Exhibitions
With over three hundred works by local and regional artists, the Hearst Center Permanent Collection provides a fascinating perspective on Iowa, the Midwest and the nation.
For more information on exhibitions and the permanent collection, email
Curator/Registrar, Emily Drennan.
To propose exhibition or a gift to the permanent collection, view our Hearst proposal guidelines.
CURRENT
CRITTERS A TO Z: ARTWORKS BY ANN OLSSON
On view through September in the Classroom Level Gallery
“Growing up in the mostly rural suburbs of Buffalo, New York, I have always loved nature. I spent most of my free time tramping through the meadows and woods around my home. I was horse crazy and loved drawing them, but I never took any art classes beyond elementary school.
I moved to Iowa after college and marriage. After a career in science, I retired from John Deere as a chemical engineer. Within a month of retirement, I took my first watercolor class with Esther Cheng in Cedar Falls. I loved it and have never looked back.”
-Ann Olsson
Olsson’s imaginative exhibition Critters A to Z combines a deep love for animals with masterful artistry. This exhibition features at least one animal for every letter of the alphabet, brought to life through a wide range of media—including cut paper collage, ink, watercolor, acrylic, illustration, dyes, colored pencil, and pastels.
Visitors are invited to take part in an interactive scavenger hunt: find all 26 animals from A to Z and uncover fun facts by lifting the label beneath each artwork. We invite you to take a quiz sheet to write your answers and bring it to the front desk for a fun prize! This playful, educational experience is a delight for all ages.
We’re thrilled to showcase Ann’s creativity and skill at the Hearst Center. Many pieces are available for purchase—please inquire at the front desk for more information.
-Cory Anne Hurless, Cultural Programs Supervisor
UPCOMING
DANA POTTER: PATTERNS OF DISTRACTIONS
September 11-November 23, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 11 from 5:30-700 p.m.
AI in the Arts Panel Discussion: Friday, November 21 at 3:00 p.m. featuring digital artists Dana Potter, Joseph dunning, and Bettina Fabos of Forepan Iowa.
About the AI in the Arts Panel Discussion: This engaging panel will examine how artificial intelligence is transforming the way artists create, archive, and interpret visual culture. Potter and Dunning will share insights into their innovative practices, while Fabos will highlight how Fortepan Iowa—a curated digital archive of everyday Iowans’ photographs—uses technology to honor the poetic and often overlooked moments of our shared history. Discover how AI can amplify the artistic process, raise new ethical questions, and expand access to the stories that shape our communities. Free and open to the public. Come curious!
​
Patterns of Distraction contextualizes the social media feed as a spectacle using kaleidoscopic filters to generate video, print, and augmented reality. The kaleidoscope, invented by accident in the early 1800s during a scientific study of light, uses three mirrors arranged in a triangle to create endless, symmetrical patterns from small bits of glass and light. With just a little movement, it becomes as mesmerizing as fireworks or waterfalls. At the center of the exhibition is a video that transforms screen recordings from Snapchat and TikTok into geometric patterns. Like social media algorithms, the kaleidoscope repeats and arranges content into a system designed to hold our attention. This exhibition alters how we experience social media and reorients our attention to repetition, distraction, and visual appeal.
SWEET FACE: AN INSTALLATION BY JOSEPH DUNNING
September 11-November 23, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 11 from 5:30-700 p.m.
AI in the Arts Panel Discussion: Friday, November 21 at 3:00 p.m. featuring digital artists Dana Potter, Joseph dunning, and Bettina Fabos of Forepan Iowa.
About the AI in the Arts Panel Discussion: This engaging panel will examine how artificial intelligence is transforming the way artists create, archive, and interpret visual culture. Potter and Dunning will share insights into their innovative practices, while Fabos will highlight how Fortepan Iowa—a curated digital archive of everyday Iowans’ photographs—uses technology to honor the poetic and often overlooked moments of our shared history. Discover how AI can amplify the artistic process, raise new ethical questions, and expand access to the stories that shape our communities. Free and open to the public. Come curious!
​
Sweet Face is a dual-facing projector installation that presents normalized life. Excerpts of reality, fiction, and the convoluted relationship between the two materialized in the everyday are on display. Carefully constructed from natural and artificial materials, Sweet Face exists in a state of physical opposition. This duality is also present in the work’s classification, situated somewhere between film and object: you may leave and return without missing any beginning or end, as innumerable unique instances and relationships are produced on the screen. A distinct dichotomy emerges within the installation’s subject matter: video excerpts are indefinitely competing with and being compared to one another. The installation offers a space to collectively consider the relationships between the moving images and their place within the context of our lives.
Online l Hearst Permanent Collection
John Page
View original etchings as part of the Hearst Permeant Collection.
​
Gary Kelley l Sleepy Hollow
View the original pastels in the Hearst Permanent Collection as part of the 1990 novel, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Original Book Illustrations by Gary Kelley.
​
Exhibition James Hearst Interpreting The Farmstead l The Hearst Legacy Site
View original works of art selected from the Hearst Permanent Collection, as part of this grant funded project.