The impressionist art, oil paintings, lithographs, sculptures, busts, abstract art and a painting of a crucified ham of the Art Students League of New York were all displayed at the opening of the Christian Petersen Art Museum on Thursday night.

It was a classy affair as a large, varied crowd enjoyed a soiree to celebrate the newly completed renovation of Morrill Hall. The renovation took five years to complete and is now open to everyone on campus.

It is now the largest collection of campus public art works, with more than 600 works of public art, said Warren Madden, vice president of business and finance and major proponent of the project.

The celebration’s main events included speeches by ISU President Gregory Geoffroy, Christian Petersen’s daughter Mary Petersen, University Museum Director Lynette L. Pohlman, 2004 ISU alumna and former Margaret Davidson University Museums intern Nancy Gebhart, 2005 ISU alumna and former Margaret Davidson University Museum Intern Emily Ghrist and poet Michael Carey, who read a poem inspired by Christian Petersen. The grandchildren of Christian Petersen were also on hand to celebrate the occasion.

“Tonight we’re going to focus on one aspect, which is the need for art in education,” Geoffroy said. “The library and museum is important to building up a university. I have a great appreciation of the importance of Christian Petersen to this university. It is the arts that give us depth; it is the arts that give us views and perception.”

Christian Petersen was hired in 1931 in the depths of the Great Depression by then-ISU president Raymond Hughes, to create works of public art for the university. He retired in 1955, leaving 12 major public works of art on the campus, including the Fountain of the Four Seasons and The Wedding Ring, Madden said.

Petersen’s daughter said she was literally raised at Iowa State, saying she “grew up in an unusual home, with art everywhere.”

Mary was also glad the Morrill Hall Building was restored instead of demolished, and that the interior museum is now a great modern exhibit. She also said that through the tireless efforts of director Lynette Pohlman, she now has a better understanding of her own father and his works of art.

“I’m still learning about my father. I left home at 17, I was just a child then,” Petersen said. “Of course, he died soon after that. I now know my family more than what I thought I did. It is now a legacy that will be preserved.”

Pohlman said she was very proud of the museum, all the work that has gone into the restoration and the art that now adorns its walls.

“To be able to say that we’re able to be here in Morrill Hall is just fabulous,” Pohlman said.

Attendee Clete Mercier, ISU professor emeritus of civil engineering, said Petersen’s works had always been an inspiration to him, and the museum is a great extension of that inspiration.