Stone City Art Colony

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The Stone City Art Colony, along the Wapsipinicon River in east central Iowa, only lasted two summers, 1932 and 1933. It was started by Edward Rowan, director of the Little Gallery in Cedar Rapids, Adrian Dornbush, former director of the Flint Institute of Art and a Little Gallery art instructor, and Grant Wood (of American Gothic fame). Rowan was the primary facilitator of the creation of the colony, and his commitment to the project led the Carnegie Foundation to invest $1000 in the colony’s creation.

The Stone City Art Colony was meant as an alternative to more established artist colonies in Woodstock and Santa Fe, allowing artists in the Midwest to have an easily accessible site for residency. Residents lived in ice house wagons that they decorated themselves. Wood later employed many of the artists at the colony in the Federal Works of Art Program he administered for the state of Iowa, producing a large number of Depression Era murals (thanks to the New Deal) that still decorate many post offices and public buildings in Iowa.

The art colony was always plagued by financial difficulties; 1933 was its final summer and it was already suffering financial hardships even before opening for the year. When it did close that fall, its assets were sold off it pay its debts. Even though Wood and the other faculty taught there free of charge, the colony had never become financially self-sustaining.

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