Flood of 2008 Impacts UI Art Campus, Music and Art Education Programs

Mary Cohen, an assistant professor of music education, remembers getting a message on Thursday, June 12, warning her that flood waters would likely reach inside of the Voxman Music Building.

“We spent the whole afternoon moving everything we could up to the second floor,” she said. Faculty, staff, students, and volunteers moved pianos, art work, library materials, technology, and more.

Exhausted after six hours of labor, Cohen and her colleagues decided to call it a day and return on Friday to finish the job. But when they arrived at the building the next day, they learned that water had already reached inside and they could no longer enter.

“We all just stood there in shock,” she said.

Flood waters filled the basement and rose 18 inches on the building’s main level.

The unprecedented flood of 2008 damaged 20 buildings on the University of Iowa campus. Art and Art History faculty and students, including Art Education Professor Steve McGuire, watched with dismay as flood waters rose to enter Art Building West, a $21.5 million facility known for award-winning architecture that opened in 2006. Water reached four-feet high there on the main floor.

McGuire said, “When I first saw the damage, I just thought, ‘What a shame.’ This was an important building to the campus. It was an important building to the school.”

Music and Art Education faculty, staff, and students have had to find new spaces to work until their buildings are again inhabitable. 

Art students have studio space in a vacant Menard’s building off campus. Cohen is temporarily working in the College of Education’s Lindquist Center, while her students use rehearsal space in two new apartment and retail buildings near the Johnson County Court House.

“We’ve found a home for the year, and as nice as these temporary facilities are, being isolated from the rest of the campus has pointed out to me how important it is, for the education of an artist and for the faculty, to be in the middle of the larger community of artists and scholars,” McGuire said. “We like being all together on the arts campus, and we look forward to getting back there again.”

Cohen said there have been bright spots throughout the tragedy. She has enjoyed increased interaction with other College of Education faculty. And she was awed by the outpouring of support from University and community members during the flood.

“It was heartwarming to see all of these people pull together,” she said.

Mark Salisbury, a doctoral candidate in the College’s Department of Educational Policy and Leadership Studies, is part of an effort to continue to reach out to members of the University’s arts community. He and other graduate students created the Artists Recovery Fund to help arts students replace tools, instruments, and artwork they lost in the flood.

“One of Iowa City’s attractions is the quality of its arts and culture,” he said. “Creating the Artists Recovery Fund is our way of thanking those who keep that reputation alive.”

To learn more about the impact of the flood, ongoing recovery efforts, and how to help, please visit www.uiowa.edu/floodrecovery/. To see a video portrayal of the floods of 2008, please visit www.uiowa.edu/floodrecovery/video/.