Bio
Lynette Pohlman administers and is chief curator of the Anderson Sculpture Garden, Art on Campus Collection and Program, Brunnier Art Museum, Christian Petersen Art Museum and Farm House Museum. She specializes in public art with a focus on American 20th and 21st century sculpture; decorative arts; large object conservation; late 19th century architecture; campus museum and museum management; and integrated curriculum education.
Pohlman is the founding staff member of University Museums and has established and grown all five campus museum entities over her five-decade career. She held a joint position as Assistant Director, Iowa State Center, which is a performing arts center. She has curated more than 600 art and history exhibitions and coordinated more than 1,400 exhibitions. The permanent collections have grown to more than 30,000 objects covering 100 centuries of human expression and intellectual advances from many world cultures. Pohlman has collaborated with more than 1,700 ISU faculty, staff and students, in building the Art on Campus Collection growing it from two-dozen works of art to more than 2,500 public works of art located across the 1,900-acre Iowa State Campus. She spearheaded a major conservation program to repair, restore and conserve all of Christian Petersen’s sculptures, and in total has project managed more than 300 conservation projects of permanent collection objects. She regularly teaches ISU classes as a guest lecturer and founded Introduction to Museums Class, and taught Public Art: Eyesore or Treasure?
Pohlman is available for interviews, speaking engagements on topics of academic museum management; public art, and visual literacy and learning skills. She has presented at state, regional and national conferences, as well as to many state organizations as part of ISU’s land-grant service mission.