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People talking and enjoying the provided food and beverages while standing around round tables at a reception in the Art Center’s foyer. Low ambient lighting with some colorful speckled lighting towards the ceiling.

Plan Your Visit

Hours & 
Admission

Gallery Hours

Tuesday – Saturday | 10:00AM – 5:00PM & Sunday | 1:00 – 4:00PM

Admission for all WCA galleries is free

Phelps Youth Pavilion

Wednesday – Saturday | 10:00AM – 5:00PM & Sunday | 1:00 – 5:00PM

Daily admission $5 per person

$2 with the presentation of a valid EBT card for up to 4 people

Free for members and children under the age of 1

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

The Waterloo Center for the Arts is located on the banks of the scenic Cedar River in downtown Waterloo. Visitors can enjoy the changing exhibitions of art throughout the Center in addition to indoor and outdoor activity spaces that overlook the river.  Which include rooftop decks, RiverLoop Amphitheatre, Expo Plaza, Arts Mall & Mark’s Park. 

The Phelps Youth Pavilion is an interactive children’s museum featuring over 40 hands-on exhibits for all ages to explore. Milk a life-size cow, drive a tractor through a Grant Wood painting, test your skill at digital finger painting, explore the music, language and culture of other countries, and more.

View from underneath a large chandelier like light installation with rods of lights descending from the ceiling in a radiating circular pattern getting more spaced out further away from the center.

Guided Tours

The Waterloo Center for the Arts welcomes groups of all sizes to experience its traditional and interactive galleries. The Center is a great place for groups to learn, play, imagine, and explore.

Scroll to View Tour Options 

Two young girls standing in front of table filled with dots lit up in orange. Girls are excited reacting to the changing color of the table.

Phelps Youth Pavilion 

The Pavilion is a children’s museum with over 40 hands-on exhibits ranging from simple drawing and painting to magical high-tech adventures. But it’s not just for kids, the young-at-heart can play too!

An image of a traditional colorfully beaded Haitian flag with a woman in the center with a flowing headpiece that is adorned with voodoo symbolism. The background of the flag has large and small clusters of sigils and other representations of deities.

Haitian & Caribbean Art

The Center holds the largest public collection of Haitian artworks in the world, including colorful paintings, powerful metal sculptures, and glittering beaded and sequined banners.

Sculpture of a cow, its body and jaw line painting in bright swirling and overlapping lines. The face from the horns to the nose is silver with a square pattern and adjacent black line separating the silver face with the colorful body.

Midwest Art

The heritage and diversity of Midwestern art is reflected in the work of American Regionalist masters Grant Wood, Marvin Cone, and Thomas Hart Benton. Significant regional African American Artists are also represented.

An image of a medium-sized Mexican folk art statue of a jaguar that is covered with very intricate traditional patterns and design work. The shapes and patterns are created in mostly white and black on the belly of the jaguar. The top side of the jaguar has patterns in teal and a light brown.

Mexican Folk Art

The Center holds a significant collection of Mexican Folk Art that includes ceramics, masks, textiles, traditional costumes, and an amazing selection of whimsical Oaxacan carved animal sculptures.

o	3 young girls sitting on stools at a work bench using multiple colors and paint brushes to glaze their own ceramic pieces.

Create Art While Touring 

Complement your tour by adding a hands-on art activity. Instructors will give your group just enough creative guidance so each person can realize their own masterpiece. Choose from monoprints, stained glass, folk toys, mixed media, digital arts, ceramics, mosaics, drawings, or jewelry making. (Additional charge based on craft selection)

Located at the Waterloo Center for the Arts

Waterloo Playhouse & Black Hawk Children's Theare

Group Tour Pricing & Information

Groups of 12 or more Guided Tours $3/person 

Tours are available 9:00 am-5:00 pm, Tuesday through Friday 

Call to book your tour today | (319) 291.4490

  • Book your tour a minimum of 2 weeks in advance

  • Group sizes can range from 12 to 150 

  • Groups with children are asked to bring 1 adult per 6 children 

  • Meeting rooms are also available 

  • Rates subject to change without notice 

How To Find Us 

Waterloo Center for the Arts

225 Commercial Street | Waterloo, IA 50701-1313

(319) 291-4490

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The Waterloo Center for the Arts stimulates inquiry, provokes dialogue & connects people through the arts

©2025 by Waterloo Center for the Arts

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