Historic Art Building center of UI creativity

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

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Those walking past the former Art Building's entrance facing the Iowa River can see a Latin phrase etched above the door: Ars longa/vita brevis est.

"Art endures/life is short."

It has been nearly 90 years since the old Art Building - located at 120 N. Riverside Drive next to the Performing Arts Annex - was constructed on the University of Iowa campus. Once the creative home of several important artists, the building has sat vacant since it underwent extreme flooding in 2008.

"The Art Building's design anchored campus and became the foreground of our efforts on other buildings," says Rod Lehnertz, senior vice president for finance and operations. "We display the creativity of our campus and community, and that creativity's birthplace in many ways is the Art Building. We are rich in the arts, proud of the arts, and the Art Building displays that."

Bringing together art and art history under one roof

In the late 1800s, the UI began planning for an expansion of campus with additions to the west side of the Iowa River. Lehnertz says this expansion involved projects with the federal government to complete work on the Iowa River to protect against flooding.

While making plans for the arts campus on the west side, an idea was sparked to create a space where art and art history would be taught under one roof. This then-revolutionary concept was coined the Iowa Idea.

"Virtually every university now has the Iowa Idea as part of its history, and it put Iowa on the map on an international scope for art and art history," Lehnertz says.

The Art Building was designed by renowned university architect George Homer, who Lehnertz says was not only the first UI architect but one of the first architects for any university in the country.

Upon its completion in 1936, the building spanned 53,200 square feet over four floors, including two detached studios connected to the main building by outdoor hallways called loggias. Lehnertz says the symmetrical design of the building is like that of President Thomas Jefferson's Monticello residence.

The first classes took place in the building in fall 1936, and the schools of Art and Art History officially merged in 1938. The building was also among the first nonmedical building on the west side of the UI campus.

In addition to the Art Building, the Theatre Building was constructed in 1937 to further advance the arts campus. The bridge next to the Iowa Memorial Union was also built at this time to make it easier for students to cross the river.

Famed faculty, students walked the halls

Perhaps the most well-known person to have walked through the Art Building's halls was Grant Wood, painter of the iconic American Gothic. Wood was born in Anamosa, Iowa, and spent most of his life in Cedar Rapids.

"Grant Wood was considered a world-renowned regional artist," Lehnertz says. "He was doing work from what he knew, from the farmlands of Iowa where he grew up. He knew that way of life. He was also a muralist, and there are many examples of frescoes and wall art that he painted at the state capitol and other places in Iowa."

In 1934, Wood came to the UI as a faculty member, where he taught classes on mural design, working out of the detached studios on the north end of the building.

As part of his footprint on the UI's art program, Wood taught students how to create frescoes - permanent paintings the artist creates by putting color directly into plaster - on the walls of Art Building's lower level, Lehnertz says.

Wood taught at Iowa until 1942, the same year he died in Iowa City.

"As we continue to open the building, we will continue to honor Grant Wood's memory and his impact by honoring his studio space," Lehnertz says.

In addition to Wood, other prominent faculty over the years included printmaker Mauricio Lasansky, printer and painter Philip Guston, historian Lester Longman, painter Byron Burford, and intermedia artist Hans Breder.

Students who took classes in the Art Building also went on to create famous works, including feminist multimedia artist Miriam Schapiro, Museum of Modern Art deputy curator Riva Castleman, multimedia artist Ana Mendieta, contemporary sculptor Charles Ray, and sculptor Elizabeth Catlett. Catlett was the first African American to be awarded a Master of Fine Arts in the United States, and Catlett Residence Hall is named in her honor.

Shuttered by the flood

In 2008, a historic flood impacted much of the UI campus.

"The campus shook when the flood came and 22 buildings were taken underwater, one-sixth of campus," Lehnertz says. "Only a month and a half later, the university would welcome the largest class in university history. The Art Building was 'just one of the buildings,' but the arts campus was most impacted. The School of Art and Art History and School of Music were taken out of their spaces for more than seven years."

After the flood, crews razed water-damaged additions of the building that had been added in the 1960s to accommodate the growing School of Art and Art History. That left only the original building still standing after the UI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency worked together to preserve it.

Although the building's lower level took on water, the frescoes created by the students remain, and the UI plans to celebrate and protect them for years to come, Lehnertz says.

Since the 2008 flood, a lot of work has taken place on campus to protect against future flooding, such as elevated walkways on both sides of the river, pumping systems set up in the Art Building's lower level, and storing HESCO barriers that can be quickly placed around buildings in the event of major flooding.

Since the flood, the Art Building has remained vacant. The School of Art, Art History, and Design moved into Art Building West - which closed after the flood and reopened in 2012 - and the Visual Arts Building, constructed in 2016.

A new life

Over the years, several plans have been proposed for the next phase of the historic building's life on campus.

Now, the UI is seeking approval from the Iowa Board of Regents at its November meeting to restore and renovate the Art Building, with plans for the space to become the new home of the Graduate College, the College of Education's Art Education and Makerspace, and the School of Planning and Public Affairs.

"With the modernization of the building, first and foremost, we will be reverent to its history and how it looks," Lehnertz says. "It's been 16 years since the building was occupied, and it looks frozen in time from the summer of 2008. It's a sad thing to see today, but what is about to emerge from this is a wonderful thing."