John Engelbrecht greeted me last week at the heavy front doors of the historic Close family mansion in Iowa City, a classic, three-story, red brick Italianate gem on South Gilbert Street.
As we roamed its rooms, topped with ornate 12-foot ceilings, I could imagine Emma Close’s lavish wedding here in 1892 and the fraternity parties hosted later in the roaring 1920s.
Today, the magnificent old house has a fresh purpose. It has become a sanctuary for art and artists as the headquarters of Public Space One (PS1), the ambitious, eclectic community art group Engelbrecht has been nurturing for the past 15 years or so as its executive director.
Inside on this cold winter day, big, colorful creative sculptures stretched high. The “cereal room” featured a gigantic milk carton in full pour; the “butter room’ was dominated by a nearly life-sized tribute to the Iowa State Fair butter cow.
This was part of PS1’s six-week winter exhibit called “Surreal House,” where various local artists were given free rein to transform their mansion headquarters into their weirdest dreams.