Grant means free admission for part of Cedar Rapids art museum

A major gift will mean free admission forever to one portion of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

Museum directors on Thursday announced a major grant from the Esther and Robert Armstrong Charitable Trust.  The gift of $750,000 will support operations at the Grant Wood Studio and Visitor Center, 810 2

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Avenue S.E. in Cedar Rapids.  That is the studio famous artist Grant Wood used to create some of his most recognizable works-including “American Gothic.”

Wood himself gave the location a fictional address of 5 Turner Alley and  worked there from 1924 through 1935.  The Linge family and Cedar Memorial donated the artist's studio property to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in 2002.

Terry Pitt, museum executive director, said the endowment created by the grant will allow the elimination of the current $5.00 fee to visit the studio.  That fee is separate from admission to the art museum itself, which will not change.  Pitt said it should encourage individuals and school groups to come back for repeat studio visits.

“School groups will easily take advantage of this and we hope the people in the community will just drop in and take a look at the changes.  We are slowly restoring the inside of the studio and making some changes there over the next year or two to take it back to its real original condition,” Pitt said.

Robert Armstrong, who died in 1990, was chairman of the former Armstrong's Department Store in downtown Cedar Rapids.  He served on the museum's board of directors.  He and his wife Esther, who died in 2002, had strong connections to artist Grant Wood.  The artist was commissioned to help design their Cedar Rapids home known as Pleasant Hill.  That home was donated to Coe College after their deaths.

The visitor center at the studio will be renamed in honor of the Armstrongs.  The grant will also be used to expand education programs at the studio and promote the studio more widely to area residents and visitors.

The Grant Wood Studio is currently closed for the winter.  The changes will take effect when it reopens in April.