EXHIBITIONS
The Center collects Midwest Art, American Decorative Arts, International Folk Art, including a significant collection of Mexican Folk Art and the worlds' largest public collection of Haitian Art. Selections from our collections are always on display. We also feature changing exhibits in five separate galleries throughout the building.
GALLERIES
UP COMING EXHIBITIONS
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Boundless Folds
On View December 30, 2025-February 15, 2026
Isaac Prior is a full-time, self-employed creative based in Ames, IA. With a foundation in graphic design and typography he has cultivated his skills to specialize in custom jewelry fabrication and abstract line art. Prior worked for a decade at Ames Silversmithing and now fabricates and designs jewelry at Gilger Designs in Ames. Boundless Folds will feature Prior's abstract line drawings, a body of work in which he explores mythology and legends and interprets the unexplained and unknown of the cosmos.
Memories of Woodie Long
On View March 2-December 6, 2026
Self-taught artist Woodrow Wilson “Woodie” Long is known for his expressive, gestural, memory-driven compositions describing the lives of sharecroppers, women in procession, and children at play. The WCA is proud to present a selection of paintings, some of which are collaborations with other artists, all gifted to the Center by Woodie’s widow Dot Long. This exhibition is a joyful and vibrant celebration of his life’s work.
TWIN PASSIONS, Art and the Outdoors: My Journey from Landscape to Abstraction
On View March 17-November 8, 2026
Paintings by retired commercial illustrator Greg Hargreaves. An accomplished and industrious Midwestern artist, Hargreaves used to begin with thumbnail sketches but abandoned it in favor of a more intuitive approach. At the core of his work is the tension between the ‘wild’ and the attempt to harness and control that ‘wildness’. His compositions explore the countryside outside his backdoor, which is a patchwork quilt of pastures and row crops, lush, green and pastoral. He states, “I find a never-ending source
of inspiration in the co-existence of chaos and order.”
Heartwood: Objects from
the International Folk
Art Collection
Beginning March 17, 2026
An exhibition of carved wood objects featuring Jamaican artist William Joseph, Venezuelan artist Aura Rosa Marquina, Peruvian artist Javier Gonzales Paucar, American artist Mary Shelley,
Haitian artist St. Pierre Toussiant, and Navajo Artist William
Yazzie, among others.
2026 Waterloo
All-School Exhibition
On View March 31-April 26, 2026
This exhibition is a cooperative program of the Waterloo Center for the Arts and Waterloo Public and parochial schools presenting art in a wide range of media, created by students in grades k-12. Join
us for an opening reception celebrating these young artists on
April 2, 4:00pm. Admission is free.
Grief is the Price of Love
On View May 12-November 22, 2026
Ceramist Amythest Warrington explores the beauty and pain of loss through art. Her meticulously crafted and beautiful objects draw you into serious and often taboo subjects, both comforting those who need it and challenging those that are comfortable. Warrington has a B.F.A. from the University of Northern Iowa and an M.F.A. in ceramics with a minor in textiles, merchandising and fashion design from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Evanescence: Art from the UNI Permanent Art Collection
On View May 12-November 22, 2026
To accompany Amythest Warrington’s powerful work is an exhibition about transition and loss featuring Darryl Curran’s scanogram portfolio All About Doris, Jason Corbett Fogues’ Untitled (Tim Fogue in the Lamar Valley), an Owens Pottery Studio face jug, and selections for the late Denis Roussel’s Nature Morte series. On loan from the University of Northern Iowa’s permanent Art Collection.
Illustrated Exhibition of the 1619 Project
On View April 28-August 16, 2026
Organized by Nicole Hannah-Jones and WCA Executive Director Chawne Paige, this exhibition is about resistance and freedom and features original artwork by BMike, Dr. D’Wayne Edwards, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Jon Key, Byrant Lamont, Johnny Nelson, Charly Palmer, Fahamu Pecou, Vitus Shell and Carrie Mae Weems. The exhibition is supplemented by the work of local and regional artists, artisans, and designers.