Muscatine Art Center — Attraction in Muscatine

Sunday, March 21st, 2021 at 3:29 PM Muscatine Art Center Muscatine, Iowa

I drove northerly out of Davenport Saturday, enjoying the sun as I made my way to LeClaire. Driving in Iowa scares me. Every town deploys speed measuring technology to issue tickets for driving too fast. I hope no tickets show up at the registration address for the car. The tickets can be rather severe. Speeding on the freeway costs a draconian fine of one thousand dollars. Maybe Iowa can't enforce the tickets on an Illinois license? I don't think there's a problem. I used cruise control every time I noticed a speed limit.

I'm in deep Iowa now. The town bears the name of a wine grape, the Muscatine. The town factories once stamped pearl buttons from shells. Oyster shells I think. This house museum shows quilts made in Muscatine over one hundred years ago. The quilts hang with pictures, daguerreotypes even, of the families who enjoyed the comfort of the quilts. This is what people did together, sewing quilts, this far from New York City and Los Angeles.

One of the docents visited with me a moment ago. She kindly reminded me that the museum closes in fifteen minutes. I promised to be out the door in ten so they could close the doors on time. Her family came to Muscatine as an original settler. She might have sewn a quilt with her mother. She has served the museum as a front desk representative for three years. She works at a museum that celebrates her roots. Now, I have to contemplate to understand that kind of connectedness.

A Zen Garden awaits outside. Sculpture around the grounds invites me to wander. I regret not seeing a single piece of summer furniture on the veranda of the Musser Mansion. I could sit on the veranda and write otherwise until kingdom come or the cows come home. I doubt I would see cows. Muscatine is a proper town of parlor homes on the Mississippi River. This might be the perfect place to see dusk falling in three short hours from now.

I'm on the porch of what was the Musser Mansion. I am contemplating the Japanese Garden designed by Laura Musser McColm. I guess her indulgent parents encouraged her in this effort at landscape architecture. She even imported Yews from Japan, yews that still stand among the channels and pools of the garden. I'm guessing Mrs McColm left the house to the city parents, so to speak, so the Van Gogh and the Georgia O'Keefe could be properly exhibited for time to come.

At the top of this Mississippi River bluff, the spring wind roars, the yew...

First thing you’ll notice is the peace of the Japanese garden outside - sounds of a manmade waterfall and stream will accompany your walk on a paved stone path. This art center is housed in the Musser mansion. As you look at the art, you get to stroll through this beautiful home. What an amazing museum. Pieces by O’Keefe; Van Gogh; Matisse just to name a few are displayed. Admission is free. Parking on street...

The location has made wonderful use of the original house and well-integrated gallery space. I particularly enjoyed to Chagall collection and the children's look and learn gallery--it's a great space to interact with...