University Museums, Iowa State University

06/03/2026

Lynette forbade any retirement parties, so this morning University Museums staff enjoyed a breakfast with Lynette and John Pohlman. Staff commissioned a parting gift by artist Ellen Wagener, who created a pastel of "Lynette's hill" near Moorhead.

Read more about Lynette and Moorhead: https://museums.iastate.edu/news/well-do-tomorrow

Moorhead Cultural Center City of Moorhead, Iowa

06/02/2026

Join us! 🐝🦋🐛🐞

05/29/2026

Special thanks to exhibition sponsors and !

05/22/2026

I may have had little success, but our garden tour will hopefully be much warmer!
Come check out our other pollinators too at our “Bee-utiful Blooms” garden tour event at the Anderson Sculpture Garden on July 16☀️🐝🦋

05/22/2026

This photo from our 50th anniversary party captures quite aptly (and literally) this present, late-May moment of reflecting on the past and looking to the future: we wish all the best to our favorite Museums-event jazz guitarist, David Harper, who graduated summa cm laude in physics and math and will head to Austin, TX, for a PhD, AND we're preparing for a fall exhibition featuring Mary Herkel-Hess (American, b. 1949), whose "Autumn-Colored Basket" sculpture is foregrounded here.

How's your transitional May going? Hopefully a little jazzy. 🎸

Object # UM2016.366, Gift of Carmon Slater and Donald Randall. In the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

05/19/2026

Memorial Day Weekend: All University Museums locations will be closed Saturday, May 23 - Monday, May 25 for the Memorial Day holiday. The museums will resume normal hours throughout the summer season, May 26-July 24. See you soon! 🌞

https://museums.iastate.edu/visit

05/13/2026

A new study gives museum-goers something to feel pretty good about. Researchers found that people who engaged with arts and culture at least weekly were biologically ~1 year younger than those who rarely did. The effect was similar in size to what regular exercise produces, and strongest in adults 40+.

Both making art (painting, photography, crafting, singing) and visiting it (galleries, exhibitions, museums, heritage sites, gardens) counted. Frequency and variety both mattered.

The Brunnier Art Museum, Christian Petersen Art Museum, Farm House Museum and Anderson Sculpture Garden are all part of University Museums at Iowa State. Admission is free for everyone.

🔗 Study: https://academic.oup.com/innovateage/advance-article/doi/10.1093/geroni/igag038/8669801
Published this month in the journal Innovation in Aging (Gerontological Society of America)

05/12/2026

The Ames Community Arts Council has named our director, Lynette Pohlman, the recipient of its 2026 Bill Pelz Arts Advocacy Award, recognizing her more than five decades of building the arts at Iowa State and across Ames.

The award will be presented at the Arts Awards Celebration on Sunday, May 17 at 1:30 p.m. at Reiman Gardens. It's free and open to everyone. We hope you'll go cheer her on as she receives this honor. 🏆

University Museums is a member organization of the Ames Community Arts Council.

Join us to celebrates those who celebrate the arts! The Ames Community Arts Council will hold its annual Arts Awards Celebration on Sunday, May 17 at 1:30 p.m. at Reiman Gardens [1407...

05/04/2026

With the June 3 retirement of Lynette L. Pohlman approaching after 55 years with University Museums, Iowa State University is searching for its next Warren and Beverly Madden Endowed Director and Chief Curator.

This is a rare opportunity to lead a nationally accredited teaching museum of a special caliber: a five-entity system that includes Brunnier Art Museum, Christian Petersen Art Museum, Farm House Museum, Anderson Sculpture Garden and the Art on Campus Collection, one of the largest campus public art collections in the country.

The Director and Chief Curator will steward a permanent collection of 30,000+ objects, shape bold exhibitions and programming and partner with faculty to expand object-based learning across disciplines.

🏛️ Full consideration is given to applications received by May 14, 2026. Learn more and apply: https://isu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/IowaStateJobs/job/Museums-Director-and-Chief-Curator_R19096