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View items from the Muscatine Art Center's collection on the Pearl Button Industry in Muscatine.

In this exhibition featuring dresses and other artifacts from the Muscatine Art Center’s permanent collection, the focus is on how Iowans exchanged vows and laid to rest their loved ones and how those customs changed over time. Visitors may be surprised to discover wedding dresses made in a variety of colors and fabrics such as wool, crepe, silk, satin, and even cotton. Some are heavily embellished while others are plain – both styles dictated by the trends of the day and the wearer’s wealth and status. *The Muscatine Art Center reopened June 9, 2020 with reduced hours: Tuesday - Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday/Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. To protect your health and that of our staff and volunteers, please wear a mask when visiting. For up-to-date details, call 563-263-8282 or visit www.muscatineartcenter.org.

Virginia Myers studied printmaking at the University of Iowa under Mauricio Lasansky and became a faculty member at the University’s School of Art and Art History in 1962. Myers taught intaglio printmaking and foil imaging. She was interested in gold leaf and foil but found that the foiling process at the time was strictly commercial. Seeking a method to incorporate foil into fine arts, she invented the Iowa Foil Printer and taught the method to students and other artists. The exhibit at the Muscatine Art Center highlights Myers’s landscapes and trees, including multiple gold leaf and silver leaf intaglio prints as well as burin engravings.