Iowa State’s art collection is fully integrated into campus and curriculum
Written by Brianne Sanchez | Photos by Christopher Gannon
Iowa State’s iconic maidens in the “Fountain of the Four Seasons” (Christian Petersen, 1941) were restored and rededicated last fall. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
Where would you begin a public tour of Iowa State Art on Campus? The university is home to two art museums, a National Historic Landmark site, a public art collection, the library’s 17-foot Grant Wood murals, and a growing sculpture garden.
Try the Food Sciences Building.
Though that choice might seem strange, follow docent Rae Reilly past research and production laboratories into the courtyard and you will encounter one of the jewels of the campus collection. Here, terra cotta bas reliefs created by longtime Iowa State College (now University) artist-in-residence Christian Petersen depict the modernization of dairying technology.
“What do you notice?” Reilly asks the small crowd of lunch-break art tourists. People point to the symmetry of figures and the fountain’s storytelling elements.
Reilly explains how Grant Wood himself invited Petersen to Iowa to participate in the Public Works of Art Project in 1934. That federal New Deal work-relief program spurred an exciting era of aesthetic investments on campus. During the Great Depression, Wood and his contemporaries created an impressive array of art and design for public buildings at Iowa State and elsewhere.
The “History of Dairying” mural (Christian Petersen, 1934) is one of the largest remaining sculptural works of art in the Midwest produced under the federal Public Works of Art Project. In 2015, the Food Sciences Building courtyard also featured a temporary exhibit entitled “Rashomon” by sculptor Chuck Ginnever. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
While a guided tour will illuminate treasures and the tales behind them, simply stepping foot on campus is all it takes to notice how aesthetics are embedded in Iowa State’s landscape, architecture, and public art. In “Campus Beautiful,” a collection of essays discussing Iowa State’s aesthetic identity, art historian Lea Rosson DeLong writes: “From the first president forward, its leaders have wanted lowa State to be an environment where good design and distinguished works of art flourished alongside laboratories and clinics.”
Iowa State’s first museum opened in 1872, soon after Iowa State’s founding. Since then, university leaders, faculty, and staff have worked not only to ensure Iowa State’s education is accessible to all –– a central tenant of the Morrill Act of 1862 –– but that its art is too, even as the collection has grown exponentially.
Rosson DeLong continues: “When lowa State acquired works of art, the institution almost always made sure that these were placed in public spaces, where they could be easily viewed by anyone on campus.”
University Museums, which is celebrating 50 years during the 2024-25 year, carries on a tradition and seeds the future for art on campus.
Made of bamboo, “Undulation” (2020) was constructed as a temporary installation by Marcia Borel (’78) and four floral artists specializing in Japanese design.
Art and the student experience
Essentially, Art on Campus exists to enhance student outcomes. Monet Butler is inspired to help her peers grow in “visual literacy,” a concept championed by mentor Lynette Pohlman (’72, ’76), University Museums director and chief curator.
“I think [my fellow students] just don’t realize that all the sculptures and the public art we have on campus are unusual for a university,” says Butler, the 2024-2025 Pohlman Research Fellow. “People are like: ‘Of course, there’s this giant sculpture here. This is just how Iowa State is.’ We don’t know how lucky we are.”
Butler cites an artist-commissioned light installation –– “Interface” by Catherine Widgery (2021) –– on the third floor of the Student Innovation Center as an example of a stunning work of art hidden in plain sight. That building, like Food Sciences before it, is one of the newest examples of how extensively art is interwoven into the campus. In fact, Iowa State enjoys one of the largest campus public art collections in the country.
“The more engaging and beautiful and interactive and inspiring your environment, the better you will learn,” Pohlman says. Her career on campus has spanned and shaped University Museums, beginning with the restoration of the Farm House Museum as a graduate project in 1971.
“The growth of our campus museums has been organic, but it has also been focused,” Pohlman says. “Where’s the University Museums? It’s in 393 buildings, covers 1,900 acres and includes 30,000 objects –– all administered by one unit, so we can more efficiently and effectively educate with it.”
“Gene Pool” (1991), a tile mosaic by Andrew Leicester, can be found in the Molecular Biology Building. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
The Art on Campus Collection and Program, formalized in 1980, includes acquisition, care, and maintenance in addition to scholarship and educational programming. The University Museums team partners with faculty experts to commission new works, ensuring the public art successfully relates to the discipline it is intended to serve. The Molecular Biology Building, for example, features 54 public works of art that reflect the art, science, and ethics of genetic engineering. After the art is installed, it’s the department’s responsibility to use it within education in their curriculum.
“When Tillage Begins, Other Arts Will Follow” (designed by Grant Wood, 1934) includes eight staircase panels that depict 1930s technology and represent the major divisions of Iowa State College at the time: Agriculture, Engineering, and Home Economics. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
“Education continues to make [an artwork] relevant to multi-generations,” Pohlman says. “Some of our best visual learners on campus are scientists.”
She sees how people working and studying in the Department of Animal Science or Department of Agronomy, for instance, must visually interpret the health of an animal or plants.
“Visual literacy approaches a work of art with the same depth that a scientist would take,” she says. “First, you observe. Then you interpret. And then you get to the point of evaluation.”
Placemaking through public art
Conservation is another critical component of University Museums’ work. Recognizable sculptures, like the recently restored “Fountain of the Four Seasons” (originally designed by Christian Petersen, 1941), create a unique sense of place and hold profound sentimental value for students and alumni alike. They stand like old friends, even after the students and faculty you knew have graduated or retired.
In her remarks at the fountain’s rededication, ISU President Wendy Wintersteen (’88) echoed former ISU President Martin Jischke, saying, “This fountain represents why President Hughes brought Christian Petersen to this campus and why we continue to use the arts today. The arts remain an essential component of Iowa State’s culture and curriculum, adding value and dimension to the educational experience, inspiring creativity and innovation across all programs of study. Students have often observed that the ‘Fountain of the Four Seasons’ represents their four years here at Iowa State, symbolizing their own personal growth and development.”
Generosity beautifies campus
University Museums is headquartered on the upper level of the Scheman Building, next to the Brunnier Art Museum. Named after its benefactors, Henry J. Brunnier (1904) and his wife Ann, the museum was founded in 1975, when the Iowa State Center –– which includes the Scheman Building, C.Y. Stephens Auditorium, Fisher Theater, and Hilton Coliseum –– was being developed.
Senior Vice President for Business and Finance Emeritus Warren Madden (’61) recalls the Brunnier Art Collection arriving by truckload. “These collections showed up, and nobody really knew what the Brunniers had,” he says.
Pohlman was among the team that unpacked more than 4,000 fine objects including ceramics, glass, ivory, jade, enameled metals, and more. Most of University Museums’ collection acquisitions, facilities expansion, programs, exhibitions and publications are privately funded and executed with a small staff.
“Lynette has done an outstanding job nurturing the University Museums program with relatively modest budgets,” Madden says. “I would tell her, ‘We just don’t have the money to go do what you’re trying to do.’ She’d think about it and come back with a modified plan or a different way to get there. Over the years, Lynette has developed close relationships with donors who have a real interest in the museum program.”
Although she isn’t sure what the next 50 years will bring for University Museums, Pohlman says philanthropy will make it possible. A recent estate gift from Joyce Tomlinson Brewer (’53), an art teacher and avid collector, included an endowment to acquire art like the “Met Chandeliers” (designed by Hans Harald Rath for Lobmeyer, 2019) that hang in the newly renovated Scheman Building.
“University Museums is driven by philanthropy,” Pohlman says. “Brewer’s gift, and gifts from other patrons, are transformative for the future of University Museums.”
Personal favorites
We asked the people we spoke with for this story to share which artwork from Iowa State’s expansive art collection they feel most connected to.
Image by University Museums
Wendy Wintersteen: “Do You Know What’s Inside This Flower? George Washington Carver Mentors a Young Henry A. Wallace,” (Rose Frantzen, 2015)
Marcia (’78) and Jim Borel (’78) provided a gift to commission a painting by Rose Frantzen to honor the Iowa State connection between Henry Wallace (1910, 1920) and George Washington Carver (1894, 1896). For President Wendy Wintersteen, who at that time was serving as dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, it was a magical experience to watch Rose bring the relationship of Henry and George alive in her painting –– the mentoring of a child by a young man who came to study at Iowa State University. The two walked in nearby prairies and talked about plants. Later, both became experts in the science of plants and changed the world through their insights and leadership. The painting is in the Dean’s Conference Room in Curtiss Hall. Commissioned by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and University Museums with funds provided by Jim and Marcia Henderson Borel.
As leader of University Museums, Pohlman says her favorite work of art changes depending on the day. She selected Simpson’s sculptures for sentimental reasons. The suite was commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of University Museums. Pohlman says she’s drawn to the combination of art, science, and fantasy Simpson conveys through his work. He is married to former NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, and his planetary-inspired sculptures demonstrate exceptional technical expertise and visionary aesthetics. (Simpson also created a work to honor University Museum’s 25th anniversary.) Commissioned by University Museums for the Faces of Iowa State project. Funded by the Joyce Tomlinson Brewer Fund for Art Acquisition.
Image by University Museums
Warren Madden: “Glass Garden” [Beardshear Hall dome and rotunda], (Marty Grund, 1906, 2003)
In the early 2000s, then-ISU Vice President Warren Madden, alongside his wife, Career Services Director Beverly Madden (’60), and former ISU Vice President George Christensen, donated to support the restoration of the dome and leaded glass installation that encourages everyone who enters Beardshear Hall to look up. “Every day, I got to see that and be part of it when I walked to my office,” Madden says. “In all the construction projects at Iowa State I was around, the preservation guys at Beardshear were the only crew that played classical music while they were doing their work.” Commissioned by the Iowa Art in State Buildings Project with additional financial support from George Christensen, and Beverly and Warren Madden.
Image by University Museums
Rae Reilly: “Janus Agri Altar,” (Beverly Pepper, 1986)
This monumental sculpture in the shape of a double-sided spade has a backstory. The artist, Beverly Pepper, was becoming well-known and had recently been commissioned to create works for the Barcelona Olympics. “She came here as a courtesy,” Reilly explains, with the intention of apologizing in-person to the committee, telling them she couldn’t complete their request. “Lynette brought her [to the Agronomy Hall South Courtyard] late in the afternoon on a beautiful day. At that time, there was an oval of enormous trees. It was just beautiful. And after a little bit, Beverly Pepper started sketching.” The resulting sculpture is part of a body of work that spans the globe. Commissioned by the Iowa Art in State Buildings Program for the Agronomy Building with support from Sevde Transfer.
Image by University Museums
Monet Butler: “Portrait of Zenobia Brumbaugh Ness,” (Rose Frantzen, 2024)
As part of her fellowship, Butler was involved in commissioning a painted portrait to honor Zenobia Brumbaugh Ness within the Faces of Iowa State Collection. Ness was instrumental in advancing art at Iowa State during the Depression. “I was sitting with [curator] Alison Ranniger and Lynette [Pohlman], debating which of three sketches should move forward when I had this moment of ‘Oh my gosh, I’m in the art world right now,’” Butler says. “They’re trusting me to help pick out something that’s going to be in the library installations for the extended future.” Commissioned by University Museums with funding provided by Art Klein.
