Celebrate art, “Patterns of Growth” and the approach of spring at the University of Iowa Museum of Art (UIMA) First Friday reception from 5-7 p.m. March 1 at hotelVetro. For $5, enjoy refreshments, light hors d’oeuvres, art by local fiber artist Mary Merkel-Hess, and live music by The Main Sequence.

Mary Merkel-Hess’s sculptural vessels and wall pieces, which she refers to as "landscape reports," are inspired by natural Iowa surroundings. Using paper, reeds and other materials, her work conjures images of slender grasses and cultivated fields, shaped and tamed like Iowa's landscape. Her pieces are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Art and Design, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Mass.; Racine Museum of Art, Racine, Wis.; and the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Ambient. Psychedelic. Electr(on)ic. Improv. Four words that describe the music of The Main Sequence, a duo featuring Joel David Palmer (guitar, sound processing) and Joshua Alan Weiner (analog and digital synthesis, guitar, bass). The Main Sequence is sculpted sound, improvised on the spot. Sometimes light and dreamy, sometimes heavy and labyrinthine, always adventurous, exciting and unexpected. Palmer and Weiner create musical spaces in which listeners can get lost, find their way home again and enjoy the round trip.

UIMA First Fridays provide an ideal chance to usher in your weekend and mingle with other art enthusiasts for a great cause.

Consider becoming a UIMA donor. Courtesies include home delivery of the UIMA magazine and a special Donor Card, which entitles members to complementary entry to the Figge Art Museum and reciprocal admission to more than 20 other art museums.

First Fridays are sponsored by UIMA donors.