Tell Me a Story

"Tell Me a Story" examines the many stories found throughout University Museums collections from fairytales to mythology and creative narratives that continue to fascinate artists working in many media. The objects on view represent a wide array of media, cultures, and time periods in the history of art, further emphasizing the continued use and love of storytelling throughout the world.

Storytelling is one of the oldest and most universal forms of artistic expression. Whether through reciting, creating, listening to, or reading tales, stories, old and new, impact lives throughout the world. This includes stories that have been passed down through generations to serve as guidance and caution, tales that are transformed to connect with different cultures, and new imaginative creations meant to entertain. Many cultures adapt and transform well-known fairytales and similar forms of stories to suit their values and traditions, meaning that tales are truly both universal and particular. 

Through the continued adaptation and reiteration of stories, representations have found their way into many forms of visual art. The art is a visual representation of the narrative, used to reinforce morals, educate, and engage viewers to seek out the various versions of stories that are both familiar and totally unknown. Tell Me a Story demonstrates that despite cultural specificities and differences, storytelling shapes who we are and helps humans understand themselves and the world around them.

Featured artists and makers span centuries and continents, from contemporary glass artist Preston Singletary and MacArthur Fellow Joyce J. Scott to legendary San Ildefonso Pueblo potter Maria Martinez and celebrated American illustrator N.C. Wyeth. European decorative arts from renowned manufacturers including Meissen and Wedgwood appear alongside Indigenous storytelling figures, Russian lacquered boxes, contemporary photography, and prints. 

This is an exhibition you will want to visit again and again, one story at a time. Any time you want someone to tell you a story, miss a bedtime story, or want a story to read to someone else—with tangible importance and real human connection to locals and faces you can see in class or on the sidewalks—this exhibition welcomes you.

This exhibition is curated and organized by University Museums with Dr. Michèle Schaal, professor of French and women's and gender studies. Generous support for the exhibition was given by the Women's and Gender Studies Program, the Department of World Languages and Cultures, the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, the Department of English, and University Museums Membership.

Tell Me a Story Exhibition Contributors

Faculty and staff from Iowa State University contributed personal and scholarly reflections for Tell Me a Story, connecting objects from University Museums collections to their research, cultural backgrounds and lived experiences. Contributors span departments including Anthropology, Art History, Classical Studies, French, German, Hispanic Linguistics, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, American Indian Studies and Women's & Gender Studies, alongside curators from University Museums and artists whose work appears in the exhibition.

Each contributor selected artworks or objects and wrote about what they mean to them - whether examining Russian folklore, classical mythology, Indigenous storytelling traditions, immigration narratives, or childhood memories. Some essays are deeply personal. Others are scholarly. All demonstrate how stories shape who we are and connect us across cultures and time. The 28 contributors wrote 48 separate essays, making this an exhibition designed for repeated visits with different voices offering different ways to think about storytelling through art.

Alphabetical by Last Name

Sedigheh A. Azirani, Assistant Teaching Professor of French and Anthropology

Ritwik Banerjee, Assistant Professor of Anthropology

William Carter, Associate Professor of German

Adrienne Gennett, Curator of Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums

Christina Gish Hill, Professor of American Indian Studies and Anthropology

Neysa Goodman, Associate Teaching Professor of French and Spanish

Sarah Kyle, Chair and Professor of Art History, Art & Visual Culture

Tonglu Li, Associate Professor of Chinese

Luana Lumbarti, Assistant Professor of Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics

Beth Martin, Teaching Professor Emerita, German

Olga Mesropova, Professor of Russian

Rachel Meyers, Associate Professor of Classical Studies

Megan Myers, Chair of World Languages & Cultures, Professor of Spanish

Cristina Pardo-Ballester, Associate Professor of Spanish

Lindsay Preseau, Assistant Professor of German

Anita Rodriguez, Artist

Favianna Rodriguez, Artist

Allison Saar, Artist

Hugo Salgado, Assistant Professor of Hispanic Linguistics

Molly Scannell, Artist

Michèle Schaal, Professor, French and Women's & Gender Studies

Allison Sheridan, Farm House Museum Curator, Manager of Collections, Communications and Publications, University Museums

Jean-Pierre Taoutel, Teaching Professor of French & Arabic

Maria Vorozhbit, Associate Teaching Professor of Russian

Serena Wheaton, Lecturer of Anthropology

Emmi Whitehorse, Artist

Shenglan Zhang, Professor of Chinese