Home to more than 2,000 works of public art, including 600 by significant national and international artists, Iowa State is the location of one of the nation’s largest public art collections on a college campus.

Art can be seen throughout campus as statues and outdoor pieces in addition to dedicated art museums. A few places to find art on campus include at the campus collection, Brunnier Art Museum, Farm House Museum and the Christian Petersen Art Museum.

The Christian Petersen Art Museum was named after the nation’s first campus artist-in-residence from 1934-55, Christian Petersen. An area surrounded by the Food Sciences Building has a courtyard dedicated to Petersen’s art, in addition to numerous pieces spread throughout campus.

“Petersen created a large figurative tradition at Iowa State,” said Lynette Pohlman, museum director for University Museums at Iowa State. “There are a lot of human figures, lots of narratives. These things tell stories.” 

The Petersen Panthers outside of Morrill Hall is one of Petersen’s more recently famous pieces at Iowa State. 

For a decade, Iowa State had been searching for this long-thought-lost Petersen piece. According to the University Museums website, the Panthers had been commissioned from Petersen for a Rhode Island estate during the early 1920s. Petersen had kept few documents relating to his early commissions, but the Panthers were included in some old photographs his wife, Charlotte, had maintained and then donated. 

According to the University Museums website: “The fact that these photographs were still in existence and that the artist listed the commission on his resume made it clear that he valued these particular sculptures.” 

The Panthers were installed last spring after Iowa State had searched fervently for them, finally locating them in Vermont. 

“The collection of Depression-era works by Christian Petersen and Grant Wood has been a particularly good resource for courses in modern art and American art,” said Emily Morgan, lecturer in integrated studio arts. “It is an important collection, and I am very happy that the university continues to add to it.”

Each piece of art has history behind it and a reason for being on campus. The second decision made, beside having the piece of art on campus at Iowa State, is how the art would be displayed.

“It was an aesthetic decision,” Pohlman said regarding the decision to place art on campus. “It was based on an 18th century tradition starting with Thomas Jefferson, that if you don’t create an inspiring, beautiful place, learning doesn’t happen as effectively.”

With the amount of public works of art on campus, some professors take advantage of incorporating it into their classes.

Morgan said she has arranged tours of the Art on Campus collection for some of her art history classes.

“I find them useful for my classes as they give students a chance to view a real work of art rather than just an image on a screen,” Morgan said.

Pohlman said it is important to realize how fortunate Iowa State is to have this abundance of art, and to appreciate it, even if students are not artists themselves.

“I can appreciate a novel,” Pohlman said. “But I don’t have to write a novel.”