November 2024

 Some changes in my home: new art, healthy flora, bright light, and a cornucopia. Autumn into Winter 2024.

 

I managed the WCA's Holiday Arts Festival this year. Such fun, so intense, with 42 artists and around 1,200 attendees. The WCA Marketing Team designed the owl. The middle right image is by Diane Ebert.

 

 The WCA pumpkin entry for the city's contest is based on Arthur Geisert's Pigaroons children's book. It's Elizabeth Andrews- and Erin Donati-made.

Halloween 2024

Spooky, delicious! Halloween dinner at Jameson's Irish Pub in Waterloo: a pub smash-burger, house chips, and a hearty milk stout.

 

Partake of the Fruit

Partake of the Fruit: BLK Iowa Artists at the Waterloo Center for the Arts.

Andre Wright: Wright House + Party, Humanize My Hoodie, 10/11/2024.

 

Jill Wells: Black Thread Come to Life, with Ellen C. Hayes and Myquawn Bailey, from the Vertigo series presented in collaboration with the UNI Department of Art, 10/18/2024.

 

 

Akwi Nji and LD Kidd: ENUF: A Celebration of Black Joy and Expression, from the Vertigo series presented in collaboration with the UNI Department of Art.

Fall Family & Friends

We spent some family time at the 114th National Cattle Congress Fair - some mini-donuts, some browsing the animal stalls, some Katie & the Honky Tonks.

 

Hispanic Heritage at George Washington Carver School in Waterloo. Lovely to see old UNI friends at such a joyous event.

Art on the Cedar

An interview with Nia Wilder for "Connecting You to the Loo" plus the latest WCA publications.

 

Honored guests Ute Stebich and daughter Stephanie.

 

Selfie with Stephanie, Ute, and Elizabeth in Ute's exhibition space plus the panel about the development of the WCA International Folk Art collection. Panel images by Amanda Simmons.

 

 Planning Committee for the Arthur Geisert interactive exhibition in the Junior Art Gallery opening spring 2025. Image by Chawne Paige.

Appetites

Elkader, Iowa

 A recent excursion to Elkader, Iowa for WCA.

 Children's book author/illustrator Arthur Geisert's charming home studio on Main Street.

 Geisert portraits.

The studio (Angi Reid to the far right, top pic; Arthur Geisert to the upper center, bottom pic).

 A rejected book jacket. Guess why?

 The Keystone Bridge on the Turkey River in Elkader, post-renovation.

 The Motor Mill and Iron Bridge.

 Gary's art on the Turkey River.

Reverberations

Reverberations exhibition at the Waterloo Center for the Arts, Forsberg-Riverside Gallery.

 

September 3, 2024 - February 9, 2025

 

For decades, artist, educator, gallerist, and collector Ute Stebich has guided the development of the collections at the Waterloo Center for the Arts. Through Ute, the WCA became a conduit to other collectors such as Janet Feldman and Larry Kent and countless others. The synergy and focus she stimulated has led to a rich and spirited international collection, unique to Waterloo and a vital in the Midwest.

 

Reverberations takes as its principal inspirations an abstract painting by Brazilian artist and landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, a print portfolio by Mexican Zapotec artist and activist Francisco Benjamín López Toledo, and the truck tire sculptures of Haitian artist André Eugène. The imagery, symbols, and motifs that they express fostered other associations within the collection, necessitating a look at objects from India, Pakistan, Australia, Tonga, Bahamas, and Panama.

 

This presentation is a companion to the exhibition Selections from the International Folk Arts Collection, which is in the Law-Reddington Gallery. While there, the viewer will find a delightful exhibition of Ute’s own work, cross-stitched canvases of amazing and subtle asymmetrical geometry as well as buoyant color and rhythm.

Darrell Taylor, Curator/Assistant Director, Waterloo Center for the Arts

August 2024, Goings-on in Waterloo

Iowa Irish Fest 2024

 

 Stem & Stein 2024,

a fundraiser for the Waterloo Center for the Arts.

Image by Diane Ebert.

 Portrait of the staff and volunteers. Image by Diane Ebert.

 Image by Diane Ebert.

 

12th annual Cedar Valley Pride Fest 2024

 Amelia Blue Gotera's interactive sculpture Impression, a commission by the Friends of the Art Center.

 CVP headliner David Archuleta, such a lovely voice with a great message for the community.