Grant Wood Art Colony that supports artists-in-residence at the university who are at the start of their careers, soon to enter into this country’s art history,” Kinsey adds.

A detailed schedule, including abstracts and presenter biographies, is available at grantwood.uiowa.edu.

The public also is encouraged to attend a special viewing of the documentary 1142 at the Englert Theatre at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Grant Wood affectionately called his Iowa City home "1142," due to its location at 1142 E. Court St. Wood moved into 1142 in 1935 while teaching at the UI. During the next two years, Wood made the house his own through extensive renovation. He designed his own furniture, restored historic features, and changed the landscaping. Wood created many lithographs while at the house, including those for the Associated American Artists, and he featured 1142 in Parson Weems' Fable in 1939. Wood lived in this home and continued to teach at the UI until his death in 1942. He is said to have considered his restoration of 1142 as his finest artistic achievement. This documentary features not only his residence at 1142, but also the other influential people who have lived at that address.

The Grant Wood Symposium is free and open to the public. While not required, attendees are encouraged to register at https://grantwood.uiowa.edu/symposium/2016-symposium-registration.

Support for the Grant Wood Symposium provided by the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, and private donations to University of Iowa Foundation. Anyone interested in supporting this and other Grant Wood Art Colony activities can visit https://grantwood.uiowa.edu/giving for more information.

The Grant Wood Art Colony is a part of the UI Provost’s Office of Outreach & Engagement. The Office seeks to foster connections between faculty, staff, students, and communities. They facilitate collaboration among the multitude of outreach and engagement efforts on campus and connect programs with the state of Iowa. In addition to the Grant Wood Art Colony, there are five other programs in the Office: Arts Share, Hawkeye Lunch & Learn lecture series, Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities, RC&D Partnership, and Theme Semester. The office is open 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information visit outreach.uiowa.edu.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa–sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Hailey Courtney in advance at hailey-courtney@uiowa.edu.

The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.