Art Gallery

Description

After moving into Hoyt Sherman Place and adding the gallery wing of the building the Des Moines Women’s Club opened the first public art space in Des Moines in 1907. Some of the first pieces they collected were Joan of Arc (bronze statue) and Diane of the Louvre (marble bust) both purchased at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. After their collection started getting recognition in the community local citizens starting donating paintings and sculptures to them to display. Some of the notable paintings still in the collection include Apollo and Venus by Flemish painter, Otto Van veen, The Caravan by Edwin Lord Weeks and La Cigale by Robert Reid.

In the early years the gallery served as the auditorium and regular meeting space until the theater was built in 1923.