Additional Information

You are here

Art History Society:
All art history students automatically belong to the Art History Society, a student organization supported by the University. The Art History Faculty strongly supports this organization. All students are encouraged to attend meetings and participate in the society's activities regularly posted in Art Building West.

Selected Facilities

ART BUILDING WEST is located at 141 North Riverside Drive. The majority of classes in art history and undergraduate painting classes are taught in Art Building West. All Art History Faculty offices, including the offices of the Head of Art History, are located in Art Building West. Administrative offices, including that of the Director, are located in the Main Office (150 Art Building West).

VISUAL ARTS BUILDING is located at 107 River Street. Some art history courses and the majority of studio art courses are taught in the Visual Arts Building.  Undergraduate painting is the exception and is taught in Art Building West. All Studio Faculty offices and the office of the Graduate Program Coordinator (GPC) are located in the Visual Arts Building.  The office of the Graduate Program Coordinator is located in room E317 Visual Arts Building.

The ART LIBRARY is located on the second floor of Art Building West. Most materials related to courses or of particular interest to art history majors are located here. The Art Library contains approximately 100,000 volumes and subscribes to over 150 periodicals and has an extensive microfilm and microfiche archive. In addition, the University of Iowa Main Library houses many books and periodicals on art, art history, archaeology, anthropology, literature, history, and other areas of interest to art historians.

The OFFICE OF VISUAL MATERIALS (106 Art Building West) contains over 300,000 slides. The OVM holds a database of over 100,000 digital images and uses the MDID organization software. The OVM also contains a VHS and DVD library that includes extensive research DVDs of African Art.

The University of Iowa MUSEUM OF ART has a significant permanent collection that includes major holdings of contemporary art, African and Pre- Columbian art, English and American silver, European and American prints, drawings and photographs, and Etruscan, Iranian, and contemporary American ceramics. As well as serving as a resource for research in a wide variety of art historical areas, the museum offers a program of exhibitions, lectures, and recitals. Its offices are temporarily located in the Old Museum of Art (150 Riverside Drive). Its temporary exhibition spaces include the UIMA @ IMU and the Black Box Theatre, both on the third floor of the Iowa Memorial Union.

The EVE DREWELOWE COLLECTION consists of over 500 paintings, sculptures, works on paper, personal papers, photographs, and ephemera created and collected by Eve Drewelowe, the first woman in the United States to receive an M.F.A. in painting (University of Iowa, 1924). The diverse collection is remarkable for its comprehensive representation of the artistic development of a woman artist in the twentieth century. It is available both to student researchers and scholars from around the country.

Among the school’s major assets is the PROJECT FOR THE ADVANCED STUDY OF ART AND LIFE IN AFRICA (PASALA), an interdisciplinary program that supports student and faculty research in Africa, and graduate study in the School of Art and Art History. PASALA offers scholarships and support for research in Africa and dissertation preparation for outstanding students. A major resource for PASALA is the Stanley Collection of African Art in the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art.

Interdisciplinary Associations:
Art history faculty at The University of Iowa have a record of participating in college-wide programs that encourage interaction. The School maintains an affiliation with a number of University of Iowa academic departments and program units including: American Studies, Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures, Classics, Crossing Borders, International Studies, European Studies, Caribbean and Diaspora Studies, Medieval Studies, and Museum Studies.