University of Iowa Museum of Art shatters old participation record

Displacement of the University of Iowa's Museum of Art following the Flood of 2008 hasn't kept its artwork from being seen and experienced by the public.

In fact, the museum in the 2013-14 school year shattered its previous record by nearly four times - topping the old high of 146,470 participants by 391,790.

Thanks, in large part, to the university's Jackson Pollock 'Mural” exhibition at the Getty in Los Angeles, the UI Museum of Art drew 538,260 people to its events and exhibits last year. The Los Angeles event earned praise from the Wall Street Journal as one of the world's five 'most talked about exhibits of the year,” drawing 304,349 visitors and marking the highest weekly attendance for any show at the Getty since it started tracking data in 2000, according to UI officials.

The UI art museum has had to get creative in how it engages audience members since its former site along Riverside Drive was badly damaged by flooding in 2008. Crews saved the university's art collections by removing them with just hours to spare, but the building was deemed unsuitable for artwork going forward - leaving the museum in limbo.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied UI appeals for funds to build a new art museum away from the river, forcing campus officials to pursue a public-private partnership for the project. FEMA did commit to help restore the former art building to its pre-flood condition, and administrators are pursuing that project.

A new UI Museum of Art took a step forward in the fall when administrators announced they had chosen a developer and site for the new building near the heart of downtown Iowa City and the UI campus. Iowa City based Hodge Construction is working with landowner John Hieronymus and M.A. Mortenson Co. out of Minneapolis to develop the new museum on the southeast corner of Clinton and Burlington streets.

A timeline and cost for the project hasn't been announced, but campus officials said they're expediting it.

While working to develop a plan for a new permanent home, the UI museum has continued to display its collections through temporary locations across campus and beyond - including the third floor of the Iowa Memorial Union and the Figge Art Museum in Davenport.

Museum staff provided educational programming to 1,151 people in senior living centers across Iowa, and it increased its reach to children - bringing art to 25,505 K-12 students through 513 presentations to 491 classes in 99 locations in 16 communities.

'This vastly exceeds the previous year's total of 18,465 K-12 students in 49 locations,” according to a UI news release.

More than 96,200 visitors viewed the UI museum's outreach exhibits in Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, Maquoketa, and Davenport. The campus exhibit in the student union drew 5,902 visitors, and another 8,166 people engaged with the artwork through special programming in Iowa City, according to museum officials.

Total website visits reached 96,968 during the last academic year, and officials said they're expanding outreach partnerships to Sioux City and Dubuque.

Director Sean O'Harrow said the museum is 'clearly one of the most successful art and education organizations in the state of Iowa.”

'This year's performance demonstrates why the (art museum) is so important to the mission of the university, for public higher education, and for economic development in Iowa,” he said.