Butter Together: Building a ‘Butter Community’
About the Program
The Butter Cow has been a favorite Iowa State Fair tradition for generations. While many visitors know the finished sculpture, fewer know the history, artistry, and people behind this unique Iowa tradition.
Butter Together is a Humanities Iowa program that explores butter sculpting through storytelling, live demonstration, and hands-on participation. Led by Iowa State Fair butter sculptor Sarah Pratt, Butter Together offers audiences a behind-the-scenes look at the sculpting process while exploring the history, techniques, and traditions behind one of Iowa’s most recognizable cultural icons.
Whether you’ve admired the Butter Cow for decades or are discovering Iowa’s butter sculpting tradition for the first time, Butter Together invites you to experience this distinctive art form in a new way.
Want to learn more about the history behind the Iowa State Fair’s Butter Cow? Visit www.iowastatefair.org/about/butter-cow!
What to Expect
Each Butter Together program includes:
Meet the Artist: Sarah Pratt
Sarah Pratt grew up in Toledo, Iowa and has been sculpting butter for over 30 years, starting as an apprentice with famed butter sculptor Norma “Duffy” Lyon. Under Duffy’s tutelage, Sarah developed her own sculpting style, and when Duffy retired in 2005, she named Sarah her successor. Since then, Sarah has not only sculpted Butter Cows, but also companion sculptures like Superman, Harry Potter, Sesame Street and Music Man.
Why the Humanities?
Butter sculpting is more than a State Fair attraction. It offers a window into Iowa’s history, agricultural heritage, artistic traditions, and shared cultural identity.
Butter Together uses this familiar tradition as a starting point for conversations about creativity, memory, and the stories that connect Iowans across generations.
Experience Butter Together
Iowa State Fair | All Iowa Classroom
Friday, August 21, 2026 | 4:00 p.m.
Free with Fair admission. No registration required
Bring Butter Together to Your Community
Interested in hosting Butter Together at your library, museum, historical society, community center, or other nonprofit organization?
Bring Butter Together to your community through Humanities Iowa’s Speakers Bureau. Speakers Bureau applications for the 2026-27 cycle will open on September 1, 2026.
