For those looking to vent their creative energy, there’s a new opportunity, and anyone can do it.

Mary Atherly, University Museums collections manager, says as long as an exhibit proposal has a theme that educates in some way, it will be considered.

With subjects ranging from sports to livestock, art exhibits have successfully been conceived and put together by both students and faculty, and the invitation remains open to create new exhibits.

Later this year, athletic attire representing the late 19th and early 20th centuries can be found inside the Farmhouse Building on the Iowa State campus.

The exhibit all started when textiles and clothing professor Jane Farrell-Beck proposed the idea to Director of University Museums Lynette Pohlman. Farrell-Beck and her students in TC 650, Advanced History of Costume and Textile, are putting together the exhibit.

The students will each choose a sportswear ensemble and “attempt to pin down the dates [the clothing was worn], but also then explain things about the sport at that particular time,” Farrell-Beck says.

That doesn’t mean proposals are excluded to traditionally creative courses.

Atherly has seen exhibits from departments not even close to art.

“We did [an exhibit] one year with the physics department,” Atherly explains. “We commissioned artists to do artwork on outer space. And then the physics department did a slide presentation of outer space and research that they did on outer space. It was really quite exciting.”

Those making a proposal usually have a special interest or expertise in a specific area, much like Farrell-Beck’s knowledge of clothing. They must then pick out certain pieces of artwork, which are not limited to ISU’s resources.

Works can also be borrowed, as was the case for Richard Willham, professor of animal science, when his livestock exhibit went on display in 1990.

Willham borrowed pieces from museums all over Iowa and across the Midwest, including the Oriental Art Institute of Chicago, the Texas Panhandle Plains Museum and the Des Moines Art Center, among others.

Pieces can also be borrowed from organizations such as the American Hereford Association and the American Angus Association.

Atherly says the “very popular exhibit” featured paintings, bronze figures and other livestock-related pieces depicting farm animals and how their roles have changed since the 1800s.

Willham says this was the first time he and the Brunnier Art Museum were able to put together an art exhibit from industry and museums. “We just meshed liked you wouldn’t believe,” he says.

The exhibit drew tremendous attention, luring in many farmers and ranchers on the weekends to take a look. Willham was surprised at the numbers the exhibit attracted.

“Usually, you’re lucky if you get 4,000 people to come to [an exhibit],” he says. “We had 16,441 people to experience the [livestock] exhibition. All of us were terribly gratified that we got such a response. We just had a ball.”

It takes a lot of research, which isn’t always easy. Willham spent three years gathering all his information.

The research includes finding out what the artwork is made of, where it was made, how it was used and by whom and how it got to the United States.

Students or faculty members proposing exhibits should also put together a budget of some kind on how much they think it will cost to produce the exhibit. If all goes well, the hard work and investigation will pay off when the proposed exhibit is displayed.

Farrell-Beck says some of her TC 650 students have also taken TC 557, Conservation of Textile and Costume, and have gone through the difficult process of preserving the pieces after all of the research. Cloth mannequins are later dressed in these pieces of art for display.

They are still looking to borrow some supplementary sports items for the exhibit, she says.

When choosing a class project, an exhibit is a “better payoff” in the long run, Farrell-Beck says.

“If you do an exhibit, many people get to see it and share it,” she says. “If you do a term paper, it’s only you and the faculty member who get to see it.”