Sioux City Art Center
| Established | 1937 |
|---|---|
| Location | 225 Nebraska Street, Sioux City, Iowa |
| Coordinates | 42°29′34″N 96°24′14″W / 42.4928°N 96.404°W |
| Type | Art |
| Website | http://www.siouxcityartcenter.org/ |
The Sioux City Art Center began as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in 1937 when the Art Center Association of Sioux City, the Sioux City Junior League, as well as other community supporters, received a grant of $3,000 to create the first art center. After the Federal Assistance Program ended in 1940, the Sioux City City Council voted to fund the Art Center and established the Board of Trustees, the City’s fiscal governing board for the Art Center in 1941. It is located in Sioux City, Iowa.
The founders of the Sioux City Society of Fine Arts—John C. Kelly, John McHugh, W.P. Manley, T.A. Black, Alice K. Lawler and Cora E. Henderson—started the museum's exhibition and education programs. The continuity between the original Sioux City Society of Fine Arts and the later Sioux City Art Center is also apparent in the Society's mission to "promote and cultivate the fine arts, and foster art in all its branches; to promote the welfare of art in the City of Sioux City."
As the Sioux City Society of Fine Arts prospered, it decided to expand its programs and bring more exhibitions to Sioux City. On March 10, 1938, the Society of Fine Arts formally changed its name to the Art Center Association of Sioux City as part of its shift to a new, permanent exhibition and educational space created in the basement of the August Williges building at 613 Pierce Street. With the construction of this first permanent exhibition space by the Society, the Junior League, area business and local volunteers, the Sioux City Art Center was officially born. This new space became possible because of the partnership with the Federal Works Progress Administration (the WPA) in 1938.
The museum's permanent collection began in 1938 as part of the WPA grant. It focuses primarily on artists from Iowa and the greater Midwest, with a smaller collection of work by national and international artists that focuses on regional concerns with landscape.
The collection includes work by: Thomas Hart Benton, Dale Chihuly, John Steuart Curry, Salvador Dalí, John Henry, Jun Kaneko, Käthe Kollwitz, Robert Motherwell, Charles Logasa, Claes Oldenburg, Ed Paschke, Philip Pearlstein, Bridget Riley, Jerry Uelsmann, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and Grant Wood.
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