artist talk

Dubuque by Design Opening Celebration

Celebrate 150 creative years with free family fashion and design activities, conversations with artists, and local brews, bites, and music inspired by our exhibitions this season.

Family Celebration
10 am–1 pm
Free with Museum admission

Family fashion and design workshops kick off our Opening Day. In the morning, families are invited to collaborate and design fashions inspired by Dubuque icons, from Lange ski boots to H. B. Glover pajamas (immortalized by Richard Bissell on stage and screen as The Pajama Game). Design your own Dubuque factory, Millwork building, or new museum, all to help us create the city of the future. For those who need a little more of a prompt, collaborate with baristas from Bob and Lou’s to design a new custom coffee drink.

Fill Your Factory!

Grab a piece of folded paper
On 1 side design the outside of your factory.
You can include doors, big vents, billboards and advertisements.
Then Flip it over and show what’s happening on the Inside of your factory.
What does your factory build? Do people make your product or do machines? How does your factory run?
Try practicing collage techniques by using magazines, cut out shapes, and colorful paper to bring your factory to life.
When you’re all done you can add your factory to the art museums tiny factory district.

Chair Challenge!

Imagine creating a one-of-a-kind chair, designed totally by you! Use recycled materials and your imagination to make a unique functional chair.
When designing your furniture try to think about who is sitting in your chair. A toddler? Maybe a astronaut? What about a cat or a dog? Furniture is designed for people to sit in. Thinking about who will use your chair is important to make them comfortable.
Try to think about what it’s made of. Is it strong? Or is it meant to be soft and comfy, What about lightweight for east traveling?
Each chair has a job. Thinking about what job your chair does will make a successful design! Get creative and make something amazing!
You can even take it home for your toys to sit in and then post a pic on our Facebook page!

Artist Conversation
3 pm–4 pm
Free with Museum admission

Join artist Hieyler Pimpton inside the Kris Mozena McNamer gallery for a conversation about her exhibition I Have Told You 50 Times. She’ll talk about her artistic inspirations and her journey to create the 50 collages on view. You’ll appreciate her warmth and humor—and we don’t expect she’ll have to repeat herself.

Opening Reception
4 pm–7 pm

$15 for members of DuMA
$20 for guests
$10 for guests under 21
Free for 1874 society

Toast the past and the future with local craft beers, music, mocktails, and food inspired by Dubuque by Design.

Registration required for the 4 pm reception. Click here to purchase tickets.

ARTIST TALK AND OPENING RECEPTION DRIFT: RECENT WORKS BY E. E. KONO

Dubuque artist E. E. Kono discusses the work in her solo exhibition, Drift: Recent Works by E. E. Kono, with a reception to follow. Kono shares how landscape, history, and myth inform her approach to creating new work using traditional techniques like egg tempera and silverpoint. Reception to follow in the lobby.

Free with Museum admission

Meet the Artists: Arthur Geisert and the Dubuque Camera Club

At 1:30 P.M., Award-winning artist and author Arthur Geisert will discuss the making of his book Country Road ABC: An Illustrated Journey through America’s Farmland, a refreshingly realistic view of contemporary rural life in eastern Iowa.

At 2:30 P.M., Dubuque Camera Club members will discuss the 2023 iteration of their annual photography exhibit, Rural Midwest. Members will talk about their experiences and the personal stories behind their work.

Free with regular Museum admission.

Community Day

Celebrate the bounty of fall, the power of community, and the opening of four new exhibitions. The day includes family architecture workshops, artist conversations, and a block party. Admission is FREE with donation of a non-perishable food item to the Dubuque Food Pantry.

Come downtown and celebrate the past, present, and future of our community.

10 A.M. – 1 P.M. Children’s Workshops

1 P.M. – Gallery conversation: Roberta Condon, Lorraine Ortner-Blake and Beth Hoffman

2:30 P.M. – Gallery talk with Katie Schutte

4–6 P.M. – Block party and community workshop with DuMA’s architects, Paul Schulhof and Az Rashidi. Live music and food trucks hosted with the Bluff Street Neighborhood Association, on 7th Street

(SOLD OUT)Community Day begins with a children’s architecture workshop with Az Rashidi and Paul Schulhof, the architects designing the new museum campus. Participants will share their ideas for the new Museum with Az and Paul and build their own models that describe their vision. Space is limited for this free workshop and advance registration is required.

Also at 10 A.M. is a drop in pumpkin decorating and mask making workshop, which is open to all.

At 1 P.M., join Long Time Passing artists Roberta Condon and Lorraine Ortner-Blake inside the Falb Family Gallery for a conversation with Beth Hoffman, author of Bet the Farm. The three women will discuss the changing rural landscape, the struggles and joys of life on the farm, and how their experiences inspire their art. At 2:30 P.M., artist Katie Schutte will discuss Distorted Recollections in the Kris Mozena McNamer Gallery.

Also opening are the Dubuque Camera Club’s Rural Life and a showcase of work by students from the University of Dubuque’s Department of Digital Art and Design.

The afternoon culminates with a block party from 4-6 P.M. on 7th Street that includes food trucks, a community workshop with Schulhof and Rashidi, live music by Joie Booth Wails and DJ Charlz, and autumnal décor from local farmers.

Artists: Becoming and Being

A conversation among present and past Biennial artists as well as current Iowa Artist Fellows about the choices they’ve made and/or wished they made about their education, their approach to earning a living, and their experiences with museums and galleries.

Louise Kames, a DuMA Biennial 2023 artist and Director of Clarke University’s the Art + Design Program moderates this panel discussion.

Confirmed participants include Peter Xiao, a DuMA Biennial 2023 artist and art professor at Augustana College; Stina Henslee a DuMA Biennial 2023 artist and graphic designer; David Zahn, a DuMA Biennial 2023 sculptor; Erin Dragotto, a DuMA Biennial 2017 artist and VP of Development & Operations for the Museum of Art & Light opening in Kansas next year; and Steffany King, art educator at Dubuque Senior High School.

The 2022 Iowa Arts Fellows joining the conversation are Jennifer Colville from Iowa City, author of “Short Stories for Uncanny Girls” and publisher of PromptPress, a book art journal; Tim Olson, from Dubuque, an artist and photographer whose series titled “Olson’s Art Through the Ages” reimagines historic paintings; and David James “DJ” Savarese from Iowa City, a public speaker, writer and activist who makes literacy-based education, communication and inclusive lives a reality for nontraditionally speaking people.

Made possible by Dupaco Credit Union and Hirschbach Motor Lines, sponsors of the DuMA Biennial 2023.

We expect the conversation will spill out into Washington Park where you can visit with more than 65 DBQ Fest 2023 artists and purchase work to take home. Take a break and refresh with Key City Beer Festival who reminds us that craft brewing is another art form that binds us.

The conversations will be live streamed and recorded at the following Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87599108320

 

ARTIST TALK: Rachel Deutmeyer

Photographer Rachel Deutmeyer offers her thoughts on her exhibition Everything Fades and what it means for a Biennial artist to have a solo show.

Free with admission

Artist Talk: : Paul Sacaridiz

Paul Sacaridiz, Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art and former student of Bill Farrell will present a talk focusing on the importance of Farrell’s work, his role as a teacher, and the innovations and influence of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on contemporary ceramics.

Free with registration

Register here

BLACK THREAD OPENING CELEBRATION

UPDATE: Available space for the Artist Conversation at the McCarthy Center portion of the event has SOLD OUT.  Please join us via ZOOM. You are still welcome to attend the 2:30 PM opening Celebration at the Museum.

[SOLD OUT]1:30 pm Artist Conversation between Jill Wells and Ricki King at the McCarthy Center for Nonprofit Learning, 700 Locust Street (enter the Roshek building on Locust).  Join via ZOOM

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthdate, Ricki King of Roots to Branches Genealogy will join Des Moines artist Jill Wells for a conversation about her work, family story, and the Great Migration.

2:30-4 pm Celebration

Explore Wells’ immersive work in DuMA’s lobby and enjoy food from Frannie’s Barbeque and music by Iowa Music Award 2022 fan favorite, DJ Nita Beat.

Sponsored by GreenState Credit Union and John Deere Dubuque Works

A Conversation about Craft

Join us for a spirited conversation moderated by artist Douglas Ewart featuring Craft Invitational curatorial committee members, Delores Fortuna and Don Friedlich, and exhibiting artist, Kee-Ho Yuen.

The “reasoning” as Ewart calls it, will be a forum to exchange ideas, knowledge and concepts while exploring the role of craft in the art world and in our daily lives.

Topics include: Craft vs. Art, the ecology of traditional ways of fabrication, the intersection of craft with the sciences, and the importance of play.

Following the conversation Douglas Ewart will discuss his multidisciplinary work which weaves together music, art making, and performance.

Opening Celebration: Andonia Giannakouros Gallery Talk and Workshop

Artist Andonia Giannakouros will discuss her large-format paintings featured in the exhibition Chronicle, on display at DuMA from February 26 – June 12.
Following the 10:30 AM gallery talk Andonia will lead a 60 minute workshop that explores the idea of how one’s collections can be viewed as a self-portrait. Working with pencil, pens, crayons, or markers, participants will transform 3-dimensional collected objects into 2-dimensional drawings. Please bring a collected object that is meaningful to you.
The workshop is free, but registration is required. Limit 12 participants. For more information and to register, please contact Margi Buhr at mbuhr@dbqart.org.
For teenagers and adults. Registration deadline: 3/3/22
(Art credit: Andonia Giannakouros, Boy with Apple (detail), 2021, oil and wax on panel, 41 x 48 in., courtesy of the artist.)