Free art museum admission today

CEDAR RAPIDS -- In honor of "Election Day," admission is free from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today (Nov. 3) at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

Stop in and see Norman Rockwell's "Election Day" in the galleries and get a $5 "Election Day" poster in the Museum Store.

In 2007, the citizens of Cedar Rapids rallied to purchase a series of watercolors destined for the auction block in New York. These five watercolors, by 20

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century American artist Norman Rockwell, depicted scenes associated with an election day and were created for the Nov. 4, 1944, issue of the Saturday Evening Post.  To complete the Post commission, Rockwell traveled to a quintessential Midwestern town -- Cedar Rapids -- to study local citizens as models for his series of images. 

In the 65 years since his visit, numerous anecdotes and stories have arisen about the artist's time in Cedar Rapids and the creation of this work.  This exhibition uses these five, newly conserved and restored watercolors, an oil painting from the Norman Rockwell Museum, along with numerous photographs taken by local photographer Wes Panek for Rockwell, to investigate the many facts and fictions associated with Rockwell's visit and this set of watercolors.

 “Norman Rockwell: Fact & Fiction” will be on display through Jan. 3.

For more information, call (319) 366-7503 or go to

www.crma.org