Exhibits Come to You
Our exhibits present humanities issues in a visual format by lending portable exhibits to schools, libraries, banks, museums, businesses and city governments for public display. If you are interested in one of the following exhibits, please contact us for more details.
Barns of Iowa
This collection of twenty 11×18 inch black and white photos captures the nostalgic beauty of barns as well as the enduring pride of the farmers who built them. Michael Harker began photographing these structures in 1993 with his rare artistic approach—shooting only one photo of each barn—one view of the facade, interior, or architectural detail that conveys its individual story. The actual barns are disappearing from Iowa at a rate of a thousand a year, but Harker’s images visually preserve a foundation of the agrarian life—a piece of our Iowan identity. Featured by the Smithsonian Institution, Barns of Iowa has been exhibited at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch, the Department of Agriculture building in Des Moines, and at the State Historical Society of Iowa. Distinctive descriptions written by Loren Horton, retired Senior Historian of the State Historical Society, accompany the photos. Photographer Michael Harker was also a part of HI’s Speakers Bureau.
Please consult with Humanities Iowa for transportation and setup of this exhibit. This exhibit must be picked up and returned by private vehicle to the HI office.
Ruth Suckow: We must catch the Midwest now in literature
“[No other writer] has ever published a better first book of stories than [Ruth Suckow’s Iowa Interiors]… She is the most promising young writer of fiction, man or woman, now visible at work in America.” – H.L. Mencken, Eminent American Critic (1926)
To request this exhibit at your location please
download and fill out this application and return it to the email address listed at the bottom of the application document.
