A few iconic Iowa State Fair items in a Washington, D.C. museum are giving state fair officials some ideas.
Iowa State Fair CEO Jeremy Parsons told Radio Iowa it’s fascinating to see a replica of the Butter Cow inside the Smithsonian Museum, “but professionally displayed in a museum setting. We definitely need to up the bar on how we display things.”
Parsons, though, isn’t ready to say what display changes may be in store on the fairgrounds in Des Moines. The Smithsonian’s year-long exhibit features what are described by the museum’s curator as “works of art” from state fairs around the country, including some quilts entered in Iowa State Fair competitions. There’s also a huge pyramid of 700 glass jars holding canned goods that earned a Coralville doctor Iowa State Fair blue ribbons. Forbes magazine includes the life-sized butter cow as one of the exhibit’s “show-stopping spectacles.” Parsons agrees. “Seeing the butter cow in the round, for lack of better words, in museum lighting is phenomenal,” Parsons said…