MOUNT VERNON — “The Man Who Discovered Iowa,” a performance by Mel Andringa re-enacting the highlights of Grant Wood’s career, will be staged at Cornell College’s Kimmel Theatre in Youngker Hall at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8.
Admission is free. Tickets can be reserved online or by phone at 895-4293.
Andringa, co-executive director of Cedar Rapids’ Legion Arts, combines visual spectacle, live music and autobiographical anecdotes in a performance that veers from grand opera to low comedy as it relates the story of Iowa’s best-known artist. Andringa re-enacts the high points of Wood’s career — the fame he enjoyed as creator of “American Gothic,” his importance as a Midwestern regionalist and his founding of an art colony in Stone City — and brings to light lesser-known aspects of the artist’s life, including several youthful trips Wood made to Europe, his intense devotion to his mother and a short, unhappy marriage.
During the performance, Andringa tells New Testament stories with the aid of a flannel-graph, demonstrates the art of clog dancing and paints on black velvet.
“The Man Who Discovered Iowa” coincides with Cornell’s sesquicentennial exhibition, “Grant Wood and the Iowa Landscape,” in the Peter Paul Luce Gallery of McWethy Hall through Nov. 9. The exhibition features works by Wood, Marvin Cone and Lee Allen, a student of Wood’s at the University of Iowa, along with landscapes by several contemporary Iowa artists. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.