The newest exhibition at the Figge Art Museum opens this Saturday, November 17 and runs through February 17, 2013. Picturing Identity: The Allure of Portraiture features 20th century examples of portraits that address changes in the perceived nature of personal identity and its representation

Davenport, IOWA (July 2012) The Figge Art Museum’s upcoming exhibition, NASA | ART: 50 Years of Exploration, features a companion display of spaceflight instruments and models designed and built at the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the University of Iowa College of Liberal...

Davenport, IOWA (July 2012) Relive mankind's greatest adventure—the development of a rocket allowing them to leave the earth and explore space—through episodes of the Discovery Channel’s landmark special series When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions every Saturday and Sunday at 2:30pm between July 21 and October 7 at the Figge Art Museum. When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions, the dramatic story of NASA’s pioneering, awe-inspiring missions, commemorates the first 50 years of space exploration. This series is being offered in conjunction with NASA | Art: 50 Years of Exploration, on view at the Figge through October 7, 2012.

Davenport, IOWA (July 2012) NASA’s historic triumphs and pioneering legacy are well known to millions, but the inspiring rocket launches, moon landings and planetary explorations also have had an impact on the imaginations of America’s leading artists. In celebration of the space agency’s 50th anniversary in 2008, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) presented NASA | ART 50 Years of Exploration, featuring 72 works from those artists.

Davenport, IA (June 2012) The Board of Trustees of the Figge Art Museum is pleased to announce the appointment Tim Schiffer as the Figge’s new Executive Director. He begins his new role August 1, 2012. The selection of Mr. Schiffer to head the museum is the culmination of a national search involving the review of hundreds of candidates, and it reflects the Figge’s desire to hire an accomplished leader with a passion and enthusiasm for art and an engaging personality.

May 2012 - In celebration of National Bike Month, the Figge has re-installed Lance Armstrong, a photograph by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. The photo, taken in 1999, depicts the seven time Tour de France champion nude on his bike riding through rain.

May 2012 – David Plowden's Iowa will open at the Figge Art Museum on Saturday, May 12 and run through August 19, 2012. The product of a collaboration between Humanities Iowa, the Figge and several other museums in the state, the exhibition features over fifty black and white phot...

Locating Place: Perceptions of Space in 20th Century Photography, an exhibition exploring the intimate connection that exists between people and places, will be on view at the Figge Art Museum from March 10 through June 10, 2012. Organized by the Figge Art Museum, the exhibition includes works from the Figge’s collection of photographs, loaned works from the University of Iowa Museum of Art and a private collection.

On Saturday, February 18 the Figge Art Museum will host “The Luck of the Draw,” a 3-part program led by illustrator Cori Doerrfeld. The program begins at 1pm with a presentation in the auditorium. At 2pm, Doerrfeld will lead an illustration demonstration in the studios. Program participants will be invited to take part in hands-on activities at 3pm. The program is designed for aspiring illustrators of all ages and is free with museum membership or paid admission.

College students looking to be immersed in French culture will find just that at the Figge Art Museum’s annual College Night. As an extension of the current exhibition, Turn of the Century Posters from the Krannert Art Museum Collection, which features works from French artists, “Paris When it Sizzles” will be a night full of engaging French-themed activities and ambiance. The event is co-sponsored with the University of Iowa Museum of Art and hosted by Western Illinois University Museum Studies students.

On November 10, the Figge will host an event to celebrate the exhibition Restoring the Spirit: Celebrating Haitian Art which features art work that vividly portrays Haitian culture and history. The Figge is partnering with Kids Against Hunger Your Quad-Cities to bag lifesaving food which will be delivered to Haiti.

Environmental recovery is an issue that begins with pollution and affects each person. For some, it is a subject for inspiration. Brooklyn-based artist, Aurora Robson, uses pollution as a vehicle to communicate her nightmares, while converting the negative into something positive. She creates large scale sculptures from plastic bags, bottle caps and similarly discarded materials and shapes them into masses, composed of unique forms.

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.

The Figge Art museum will host River ARTS Live, a free walk-in art project at River Roots Live on Saturday, August 20 from noon to 6 pm. Event attendees are invited to stop by the Figge’s art tent in the Junior Jam area to create sculptures out of plastic materials recovered from the Mississippi River during Living Lands and Waters’ XStream Cleanup.

Davenport, Iowa - August 2011 – Architecture students in Iowa State University’s College of Design created designs for the construction of a fictional museum in Columbus, Indiana’s already architecturally diverse community and a selection of those designs will be on view at the Figge Art Museum starting September 3 in the exhibition, Innovative Objects of Design: Museum Proposals for Columbus, Indiana.