WATKINS GRAND FOYER
Enjoy One of Our Exhibitions While You Shop or Register for a class in the Watkins Grand Foyer
The Frank E. Watkins Grand Foyer Gallery is near the main entrance to our building by the main desk and World’s Window Gift Store. It features ongoing changing exhibitions, in addition to exhibitions that are planned to interpret and expand upon the permanent collection and focus on Midwest Art, American Crafts, and Haitian and Caribbean Art.
NOW DISPLAYING
Soul of Distinction
by Ethan Edvenson
On view March 25 - September 7, 2025
Ethan Edvenson is known for his mixed media drawings that explore themes of individualism, humor, transcendence, and eternity. Using gestural mark-making, surreal imagery, and narrative elements, his layered works invite viewers into intricate visual worlds. Soul of Distinction examines how humans transform under environmental forces, entertainment, comfort, and disengagement. Through figurative drawings, the work explores how we morph into beings that reflect our inner states – either thriving with purpose or fading into shadows of complacency and disconnection. It challenges viewers to confront the impact of the world around them by embracing intentionality, self-improvement, and personal choices.
Edvenson earned a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Northern Iowa in 2020. Since graduating, his work has been featured in multiple solo and group exhibitions across the Midwest. In addition to his visual art, he has also contributed to various book and film projects.
Recent Works
by Michael Broshar
On view April 15 - August 17
Painter, Waterloo Center for the Arts instructor, and former architect Michael Broshar presents over a decade of artworks from his studio and plein air practice. This self-titled exhibition features paintings in watercolor, gouache, and oil. Broshar’s first plein air painting experience was in San Francisco in 2016 during a three-day workshop with Uruguayan-born and world-renowned painter Alvaro Castegnet. Soon after the workshop he affirms, “I became comfortable painting on site, and I’m convinced plein air painting makes me a better artist.”
Running concurrently with the Broshar exhibition will be To Dream the Land: Watercolors from the Collection. Featuring abstract watercolor landscapes by Iowa artists Clayton Fowler, Shirley Eliason Haupt, Cheryl Jacoby, Richard Leet, and Jo Myers-Walker, as well as some luminous nocturnal compositions by New York artist Louis Pontone. These remarkable watercolors are transcendent depictions of, and charged references to, the land, the water, the sky, and the heavens.