Intellectual and artistic minds alike will gather in the Brunnier Art Museum tonight as featured speaker Mary Stieglitz presents her lecture “Be Not Afraid of Beauty,” as part of the museum’s Big Brain Cafe series.

Stieglitz, chairwoman of Iowa State’s department of art and design, will challenge students and faculty with her newly-found concepts of art.

She came up with the idea for her lecture while talking in the College of Design Gallery last year. It was then that she realized “the b-word isn’t such a bad word after all.”

“I want people to recognize that beauty can be a factor in the visual arts,” Stieglitz said.

She added that Abstract Expressionism, an art movement popular in the 19th century, identified the pursuit of beauty. Now, she believes contemporary artists have shied away from that concept and are beginning to realize art can have energy and meaning as well as beauty.

Stieglitz’s lecture will address the idea that students shouldn’t be afraid to deal with beauty even when it’s not in vogue. Instead, they should embrace beauty and accept it as an important part of their work.

“I hope, if nothing else, it would get people to think about visual art and how they respond to it,” she said.

Stieglitz also plans to discuss her own artistic work, specifically her 1970s photographs created on fabric using heat transfers. She plans to relate them to the current textile exhibition of Robert Hillestad.

Hillestad, a highly regarded Nebraskan textile artist and teacher, has been creating decorative coats, capes, wall hangings and dance costumes for decades. Each piece marks a specific time period, person or event in his life, depicted through fabrics, tassels, patterns and dyes.

His exhibition, “Threads of Celebration,” provides an overview of the 20 years he has devoted to his talent.

Hillestad was trained at a French couture institute and received a doctorate in textiles and clothing from Ohio State University. He likes to refer to his creations with dance metaphors, calling them “choreography in fiber.”

The artist has amassed nearly 100 Celebration Coats to date, at times working on 30 projects at once. The coats take an average of three months to be completed, and it usually costs him hundreds of dollars to buy the materials to make the coats.

According to Marilyn Vaughan of the Brunnier Art Museum, Hillestad can be found in his driveway dying fabrics in large vats during the summer months and indoors finishing his creations when it turns cold.

She said that after speaking at the Brunnier earlier this month, Hillestad decided that he would make a coat for the museum to display permanently as part of its 25th anniversary in 2000.

Hillestad’s exhibit is a magical and wondrous feast for the eyes to behold.

Contrasting the black and white photography exhibit next door, the colorful array of coats, capes and three-dimensional wall hangings envelopes the senses, filling your view with utter beauty and an eclectic brilliance like no other.

“Threads of Celebration” will be shown in the Brunnier Art Museum through March 7, 1999.

Stieglitz will present her lecture to accompany the exhibit at 7 p.m. Snacks for the Big Brain Cafe, including “gelatin brains,” will be provided.