FIRST FRIDAY: DIGITAL ART AND DESIGN FROM UD

First Fridays are back at DuMA with the opening of the University of Dubuque Digital Art and Design (DART) Senior Thesis exhibition, the latest in our Showcase series featuring our community partners.

This installation showcases UD student illustrators, animators, digital painters, and designers—and the body of work they created during their college career.

Join us to celebrate the creative achievements of Jakhari Anderson, Jenna Benzing, Alyssa Classen, Urias Gbarjolo, Dillon Leffler, Carlos Sanchez, Elizabeth Thill, and Kimonte Thomas.

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.

25th High School Exhibition Opening Reception

DuMA is proud to host the 25th year of this highly anticipated and celebrated exhibition. The 2024 citywide high school exhibition features two and three dimensional works by students from Dubuque’s three high schools: Senior, Hempstead and Wahlert.

An opening reception will be held Thursday, April 11 from 4-6 PM. Admission is free and the event is open to the public.

First Friday: CSEI @Home Photovoice Art Exhibit Opening

Photovoice is a a storytelling technique used to put the camera in the hands of people to explore and share their perspectives on a certain topic or subject. CSEI’s mission of addressing homelessness and housing instability is the reason we are focusing on the prompt of @Home. Home could be your favorite place to be or a place you wish you didn’t need to be, it could be a community, a pet, or a person. The CSEI Photovoice wants to exhibit the various perspectives of what @Home means to our community.

Photographs will be on exhibit at the Dubuque Museum of Art from May 30th until July 21st.

RSVP

K–8 exhibition celebratory reception

Brightening the gray winter days with youthful creativity, the citywide K–8 exhibition features two and three-dimensional artwork by elementary and middle school students, chosen by their teachers and installed by art students from Dubuque Senior High School.

The public is invited to a celebratory reception on Thursday, March 7 from 4–6 PM.

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

FAMILY CELEBRATION: PICTURING AMERICA’S PASTIME

Families and fans of all ages are invited to celebrate the opening of Picturing America’s Pastime: A Snapshot of the Photograph Collection at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Sample a ballpark frank from Hot Diggity Dogz, design your family’s baseball cap sponsored by 1-800-Tshirts.com, and tour the exhibitions.

Free with Museum admission.

We would appreciate a RSVP response if you are planning on attending via this online form.

"Ty Cobb slides into third base" by Charles M. Conlon, July 23, 1910 Courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum — “Ty Cobb slides into third base”
by Charles M. Conlon, July 23, 1910
Courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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.

Summer Artists Party

Toast the beginning of summer and celebrate the 65 artists
in the 10th DuMA Biennial. This show is so big that we’ll have
to close down 7th Street.

We’ll announce awards amidst an
evening of revelry with creature comforts provided by food
trucks, a bar featuring beer and wine, and a dj.

$15 members
$20 adults
$10 under 21
Free for 1874 Society

Admission includes one drink

Purchase Tickets

Cocktails & Conversation: Exhibition Opening

Warm up with artisanal cocktails and an artist talk; curator conversation and music with small bites of surprising combinations.

-5 pm Gallery Talk: Tibi Chelcea

Toast artist Tiberu Chelcea with a taste of Romanian spirit Țwith and then join him in the galleries for a conversation about his technologically-inspired, historically-grounded work.

–6 pm Conversations with the Curators

Visit with exhibition curators Delores Fortuna and Tim Farrell in the galleries as they share personal stories about Bill Farrell, influential artist, beloved partner, and father.

-7-9 pm Cocktail Reception

$15 members/$20 adults/$10 under 21/Free for 1874 Society

Tickets available at the door

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exhibition opening