Travel the Amana Colony trail through the 7 villages and find as many scarecrows as you can.
Maps are available at the Visitor’s Center.
A century ago, the world faced a global health crisis that in many ways parallels the present-day challenges we face during the COVID-19 pandemic. This Thursday Forum offers historical perspective and insights on the current public health crisis by providing an overview of the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic, which erupted amidst the already-significant suffering and destruction of World War I. This two-session forum will begin with an overview of the origins, diffusion, mitigation, and impacts of the 1918 influenza outbreak. We will look into how the disease developed and spread, examining the pandemic from a global perspective. The presentation will consider the medical understanding of the disease and attempts to counter it, as well as the social and cultural factors that determined its evolution and treatment. The second forum will examine how the outbreak played out in Cedar Rapids, comparing and contrasting the experience of students at Coe and townspeople in the area. Through use of historical archival and newspaper sources, we will recreate the situation in eastern Iowa and evaluate the impact that the war, gender, and class had on healthcare and survival. This examination will be tied together with a look into the life and legend of Helen Roberts, the only Coe student to die in the epidemic and who is now alleged to haunt Voorhees Hall.
The virtual event will be found at
https://www.coe.edu/why-coe/events/thursday-forum
Rounding out our anniversary year will be an unusual look at arguably Iowa’s most important artist, Grant Wood. While known for his iconic American Gothic (Art Institute of Chicago) and other Regionalist works from his mature style, Grant Wood was constantly exploring styles, techniques, and media. This exhibition will bring together works from both the CRMA collection as well as from private collections to celebrate Wood’s inquisitive mind. Rarely seen paintings will be joined with diverse metalwork pieces, drawings, and studies to construct a fuller view of Wood’s genius.
Grant Wood’s American Gothic is probably the world’s most parodied American painting, second only to Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. The fact that thousands of parodies of American Gothic exist, dating back several decades, speaks to the enduring inspiration of one of America’s greatest works of art. This exhibition—a first for the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art—will look at many of these parodies—some in the flesh on the gallery’s walls and many others digitally projected in an attempt to share the incredible reach of this iconic painting. From Bill and Hillary Clinton to Leonardo and Mona Lisa to RuPaul as male and female, these parodies speak to how this one painting serves as the basis for looking at various contemporary people and issues. Wood’s impactful 1930 painting continues to inspire “artists” of all ages and skills in a playful and humorous way that Wood would no doubt have applauded.
Travel the Amana Colony trail through the 7 villages and find as many scarecrows as you can.
Maps are available at the Visitor’s Center.
Rounding out our anniversary year will be an unusual look at arguably Iowa’s most important artist, Grant Wood. While known for his iconic American Gothic (Art Institute of Chicago) and other Regionalist works from his mature style, Grant Wood was constantly exploring styles, techniques, and media. This exhibition will bring together works from both the CRMA collection as well as from private collections to celebrate Wood’s inquisitive mind. Rarely seen paintings will be joined with diverse metalwork pieces, drawings, and studies to construct a fuller view of Wood’s genius.
Grant Wood’s American Gothic is probably the world’s most parodied American painting, second only to Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. The fact that thousands of parodies of American Gothic exist, dating back several decades, speaks to the enduring inspiration of one of America’s greatest works of art. This exhibition—a first for the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art—will look at many of these parodies—some in the flesh on the gallery’s walls and many others digitally projected in an attempt to share the incredible reach of this iconic painting. From Bill and Hillary Clinton to Leonardo and Mona Lisa to RuPaul as male and female, these parodies speak to how this one painting serves as the basis for looking at various contemporary people and issues. Wood’s impactful 1930 painting continues to inspire “artists” of all ages and skills in a playful and humorous way that Wood would no doubt have applauded.
Travel the Amana Colony trail through the 7 villages and find as many scarecrows as you can.
Maps are available at the Visitor’s Center.
For three months in the summer of 1920, Grant Wood and his best friend Marvin Cone traveled to Paris to see great art, soak up the sights, and to paint. This brief sojourn proved to be pivotal for both artists, enhancing their nascent interest in Impressionism and painting en plein air. While each artist was not to continue painting in this style beyond the early 1930s, this trip to Paris (Wood’s first trip abroad, Cone’s second) was critical to their development as artists. What the artists did, saw, and painted is carefully outlined in Cone’s meticulous and well-written diary of the trip, including where the artists painted on which days. As such, this diary enables the ability to date certain works to the precise date of creation. It also allows viewers to see how each artist depicted the same scene, often in very different terms.
