Iowa State University is getting a new landmark. But you won’t find it taking up valuable space on the sprawling lawns. Instead you’ll find it taking shape inside the Brunnier Art Museum.

ISU has commisioned a comtemporary mural celebrating ISU’s mission as a land-grant institution.

This collabrative project features visiting artist, Doug Shelton with help from ISU associate professors of art and design, Donna Friedman and Brenda Jones. Ten art and design student painters will also participate.

Shelton was selected to head the project because the university was “looking for an Iowa native,” David Nisi, education assistant for the University Museums said. Nisi added that Shelton is “nationally recognized” and “well known here in Iowa.”

Nisi said that Shelton’s mock-up shows depictions of students and touches on Iowa State’s history in agriculture. “It has the making of a world class mural,” Nisi said.

“The size is impressive. It will become a landmark like Grant Wood’s mural.”

The oil on linen Century Mural will take up 8 ft. on either side of a doorway and is based upon the tradition developed by Grant Wood, expressed in “Breaking the Sod,” at Parks Library.

The Brunnier will become a studio as the eight-week painting schedule gets underway today. Once completed, “Century Mural” will tour selected Iowa sites in 1997. The mural will then make its way back to campus on March 22, 1998 to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the founding of Iowa State.

Also on display at the Brunnier starting today are “American Regionalist Prints” and “Hallmarks of the Lagerstrom Collection: Elegance, Agriculture and Education.”

“American Regionalist Prints” is a permanent exhibition presenting prints created in the United States during the 1930s and early 1940s. Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curray, Grant Wood and others captured images of rural America in an attempt to establish a native pictoral style.

At the same time, another group of artists including Reginald Marsh, Louis Lozowick and Martin Lewis, migrated to larger urban areas turning their eyes to the daily life of the city dweller.

Together, these artists created a body of graphic works that offer an artistic overview of a tumultuous period in America.

“Hallmarks of the Lagerstrom Collection” is a personal collection of paintings and decorative arts donated to the University Museums by Edith and Torsten Lagerstrom. Their diverse art collection includes European decorative arts of ceramics, glass and silver.

Also included in the collection are 18th and 19th century paintings and Oriental carpets.

The Lagerstrom Collection features over 950 new aquisitions to the museum’s permanent collection. All three exhibits will be on view until Dec. 30.

The Brunnier is located on the top floor of the Scheman Building in the Iowa State Center. Admission is free.

For more information call 294-3342.