Executive Director of Hancher Auditorium Chuck Swanson hasn’t forgotten about his hometown in northwest Iowa.

“I always fondly look back at growing up in Spencer,” says Swanson. “The community had a vibrant arts program when I was in school, and Spencer always took great pride in its young people. The arts always thrived there.”

Swanson’s appreciation for the arts began at a young age. He still cherishes memories of being an usher for the grandstand at the Clay County Fair hosted in Spencer every year. He recalls welcoming thousands of people to their seats, and the excitement of performances such as Red Skelton connected him to his community as a child.

Swanson attended the University of Iowa and later started working at the UI in 1985, but he knew he wanted to maintain strong ties to his hometown.

“I have always valued my connections to Spencer, and when I started working at Iowa, I always looked for opportunities to give back to my home community,” says Swanson.

In 2003, a perfect opportunity presented itself. The Wallace Foundation awarded the largest grant in the history of Hancher Auditorium, allowing the UI to initiate projects in Iowa communities statewide. The proposed project lasted four years, bringing two artists each year to four communities across the state. Of course, one of those towns was Spencer.

This initiative promoted collaboration among family-centered organizations, such as libraries, art centers and YMCAs located in Iowa communities, and brought artists to connect with the children and families of the selected towns.

“Spencer embraced the relationship with Hancher and the UI and created a unique and strong bond that carried into future years of bringing artists back to Spencer,” says Swanson. “It’s all about people, all about relationships. It’s important to find facilitators with whom you have established relationships who make wonderful things happen.”

Though Swanson and the UI have had a noticeable impact on Spencer, Spencer has had an impact on the UI as well, specifically within the walls of Hancher Auditorium, the university’s premier performing arts venue.

Long before the new Hancher Auditorium was slated to reopen in 2016, a committee made possible by the Art in State Buildings Program met to discuss the types of pieces that made sense for such a grand venue.

Deciding to commission a piece that reflected Hancher’s mission of engaging youth across the state, Hancher asked Anita Jung, an artist and professor in the UI School of Art and Art History, to partner with middle school art teachers in seven districts across the state: Algona, Council Bluffs, Iowa City, Maquoketa, Muscatine, Storm Lake, and—you guessed it—Spencer. 

Jung and the teachers asked the students to take “selfies” and to write about what the word “performance” meant to them. The selfie-and-text pairings of a select group of students from each school were chosen to be part of the final We All Perform mural, which is permanently installed inside Hancher.

Swanson says the collaborative mural is a demonstration of how powerful a teaching tool art can be. He quoted former UI president Sandy Boyd, who said, “Hancher is the largest classroom on campus.”

Swanson strives to show how the performance of art can be a vehicle for learning, and he appreciates how his hometown embraces this concept.

“There’s a true partnership between Hancher, the UI, and Spencer,” says Swanson. “Our successful artistic initiatives involve a community engaging together. We need their support. We need their passion. We need their excitement. And every time the UI engages with Spencer, they roll out the red carpet. We continue to go back to that community, and I feel strongly about the importance of creating relationships and creating experiences that will last for a lifetime.”