Iowa All Over: Sioux City Art Center, a mecca for Midwestern art

SIOUX CITY - In the heart of downtown Sioux City, just minutes from the Missouri River, the Sioux City Art Center is a tribute to Midwestern art and artists.

The art center in Sioux City, population 82,459, features an extensive collection of artwork from Midwestern artists.

Members of the Sioux City Society of Fine Arts first envisioned creating an arts institution for the city in 1914, said Al Harris-Fernandez, director of the Sioux City Art Center.

Since the art center opened in 1938, it has moved to several locations before landing at its present spot downtown in 1997. The arts center focuses on artists from Iowa and surrounding states.

'We've been collecting for almost 100 years,” said museum curaotr Todd Behrens. 'In a sense we look locally and expand outward. We have always been fortunate to have a number of good artists in Sioux City, so there are artists from Sioux City from the early 20th century to the present.”

On the first floor of the three-level building, the permanent collection features the work of many Midwestern natives, including Anamosa-native Grant Wood. His landscape 'March” is on display here.

One of the most stunning works in the permanent collection is 'Blush Edge,” by Keith Jacobshagen. The painting depicts a breathtaking pink-and-blue prairie sky with a factory in the center of it all.

On the second floor, visitors can walk through Wood's 'Corn Room” mural. The work is considered historically important because it reveals that Wood was developing ideas that would become part of the Regionalism movement.

It's not only the artwork inside the art center that is tied to the Midwest. The building's round atrium was modeled in part after the shape of grain silos, Harris-Fernandez said.

The museum averages 35,000 visitors annually.

In addition to its permanent collection, the art center devotes space to local projects ranging from the Sioux City Camera Club to the work of children and members of the Boys and Girls Home.

A collection of sculpture surrounds the arts center's campus. The arts center also regularly collaborates with an organization called Sculpt Siouxland, a not-for-profit that raises money to purchase public artwork and outdoor sculptures.

From its circular atrium, to the massive sculpture in front of the building, visitors to the art center see 'something that really stands out in Sioux City,” Behrens said.

This Sept. 5 to 6, the art center will host ArtSplash, a festival at Riverside Park. Proceeds from the event go toward education and exhibition programs at the art center.