Events

Event Details Register to join the State Historical Museum of Iowa staff for a 45-minute guided tour of featured stories from Iowa's past.  Iowa Game Changers Iowa has been home to many fascinating people throughout our state history. Join the State Historical Museum of Iowa for a special guided tour that explores the stories of […]

Event Details Sign up today to step inside the State Historical Museum of Iowa’s collections storage for a behind the scenes look at objects from Iowa’s past. The Family Museum Collections Tours takes young historians (ages 9 and up) and their families on a 30 minute guided tour through the museum collection vault as we […]

Event Details Join 2025 Iowa Artist Ben Millett and Des Moines Art Center Senior Curator Laura Burkhalter for a gallery talk about Millett’s solo exhibition on view in the lower Richard Meier galleries. Learn more about the exhibition and hear from Millett about his process and practice. Based in Des Moines, Millett’s approach to textiles […]

As part of River Action's Summer Education Program, the Explore the River Series teaches participants first-hand about the wildlife, history, culture, and geography of the Mississippi River and the Quad Cities. "These exciting and informative in person sessions are given on the Channel Cat Water Taxi or during a guided tour at varying river locations […]

Savor Iowa’s Culinary History Savor Iowa’s amazing food heritage! Iowa’s delectable cuisine is quintessentially Midwestern, grounded in its rich farming heritage and spiced with diverse ethnic influences. From the chili-and-cinnamon-rolls phenomenon to Maid-Rites to the moveable feast known as RAGBRAI, discover the remarkable stories behind Iowa classics and savor a smorgasbord of other unique Iowa […]

Grant Wood: Prairie RebelIn this 45-minute, one-man show, Grant Wood chats with the audience as if talking to an old friend across the backyard fence, or maybe at his home at Five Turner Alley in Cedar Rapids. He tells us about his life and how he changed the art world forever with his work. It […]

Promoting Peace, Subverting Domesticity: Cookbooks Against War, 1970-2010This historical project analyzes peace activist cookbooks, revealing how such texts ignite activism, enable community identity for subcultures and adeptly subvert women’s domestic roles. The discussion this research features further extends our understandings of cookbooks and other “feminine” genres.

Nancy Drew: Iowa’s Heroine to the WorldNancy Drew is the most popular female detective in fiction. Few know, however, that Nancy is an Iowa heroine and that her creator was Mildred Augustine of Ladora. Nancy Drew and Mildred Augustine are extraordinary role models for Iowa girls and boys, women and men. An academic pioneer (the […]

Event Details Join the Des Moines Art Center for one last chance to visit and learn about the exhibition “Light Within Ourselves: Haitian Art in Iowa,” before the show closes on Sunday, September 7! Hear from an Art Center docent details about the exhibition and artworks on display in the A. H. Blank Gallery. Organized in partnership […]

Join museum colleagues from across Iowa for the 2025 Iowa Museum Association (IMA) Annual Meeting! This free virtual gathering brings together professionals from museums, historical societies, and cultural institutions to connect, learn, and celebrate the IMA’s ongoing impact. The program features a keynote presentation from Amy Ziegler of the Iowa Tourism Office, who will introduce the state’s […]

Event Details One of our nation's most iconic First Ladies, Mamie Eisenhower endured and triumphed through adversities through her extraordinary life. Mamie held numerous roles in her lifetime and witnessed--and shape--incredible history along the way. She did it all with a "spine of steel" and a graceful spirit. Register to join Eisenhower National Historic Site Park Ranger […]

Corn and KhrushchevThe Garst Family has deep roots in the history of Iowa. Based on her family experience in Coon Rapids, Liz recounts the history of agricultural development in Iowa, from early settlement through the fabulous mid-century explosion of farm productivity, based on the hybrid seeds, machinery, fertilizers and livestock technologies promoted by her grandfather. Liz […]