Hundreds of works of art are on display around campus, but students, faculty and community members may not understand their significance or even acknowledge their existence.

However, students have an opportunity to explore ISU art one Wednesday each month at noon. University Museums staffers give tours of campus art, called “Wednesday Walks,” based on selected themes at several locations on campus.

This month’s tour will begin at noon today at Parks Library on the first floor by the Grant Wood murals. The tours are free and require no pre-registration.

“This year’s theme focuses on all things having to do with students,” said Dana Michels, curator of collections and exhibitions for University Museums.

Tours this year have centered around agricultural and sports artwork relating to students.

“This month the tour will look at what students did with Grant Wood and Doug Shelton,” said Matthew DeLay, curator of education for University Museums.

“It gives students the opportunity to look at the works of those two artists and talk about student involvement with art on campus,” he said.

Students participate on committees to choose art to be displayed on campus.

The tours take anywhere from 35 to 50 minutes to complete and are informal. During the tours, a guide leads the group to various art pieces and discusses the details of the work, biographical information about the artist and how the work of art came to Iowa State.

“Sometimes an entire class from [the College of] Design will walk over and other times a smaller group of community members and students come,” DeLay said.

“The best ones are when there’s a point where people are sharing ideas and learning from each other. It’s not meant to be a lecture.”

Kathryn Miller and her husband, both retired from university positions, have attended the tours for the last couple of years.

“We go because we are interested in the art and like learning more information about what we’re seeing,” Kathryn Miller said.

“There’s a nice cross-section of community members, retirees, staff members and students on the tours,” she said.

Delay said, “ISU has one of the most active art-on-campus programs in the nation.”

According to a Nov. 24 article in the Des Moines Register, the University of Iowa has only 45 pieces of public art on campus, while Iowa State has 403.

“A lot of students don’t realize how much art is on campus. The tours help give a greater appreciation and understanding of art,” Michels said.