Gallery in the Round

Artwork by ISU faculty and students

The building of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ames, is a registered art gallery, open to visitors during regular office hours (Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursday 9:00am-11:30 am and 1:30pm-4:30pm; and Wednesdays 1:30pm-6:00pm) or by appointment. To make an appointment, call the Fellowship office at 292-5960.

For more information about the gallery, or to purchase artwork from one of the exhibits, contact Dennis Dake.

How To Find Us

Current Exhibit

“Daring to Be,” a photography exhibit focusing on thirty women from the Yucatán region in Mexico, will be on display in the Gallery in the Round, at the Unitarian Fellowship of Ames (1015 N. Hyland Ave., Ames) from April 24 to June 11, 2011. The Gallery Hours are: Sundays 12:30-1:30, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays 9-5, and Wednesdays 12:30-7.

On May 5, from 7 to 8:30 pm, there will be a reception and gallery talk with Jann Freed.  Jann will read from her recent book, “Women of Yucatan: Thirty who Dared to Change their World,” published by McFarland Publishing at about 7:45 pm. Mexican snacks will be served. This reception and the exhibit at the Gallery in the Round are free and open to the public.

Freed, professor of business management at Central College in Pella and Iowa Sister States volunteer, and George Ann Huck, professor emerita of Spanish at Central College, collaborated on the book and the exhibit. The book profiles 30 women who have dared to challenge gender inequalities set against them at birth in their native Mexico. The idea for the book emerged during the semester Freed taught at Central’s Yucatan program. The two paired up to interview 30 women in this patriarchal society. The profiles, supplemented by photographs, describe the women’s accomplishments and motivations as well as the obstacles they have confronted.

The bilingual photography exhibit has been displayed in more than 25 locations around the state of Iowa since 2000. The exhibit was shown in Mérida Yucatán in 2004, with most of the profiled women present. This project was supported by grants from Central College, Humanities Iowa, the Iowa Arts Council, and Iowa Sister States Program.

Previous Exhibits

The African Muse:  Paintings by Norma H. Wolff

The Gallery in the Round at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ames is featuring the work of Norma Wolff through February 24. An anthropologist with a background in African art and indigenous religions, Wolff draws upon her experience doing research in West Africa since 1965 to develop her paintings. 

 According to Wolff, “it is not possible to separate my anthropological interests from my art.  From my first trip to Nigeria in the mid-1960s, I have loved the colors and dynamics of everyday and ritual African life which provides endless varieties of subject matter for the artist.”  Her earliest paintings from the 1960s particularly reflect her interest in the Nigerian people.  While she continues to portray people in her art, her more recent work tends toward abstractions that often reflect her exposure to the African worldview.  In her Spirit Series, ancestors, deities, nature spirits and forces, witches, sorcerers, and sacred forests, emerge.

There will be a reception and gallery talk on Friday, February 4, 5:30 to 7:30 pm.

Norma Wolff is a member of the Creative Artists’ Studios of Ames, 130 S. Sheldon, where she can be visited in her studio.

The Gallery in the Round at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ames, 1115 Hyland Avenue, Ames is proud to exhibit the work of the well-known Iraqi artist Amer Alobaidi, whose work can be found in nearly every major museum of modern art in the Middle East. Mr. Alobaidi is the former Director of the National Museum of Modern Art in Baghdad, which was looted during the war, and served as the General Director of Fine Arts of Iraq for five years.

This show, entitled “Caravan of Exile,” presents Mr. Alobaidi’s newest work. His colorful large-format paintings feature groupings of human figures, horses, and birds, in various evocative scenes from Arabian legend and present-day life. The show runs from August 30 – October 8; hours are Monday – Friday, 10-2 or by appointment.

UUFA members and friends are especially invited to attend the artist’s reception, on Saturday, September 11, from 6:00 to 9:30 p.m., at which there will be live music and Middle Eastern food and dancing. This celebration, occurring the day after the 2010 Ramadan season ends and on the 9th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the U.S., is part of Ames’ 11 Days of Global Unity, and should serve to remind us that the human spirit shared through the arts is more precious than those things which divide us.
Mr. Alobaidi’s story is as dramatic as his paintings. His family was forced to leave Iraq in 2007, when the country was wracked with sectarian violence bordering on a civil war.

At that time, many of the nation’s intellectual elite were targeted by extremists. He lost a son in a car-bomb explosion, which also wounded his wife Sawsan. The couple fled to Syria with their then-17-year-old daughter Bedor, where Mr. Alobadi continued to paint and sell his paintings to dealers and collectors who knew his work.
When their safety even in exile felt compromised, they were relocated as refugees to Des Moines. Only one rolled-up canvas made the trip with them. In the two years since their arrival in August, 2008, Mr. Alobaidi’s work has evolved to reflect his journey, creating an imaginative world of beauty where family, community, tradition, and loss all play a part.  

GPS – Gloria Symons, Pat Fox, and Sara Vouthilak - will exhibit their collaborative abstract paintings at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of  Ames’ Gallery in the Round at 1015 N. Hyland Ave from July 10^th to August 28^th. 

Artists' Statement - In 2004, we were assigned a part in planning an art exhibition for a group of local artists.  In meeting to complete our assigned task, it became apparent that we uniquely complement each other.  For years now, we have enjoyed our friendship as artists and women, forming a strong bond that has supported our artistic pursuits and spiritual growth.  Last year, we were propelled to a closer artistic relationship when, away on a retreat together, we experimented with collaborative work for the first time.  Inspired by the results, we have felt compelled to continue, and thus far have created more than 60 works.

The paintings are triptychs (composed of three canvases), and we each contribute brushstrokes to every canvas.  Trusting in the strength of our relationships, no marks are sacred - what one begins, another may embellish or change, add detail to or paint over completely. 

The paintings are linked to create the final piece – a work of art that is surprisingly fluid and harmonious – a physical manifestation and expression of who we are together.

Prints are available, and we accept commissions in the color palette of your choice.

Art Exhibition Mission Statement

Artwork by ISU faculty and students

The goal of the Art Exhibition Committee of the UUFA is to exhibit spiritually enriching art work that supports the creative process in us all. The art exhibition area of the Fellowship building, known as the Gallery in the Round, has a dual role as a continuing aesthetic and artistic enrichment to the practice of ethical and liberal religious ideals within the UUFA and as a community-based professional art gallery, associated with the Ames Community Arts Council, and as a continuing aesthetic and artistic enrichment to the practice of ethical and liberal religious ideals within the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ames (UUFA).

The Art Exhibition Committee supports and encourages freedom of expression in all its activities. Issues of diversity, individuality, complexity, inventiveness, artistic quality, and the presentation of ideas and issues are considered in the selection of the exhibition program. The content of each exhibit is at the discretion of the Art Committee, using the common principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association and the stated goals and policies of the UUFA as guideposts.

The Committee welcomes the open discussion of issues and ideas raised by the exhibited art works (and the artistic processes employed in their creation). Procedures for the educational resolution of differences in interpretation, opinion and taste are in place as the committee focuses upon the open sharing of views and support for spiritual fellowship within our religious community.

Upcoming Exhibitions

Information for Artists and Visitors

Dennis Dake and student

• Exhibits are displayed for approximately seven weeks.
• The gallery receives a 20 percent commission on sales.
• Receptions are encouraged. Artists furnish the food; the gallery furnishes coffee, cold drinks, and all paper products.
• Each exhibit is insured up to $20,000. Individual pieces are insured up to $5,000.
• The Art Exhibition Committee will hang the exhibit, with the artist's input when possible.
• Additional information for artists
• Exhibition & insurance form

For more information, contact Dennis Dake or the UUFA Office (292-5960, uufa@uufames.org).