Information session offered Wednesday, August 24

The Figge Art Museum is offering an information session on the museum's Candidate Docent Training Program at 10:30 am Wednesday, August 24. Docents are volunteers who lead exhibition tours for schoolchildren and adults. Museum staff will explain the program requirements and answer questions prospective docents may have about the program. The information session will last about an hour.

The Candidate Docent Training Program consists of art history talks, gallery talks, and group activities to learn how to talk about and help visitors appreciate works of art on display in the Figge galleries. The program runs 9:30-11:30 Wednesday, September 14-December 7. The program is taught by Figge Curator of Education Ann Marie Hayes-Hawkinson, guest lecturers, and Figge docents who serve as mentors.

For more information about the Figge's Docent Program, please visit the Figge website at www.figgeart.org.

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In connection with the current PENCIL exhibit at the German American Heritage Center and Museum, the Book Discussion Group will discuss the book "The Pencil" written by Henry Petroski. The discussion will be led by St. Ambrose University Professor Michael Hustedde.

Petroski's witty and unexpected history of the pencil includes a wide range of characters: from the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau, and Toulouse Lautrec, who declared, "I am a pencil", to the great nineteenth-century manufacturing families, such as Dixon and Faber. Petroski charmingly celebrates the design history of one of mankind's most essential, and yet undervalued tools.

The program will be held at the German American Heritage Center and Museum, 712 West 2^nd Street. Davenport, at 2:00 on Sunday, August 28^th.

Free to members, free to non-members with museum admission.

See the pencil art and collections on display at GAHC.

Watch for information regarding the visit to the Quad-Cities of the author Henry Petroski.

"In Praise of the Pencil"
an  exhibit honoring 250 years of the first pencil factory in Germany

Sunday, August 21  2:00 pm.

Grand opening of the exhibit and prize ceremony for winning entrants.

• Featuring: Local Pencil Art Show
• The Fantastic Pencil Sculptures of Jennifer Maestre
• Pencil History and Design Timeline
• Famous Pencil Fans
• Pencil Collections
• How Pencils are Made DVD and Illustrated Steps
• Pencil Trivia and more!

ENTRY DEADLINE FOR THE PENCIL ART COMPETITION:  JULY 18, 2011

The German American Heritage Center (GAHC) invites you to submit works of art for an exhibition entitled "In Praise of the Pencil."  The purpose of the exhibit is to enrich public understanding of the role of Germany and German-Americans in the development and manufacture of the pencil as an artistic medium, a common tool in many trades, and a useful everyday object.  The pencil celebrates its 250^th

anniversary of mass manufacture in Germany in the year 2011.

"In Praise of the Pencil" is a juried exhibition open to artists living within a 250 miles radius of the Quad Cities. Works may be submitted for showing in two media, pencil sketches or sculpture in which pencils or pencil pieces are the primary construction material.  It is not necessary to feature the pencil itself as subject of the work. Pencils used may be graphite or colored. Artists may submit in one or both media and may have work exhibited in one or both media. Prizes will be awarded in two age divisions - junior artists in grades 6-12 and adult.

Specifics:   Sketches and sculpture must be original, created in the last two years and not previously exhibited at GAHC.   All work must be framed or supplied with a base and otherwise be ready to display with the artist's name, age division and title of the work on the back or under the base. Signed reproductions are excluded. Sketches have no size restrictions; sculpture should not exceed 27" in height.   Only three cases can accommodate a 25"width; most have shelves 16" wide. GAHC can refuse works which do not meet these requirements or are found unsuitable for exhibit. Prices should reflect a 35% commission retained by GAHC in event of a sale.

Entry: Fill out the entry form and list the title, size, medium and year created for each entry.  Note if a detail image is included.   Repeat process for each additional entry.  Submit images on a CD as jpg files with a minimum of 300 dpi resolution. Each file must be less than 5 MB. Label each file with a number that corresponds to the number on your entry blank and the title. To maintain anonymity for the blind jury, your name must not be included in the file's name, but do write your name on your disc.

Entry fee: $10 per entry; unlimited.

Awards and Prizes: Best of Show, First Place, Second Place and Third Place in each age division.

Jurors:   Work will be juried by Quad City Arts Public and Visual art Committee, the German American Heritage Center and a professional art educator in the local community.

Questions?    Contact Janet Brown-Lowe at GAHC (563) 322-8844 or director@gahc.org.   Additional entry blanks are available at GAHC or may be downloaded from the QC Arts website atwww.quadcityarts.com.

Funding for this exhibit through October 30 provided by the 

Riverboat Development Authority and Wenger Truck Lines.

Items include cameo brooch worn in American Gothic

Davenport, Iowa - August 2011 - Now on view at the Figge Art Museum is a selection of treasured artifacts that once belonged to Grant Wood, the artist of one of America's most famous paintings American Gothic (1930). Included in the new display is the "Persephone" cameo broach, worn by his sister who posed for American Gothic, Wood's trademark glasses along with those belonging to his father, Francis Maryville Wood, a copper picture frame made by Grant Wood containing a photo of Wood in his WWI army uniform, the Wood family bible and Wood's paint brushes and palette, easel, and other artifacts from Wood's life.

In addition to the artifacts from the Grant Wood Archive, a recently re-discovered oil sketch by Wood of an Italian village can be viewed in the Regionalist gallery. The painting, on loan from a private collection, was a gift from Wood to John Naughton, then the WPA administrator for the State of Iowa who oversaw several of Wood's mural commissions.  Earlier this year, the Figge's Andrew Wallace received an inquiry from someone who believed that they might be in possession of a Grant Wood painting. After studying a photograph of Grant Wood's Cedar Rapids studio, it was confirmed that the painting was the same as one visible in the studio photograph.  The atypical oil sketch is thought to have been painted during Wood's visit to Italy in 1923-24 and may, in fact, depict a bordello.  This is the first time this painting has been on view to the public.

The Figge's Grant Wood Archives have been a source of study and research by several Grant Wood scholars including R. Tripp Evans, professor of art history at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, whose Grant Wood: A Life, was published last year and is now on sale in the Figge Art Museum store.

Associate Curator, Rima Girnius along with the Collections Department worked diligently to present these artifacts and the rediscovered painting to the public. The artifacts and the painting join several other Wood's paintings, including his only painted self-portrait on view in the Figge's American Regionalist Gallery.

Nan Wood Graham collected her brother's artwork, ephemera and memorabilia for 60 years. In 1964, the Davenport Museum of Art purchased Grant Wood's personal collection of paintings, drawings, artist materials, family photographs, and a complete set of all 19 of Wood's lithographs from Nan Wood Graham. The Figge is also home to 18 scrapbooks and what is believed to be Wood's last sketch, Iowa Landscape. The Grant Wood Collection and Archives are now comprised of 249 objects from her collection.

For more information, contact the Figge Art Museum at 563.326.7804.  The Figge Art Museum is located on the riverfront in Downtown Davenport at 225 West Second Street. Hours are from 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Saturday, Sunday's noon to 5pm and Thursdays 10 am to 9pm.  To contact the museum, please call 563.326.7804, or visit www.figgeartmuseum.org.

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