CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Original drawings by Iowa artist Grant Wood, hidden away for decades, were carefully uncovered for just one day this week \u2014 offering a rare glimpse into how one of Eastern Iowa\u2019s most recognizable works of art came to life.<\/p>\n
Inside the Veterans Memorial Building, century-old paper panels were delicately laid out across the floor, a process that took hours, patience, and extreme care. The drawings are Wood\u2019s original full-scale designs for the stained-glass window that still hangs on the front of the building today.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s 58 panels that make up the memorial window, and so therefore there are 58 drawing panels,\u201d said Teri Van Dorston, the Veterans Memorial Building and Commission Museum manager. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to put each panel together to make the same scene that Grant Wood made back in 1928.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because of their age and fragility, the drawings are rarely handled \u2014 and even more rarely displayed. Only a small group of people have ever worked with them, making this assembly a once-in-a-generation moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is once-in-several-decades opportunity to get these fragile drawings out of storage and into an open view,\u201d Van Dorston said.<\/p>\n
That open view, however, was brief. Due to their value and vulnerability to light and air, the drawings could only be exposed for a short time before being carefully returned to archival storage.<\/p>\n