Events Calendar

Drive in to a special Dive In with the Stanley presentation on Saturday, October 10, at 7:00 p.m. CDT!

You can sit in your car and watch UI Stanley Museum of Art Director Lauren Lessing on the big screen—in Lot 55 of the Levitt Center for University Advancement—as she discusses "big pictures" from the museum’s collection with Brady Plunger, associate curator of education at the UI Stanley Museum of Art. We are delighted to partner with the Summer of the Arts of Iowa City on this exciting event. Please arrive early to park your car. 

Lauren and Brady will be discussing the big picture. When Jackson Pollock painted his world-famous Mural in 1943, he was feeding a popular appetite for big pictures that began in the United States with the WPA murals of the 1930s and continued into the 1950s, when CinemaScope gave movies monumental scale.  Throughout this period, African Americans were largely excluded from the big business of big picture-making, but by 1970, innovative Black artists like Sam Gilliam and Gordon Parks had made a space for themselves in the mainstream and changed the language of painting and film.

Register to join us

Prior to becoming director of the UI Stanley Museum of Art in July 2018, Lessing gained many years of experience working in art museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, and the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine.

A native Midwesterner, Lessing has curated exhibitions and authored many books, articles, and catalogue essays on various topics in American art. Over the past two years, she has shaped an ambitious vision for the UI Stanley Museum of Art, which includes a new mission to transform lives by connecting the University of Iowa community, Iowans, and the world with extraordinary works of art.

Brady Plunger is an Associate Curator of Education at the UI Stanley Museum of Art. He holds degrees in art history from the University of Texas at Austin and Tulane University, and has worked in education and outreach at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, AR), The Blanton Museum of Art (Austin, TX), and The Museum of Fine Arts—Houston. In his work he has always valued the opportunity to connect museums to their communities through dynamic, responsive programming that cultivates “ah ha” moments and deep connections to works of art. Outside of work Plunger is a coffee shop enthusiast and Netflix addict.